Tra il conferimento e l’approvazione del mandato britannico sulla Palestina. Due anni di controversie anglo-vaticane (1920-1922)

The objective of this work is to analyse the Holy See’s attitude in the two-years from the Sanremo Conference, in the April 1920, when the Mandate for Palestine was appointed to Great Britain, and its approval, in July 1922. The Pope was deep concerned for the protection of the Arab-Catholic communities in the Holy Land and for Jerusalem and the Holy Places of Christianity, because of Great Britain support of Zionism and the Protestant and schismatic churches. Within the international debate on political order in Palestine, we analyze Vatican relations with the British government and Catholic Church attitude towards Zionism, through investigation of Vatican archival collections and the main sources of the Catholic press. The aim is to discover how much weight did the theological factor have on Vatican oppo-sition on British draft Mandate for Palestine