text: Or, to put it in objective non-inflammatory terms, Pius XI, after 59 years of a stalemate with the Italian state due to the seizure of the Vatican State by King Victor Emmanuel II, directed Cardinal Pacelli to complete negotiations on regularizing relations with Italy.
  
  In 1929, the Pope supervised the signing of the resulting Lateran Treaties with the Italian government, in which the Vatican City was given sovereignty as an independent nation in return for the Vatican relinquishing its claim to the former territories of the Papal States.
  
  Catholicism was recognized as the sole religion of the state, Italy paid salaries to priests and bishops, gave civil recognition to church marriages (previously couples had to have a civil ceremony), and brought religious instruction into the public schools.
  
  The Church was not obligated its support the Fascist regime.
  
  Pius XI died ten years later at the age of 81.