Legal Status of the Pope in the Family of Nations

The Pope is a Civil and Political Prince, Potentate and Sovereign Under the Law of Nations. The foregoing proposition embodies the most vital and comprehensive issue in the politics of the world. It affords the only solution of a problem that has confronted all nations more than a thousand years. Let it be distinctly understood that the spiritual status of the Pope as a bishop is not involved in this discussion. The Roman Catholic religion is not under consideration. It is of supreme importance to distinguish clearly between religion and politics at the threshold of this investigation. The Constitution of the United States prohibits any religious test as a qualification to public office, and forbids Congress to make any law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. It has long been the deliberate purpose of the Tope and his adherents, in meeting objections to their political program, to confuse the public mind by making complaint that the Catholic religion is being opposed.