Catholic Church

===Enlightenment and modern period===
{{Main|Age of Enlightenment}}
{{Modern persecutions of the Catholic Church}}
[[File:Ruínas 1.jpg|thumb|Ruins of the [[Jesuit missions among the Guaraní|Jesuit Reduction]] at [[São Miguel das Missões]] in Brazil]]
From the 17th century onward, the Enlightenment questioned the power and influence of the Catholic Church over Western society.<ref name="Pollard8">Pollard, pp. 7–8</ref> In the 18th century, writers such as [[Voltaire]] and the ''[[Encyclopédistes]]'' wrote biting critiques of both religion and the Catholic Church. One target of their criticism was the 1685 [[revocation of the Edict of Nantes]] by King [[Louis XIV of France]], which ended a century-long policy of religious toleration of Protestant Huguenots. As the papacy resisted pushes for [[Gallicanism]], the [[French Revolution]] of 1789 shifted power to the state, caused the destruction of churches, the establishment of a [[Cult of Reason]],{{sfn|Bokenkotter|2004|pp=283–285}} and the martyrdom of [[Martyrs of Compiègne|nuns]] during the ''[[Reign of Terror]]''.<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=The Sixteen Blessed Teresian Martyrs of Compiègne}}</ref> In 1798, [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon Bonaparte]]'s General [[Louis-Alexandre Berthier]] invaded the [[Italian Peninsula]], imprisoning [[Pope Pius VI]], who died in captivity. Napoleon later re-established the Catholic Church in France through the [[Concordat of 1801]].<ref name="Collins176">Collins, p. 176</ref> The end of the [[Napoleonic Wars]] brought Catholic revival and the return of the [[Papal States]].<ref>Duffy, pp. 214–216</ref>

In 1854, [[Pope Pius IX]], with the support of the overwhelming majority of Catholic bishops, whom he had consulted from 1851 to 1853, proclaimed the [[Immaculate Conception]] as a [[dogma in the Catholic Church]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/alpha/data/aud19930324en.html|title=John Paul II, General Audience|publisher=Vatican.va|date=24 March 1993|access-date=30 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810175256/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/alpha/data/aud19930324en.html|archive-date=10 August 2011}}</ref> In 1870, the [[First Vatican Council]] affirmed the doctrine of [[papal infallibility]] when exercised in specifically defined pronouncements,<ref name="Leith">Leith, ''Creeds of the Churches'' (1963), p. 143</ref><ref name="Duffy232">Duffy, ''Saints and Sinners'' (1997), p. 232</ref> striking a blow to the rival position of [[Conciliar Church|conciliarism]]. Controversy over this and other issues resulted in a breakaway movement called the [[Old Catholic Church#First Vatican Council, Old Catholic Union of Utrecht|Old Catholic Church]],<ref name="Fahlbusch">Fahlbusch, ''The Encyclopedia of Christianity'' (2001), p. 729</ref>

The [[Italian unification]] of the 1860s incorporated the Papal States, including Rome itself from 1870, into the [[Kingdom of Italy]], thus ending the papacy's [[temporal power (papal)|temporal power]]. In response, Pope Pius IX excommunicated [[Victor Emmanuel II|King Victor Emmanuel II]], refused payment for the land, and rejected the Italian [[Law of Guarantees]], which granted him special privileges. To avoid placing himself in visible subjection to the Italian authorities, he remained a "[[prisoner in the Vatican]]".<ref>{{cite book|last=Kertzer|first=David I.|year=2006|title=Prisoner of the Vatican|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y_4eaFsFdI4C&pg=PT155|isbn=978-0-547-34716-5|page=PT155|access-date=31 March 2021|archive-date=10 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240310112426/https://books.google.com/books?id=y_4eaFsFdI4C&pg=PT155#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> This stand-off, which was spoken of as the ''[[Roman Question]]'', was resolved by the 1929 [[Lateran Treaties]], whereby the Holy See acknowledged Italian sovereignty over the former Papal States in return for payment and Italy's recognition of papal sovereignty over Vatican City as a new sovereign and independent state.<ref>{{cite book|chapter='Utterly Faithless Specimens': Italians in the Catholic Church in America|first=Peter R.|last=D'Agostino|editor-last=Connell|editor-first=William J.|editor2-last=Gardaphé|editor2-first=Fred|title=Anti-Italianism: Essays on a Prejudice|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2010|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qp_GAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA33|isbn=978-0-230-11532-3|pages=33–34|access-date=31 March 2021|archive-date=10 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240310112304/https://books.google.com/books?id=qp_GAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA33#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

Catholic missionaries generally supported, and sought to facilitate, the European imperial powers' [[Scramble for Africa|conquest of Africa]] during the late nineteenth century. According to the historian of religion [[Adrian Hastings]], Catholic missionaries were generally unwilling to defend African rights or encourage Africans to see themselves as equals to Europeans, in contrast to Protestant missionaries, who were more willing to oppose colonial injustices.<ref>Adrian Hastings, ''The Church in Africa, 1450 – 1950'', Oxford: Clarendon, 1996, 394 – 490</ref>