It would also seem that the overthrow of Pope Pius IX in 1869 and the destruction of the Papal state may have been instigated within the United States

This is a new level of conspriacy theory that pushes the envelope of silliness. Of course there has always been an anti-catholic prejudice in the US, along with other groups that were out of the 98% protestant mainstream.

I guess there had been some bad feeling about the Irish caths ever since the justifiable hanging of the treasonous San Patricio Brigade in the Mexican War. Imaging us doing anything so bold with our enemies today, who are infinitely more ruthless. Ain't going to happen, because we have become mega-wusses at the governmental level.

If Pious the IXth didn't have any regard for Lincoln, then maybe he wasn't paying very close attention to a man whom Shelby Foote called one of the two geniuses of the Civil War.

We don't need meddlers from the Vatican, then or now. They ought to do something really brave, like doing something about the millions of Christians who are being murdered by Muslims in Africa.

I position my goldie right after his evening chow to a spot exactly over their political correctness and lack of humanitarian concern.