La Chiesa cattolica in Albania: missione e diplomazia pontificia negli anni della Repubblica (1925-1928)

Abstract

The Catholic Church in Albania: mission and papal diplomacy during the years of the Republic (1925-1928) - The paper aims to analyze, through unpublished archive sources, the turbulent relationship between the Holy See and the Albanian State during the period of the country’s institutional transformations, under the leadership of President Ahmet Zogu. Through the dispatches of the apostolic delegates who succeeded between 1924 and 1928, Ernesto Cozzi and Giovanni Battista Della Pietra, the research will reconstruct the relations between the Republic of Albania and the Catholic minority, exploring the negotiations in view of a Concordat, which was never concluded, also due to the contrasts linked to the separatist and secularist attitude shown by the Government.

Keywords: Albanian Republic; Ahmet Zogu; Holy see; Concordat; Diplomacy