Regarding: "As a simple step in the right direction, we could stop sending confusing signals and remove national flags from our church sanctuaries. Put them in narthexes or church halls. "
- For clarity, those churches that display the flag of the Vatican City State near the altar or anywhere in the sanctuary should also remove this flag to the narthex, or the foyer, or the parish hall. 
- Some confuse the flag of the Vatican City State as the 'pope's flag'. However the flag or banner of each archbishop of rome is unique for each archbishop. However, even if a flag specific to an individual archbishop of rome were on display in a church there would still be a problem. Namely we are in union and communion with the archbishop of rome. However the head of the local church is not the archbishop of rome but the bishop or metropolitan of that diocese or eparchy. It is tacky to the extreme to display the banner specific to an archbishop of rome in a diocese that is not the diocese of rome.