Papal States and all that : Part 1
Ever heard of the breach of Porta Pia , when on September 20, 1870 the XII battalion
of the Bersaglieri charged into Rome , opening with their cannons an entrance into
the old Aurelian walls of Rome, a dozen metres west of the Michelangiolesque gate?
A gate located in a straight line with the Quirinal Palace which had been until that day the residence of the Roman Pontiff to head the Papal States.
Papal States that after that breach no longer existed as the Unity of Italy with this military operation completed the process of political unification.
From that day on the Pope of the time Pius IX retreated to the Vatican and the Quirinal Palace became the Residence first of the Kings of Italy and then as from 1946 of the Presidents of the Republic of Italy .
In this interview with Veronica Scarisbrick, Jesuit Professor Gerald Fogarty explains it all filling us in on diplomatic relations between the United States and the Papal States , broken off in 1867 ....
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