VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope John Paul II will address a joint session of the Italian parliament in November, a step seen as a historic reconciliation between church and state in Italy.
The Vatican said Wednesday that John Paul will speak to the lawmakers Nov. 14 at the invitation of the heads of the two houses of parliament.
Popes used to rule Rome, but the temporal power of the Roman pontiffs ended when Italian troops entered the city in 1870 through the Porta Pia gate.
"It will be a Polish pope to enter the palace that symbolizes the sovereignty of the Italian people," said Marco Politi, a papal biographer, in the Rome newspaper La Repubblica.
"It's as if only a pope who came from afar could definitely close the gap in Porta Pia," Politi said.
In 1999, the globe-trotting pope made his first speech to a national parliament when he addressed Polish lawmakers in Warsaw, where he was cheered by longtime political adversaries — former Communist rulers and the Solidarity activists who toppled them.
The invitation to address Italian lawmakers dates to 2000 when Rome celebrated the new millennium and the Vatican marked a special Holy Year.
At the start of this summer, the current head of the Chamber of Deputies, Pierferdinando Casini, was received by the pope at the Vatican.