concordat

"Our legal system contains all the guarantees to ensure that laws always respect constitutional principles and international commitments, including the concordat with the Church," he said.

In 1933, he negotiated a concordat between the Catholic church and Germany.

But in both France and Italy, a “concordat” between the Vatican and state means that bishops can refuse to testify in court.

The concordat targets staff members who are primarily employed to do research, including postdocs, contract researchers and technicians.

Bishops’ wages are paid by the state and Catholic schools receive state support, in accordance with a concordat signed in 1979 between the Vatican and Argentina’s 1976-83 military dictatorship.