Was Pius IX just when he plotted to keep the Papal States and hinder a united Italy?
Pope Pius IX was in just possession of the Papal States, and he was just in taking all ordinary precautions to preserve what lawfully belonged to the Church. 385. But you cannot escape the fact that the Catholic Church is a kingdom of this world, although Christ said that His Kingdom was not of this world. The Catholic Church is not a kingdom of this world. It is the Kingdom of Christ in this world. And the Pope as Pope is not monarch of the Church in any national sense. No national considerations sway his rule over the millions of Catholics of every race and clime. He has temporal authority today in Vatican City, but that is merely that he may secure complete immunity from the interference of worldly powers. 386. Christ said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s” He did. And the Pope demands independence of any earthly king’s authority precisely that Caesar, with his worldly power, may not interfere with the things that belong to God. 387
