Editing Pope Pius X (section)

== Church policies towards secular governments ==
[[File:MarrydelValpacelli.jpg|thumb|right|Monsignor [[Eugenio Pacelli]] at left and Cardinal Secretary [[Rafael Merry del Val]] at the signing ceremony of the ''Serbian concordat'' during the pontificate of Pius X, dated 24 June 1914]]Pius X reversed the accommodating approach of Leo XIII towards secular governments, appointing [[Rafael Merry del Val]] as Cardinal Secretary of State (Merry del Val would later have his own cause opened for canonization in 1953, but still has not been beatified<ref name="Steven M 1997 pp.57-80"/>). When the French president [[Émile Loubet]] visited the Italian monarch [[Victor Emmanuel III]] (1900–1946), Pius X, still refusing to accept the annexation of the papal territories by Italy, reproached the French president for the visit and refused to meet him. This led to a diplomatic break with France and to the 1905 [[1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State|Law of Separation]] between [[Separation of Church and state|church and state]], by which the Church lost government funding in France. The pope denounced this law in his encyclicals ''[[Vehementer Nos]]'' and ''Gravissimo officii munere'', and removed two French bishops for recognising the [[Third Republic (France)|Third Republic]]. Eventually, France expelled the [[Jesuits]] and broke off diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

The pope adopted a similar position toward secular governments in [[First Portuguese Republic|Portugal]], [[History of Ireland (1801–1923)|Ireland]], [[Congress Poland|Poland]], [[Ethiopian Empire|Ethiopia]], and in other states with large Catholic populations. His opposition to international relations with [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]] angered the secular powers of these countries, as well as a few others like the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] and [[Russian Empire|Russia]]. In Ireland, Protestants increasingly worried that a proposed ''[[Irish home rule|Home Rule]]'' by an Irish parliament representing the Catholic majority (rather than the ''status quo'' of rule by Westminster since the 1800 [[Acts of Union 1800|Union of Ireland and Great Britain]]) would result in ''[[Rome Rule]]'' due to Pius X's uncompromising stance being followed by Irish Catholics ([[Ultramontanism]]).

In 1908, the papal decree ''[[Ne Temere]]'' came into effect which complicated [[interreligious marriage|mixed marriages]]. Marriages not performed by a Catholic priest were declared legal but sacramentally invalid, worrying some Protestants that the Church would counsel separation for couples married in a Protestant church or by civil service.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1981/Moir.html|first=John S|last=Moir|title=Canadian Protestant Reaction to the Ne Temere Decree|publisher=University of Manitoba|location=Winnipeg, Manitoba|access-date=23 June 2013}}</ref> Priests were given discretion to refuse mixed marriages or to lay conditions upon them, commonly including a requirement that the children be raised Catholic. The decree proved particularly divisive in Ireland, with its large Protestant minority, contributing indirectly to the subsequent political conflict there and provoking debates in the British [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1911/feb/07/mixed-marriages-in-ireland|website=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|title=Debate on 'Ne Temere'|year=1911|publisher=Mill Bank Systems|access-date=23 June 2013|archive-date=23 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523233254/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1911/feb/07/mixed-marriages-in-ireland|url-status=live}}</ref> The long-term effect of ''Ne Temere'' in Ireland was that [[Irish Unionism]] which had had strongholds in Dublin as well as [[Ulster]], but existed to some extent on the entire island of Ireland, declined overall and became virtually exclusively a phenomenon of what is today [[Northern Ireland]]. Furthermore, while historically both [[Protestant Irish nationalists]] and [[Catholic Unionist]]s existed, the split over who should rule Northern Ireland eventually came to almost exactly match the confessional divide.

As secular authority challenged the papacy, Pius X became more aggressive. He suspended the ''[[Opera dei Congressi]]'', which coordinated the work of Catholic associations in Italy, as well as condemning ''[[Le Sillon]]'', a French social movement that tried to reconcile the Church with liberal political views. He also opposed [[trade union]]s that were not exclusively Catholic.

Pius X partially lifted [[Non Expedit|decrees prohibiting]] Italian Catholics from voting, but he never recognised the Italian government.