The Demise of the Papal States Was a Gift to the Church

National Catholic Register, 19 September 2020

Blessed Pius IX inaugurated a new era for the Church by dissolving the Papal States.

Margaret Thatcher was fond of saying that Ronald Reagan won the Cold War “without firing a single shot.” That’s partially true, but needs to acknowledge the role of Pope St. John Paul II, who vanquished communism and did not have even a single shot to fire. Indeed, the only shot fired was the one he took during the assassination attempt of 1981.

There was a time when popes did have shots to fire. For a millennium they ruled as absolute monarchs, holders of plenary temporal power, over the central Italian territories known as the “Papal States.” Some of them fought wars, including the infamous Papa terribile, Julius II, who even led troops into battle. For the most part, though, the Papal States relied on alliances with other European powers to provide military security. 

That all ended 150 years ago, and Blessed Pius IX, reigning at the time, inaugurated a new era for the Church by firing precisely a single shot.

By 1860, the territories controlled by the papacy had shrunk to a rump around Rome. The forces of the Italian unification — il Risorgimento — claimed the Papal States for the new republic. By 1870, the French troops allied to the Papal States were needed to fight the Franco-Prussian War and so the Pope was left to his own meager forces. They were not equal to the Risorgimento; and by September 1870, Rome was ready to fall. On Sept. 20, 1870, it did, as the republican forces entered the city at the Porta Pia. In every major Italian city today there is a major avenue named “XX Settembre” in honor of the victory.

The seminarians of the Pontifical North American College had written to Pius IX, offering to go into battle in defense of the papal lands. The Holy Father was touched and sent them a handwritten reply. The battle the American seminarians would need to fight would be spiritual, not military, he reminded them. Pio Nono ordered his troops to fire one volley, “for honor’s sake” and to demonstrate that Rome was being seized from the Church by military force.

Pius IX, perhaps unwittingly, won the freedom of the Church by firing a single shot. It was a decisive moment in the modern history of the Catholic Church. Earlier that year, the First Vatican Council had promulgated Pastor Aeternus, defining the breath of papal authority in spiritual matters, even as its temporal power was ebbing away to nothing. It was a very good trade.

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