ARTICLES Diplomatic Missions of the Holy See in Hungary 88 Margit BALOGH and East-Central Europe after the Second World War Diplomatic Missions of the Holy See in Hungary and East-Central Europe after the Second World War Margit BALOGH Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont, Történettudományi Intézet Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Úri u. 53, 1014 Budapest, Hungary
[email protected] According to Canon 265 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law “it is the right of the Roman Pontiff, independent of civil power, to send into any part of the world Legates, with or without ecclesiastical jurisdiction”. In 1917 it was reasonable to refer to the independence of civil power, since between 1870 and 1929 – that is in the nearly sixty years between the cessation of the Papal States (which had been formed in 756) and the conclusion of the Lateran Treaty – Rome was not granted statehood but it signed a number of treaties, i.e. with Hungary, Romania, Poland and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Vati- can City State was established by the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929. Everyday language incorrectly does not distinguish the Vatican and the Holy Apostolic See. The Vatican is a ‘state’, whilst the Holy Apostolic See is an ecclesiastical organization: the Holy Father together with his office, the supreme authority of the Church and thus a specific subject of International Law. Diplomatic relations are established by the Holy See and not by the Vatican, therefore it is accurate to speak about the diplomatic relations of the Holy See and not that of the Vatican.1 The ranks of the papal diplomats were defined by Pope Gregory XIII (1572–1585).