Okay, so I recently learned that Catholicism was the state religion of Italy until the 1980s. Why was this the case? My understanding is that the early Kingdom of Italy was fairly anti-clerical, given how they like, literally invaded the Catholic Church and made the Pope a prisoner in the Vatican. So why did the govt continue to sponsor the catholic church in abstract by keeping it the state religion?
Wish you got an answer! I recently learned about the fall of the Papal States and can’t find any explanation of how an unpopular and overthrown head of state remained in place as “infallible” head of church.