2.22.11 - Chair of Peter - Italy's reunification helped the Church

I do not know the history very well but I do know there was significant controversy with the reunification of Italy during the 1800s.  The Church and the pope lost a significant amount of temporal authority.  The Church had clout in regard to worldly affairs, and combined with her spiritual authority, she was a force to be reckoned with.

It may sound a little foreign to us – but this type of influence on the world was part of the Church’s self-understanding for a thousand years.  And so there was great resistance to reunify Italy from within the Church.  Vatican City – as an independent country was established so that the Church would not be subject to a civil authority, but clearly the Church had lost worldly influence and clout.

Yet, in the more than 100 years since this has happened – the Church’s role in the world has been focused.  We see the Chair of Peter as the most recognized religious authority in the world – even amongst the many religions and versions of Christianity.

Jesus gave Peter and his successors the power of the keys – of biding and loosing – of authoritatively teaching the truth.  Indeed the reunification of Italy proved itself providential and beneficial to our understanding of what this mysterious Church is that Jesus founded and remains within.  The one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church is an institution that is both human and divine; it is both weak and indestructible.