Historians have extensively documented how the collaboration between fascists and the Catholic church in the 1920's and 1930's facilitated a great rise in the church's fortunes. (Scholdor 1988, Gellately 2001, Steigman-Gall 2003)

In 1929 Mussolini and Pious XI signed a concordat and other treaties which included a lump sum payment of nearly 100 million dollars (equivalent to a billion in current dollars), more in investments in Italian industry plus government salaries for the clergy, and the sovereign Vatican state.

German Catholic church members Hitler, Papen and Kaas negotiated with the Holy See a mutually beneficial concordat that the Protestant dominated Weimer democracy had refused. The Fuhrer’s legitimacy was greatly enhanced, and the all German Catholic bishops were required by the concordat to swear loyalty to the Reich, rendering impossible direct clerical opposition to the existence of the regime.

Scholder, K. 1988. The Churches and the Third Reich Vols I & II. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Gellately, R. 2001. Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Steigman-Gall, R. 2003. “The Holy Reich.” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.