Pietro Tacchi Venturi

Who was Pietro Tacchi Venturi?

Pietro Tacchi Venturi was a Jesuit priest and historian who served as the unofficial liaison between Benito Mussolini, the Fascist leader of Italy from 1925 to 1943, and popes Pius XI and Pius XII. He was also one of the architects of the 1929 Lateran Treaty, which ended the "Roman Question", recognized the sovereignty of Vatican City, and made Catholicism the state religion of Italy. An attempt to assassinate Venturi with a paper knife one year before the treaty's completion made headlines around the world. Venturi had begun the process of reconciliation by convincing Mussolini to donate the valuable library of the Palazzo Chigi to the Vatican.

According to Susan Zuccotti, Venturi "had an uncanny ability to gain access where more official papal diplomats could not" and thus was utilized for some of the most important papal priorities. Venturi had no official rank in the church to match his extraordinary influence, and was known in Vatican circles as the "man in black".