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Pope Francis began his just concluded visit to Mexico on Feb. 12, the day after the Vatican marked a major holiday – the anniversary of the signing of the Lateran Treaty in 1929.
That pact, which the Holy See forged with the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, cemented the established nature of the Catholic Church in Italy.
But it will not be as easy to get the Church to depart from its status as the "national religion" in the Bel Paese as it was for the pope to board his Alitalia flight for Latin America. That's partly because Francis' view or ecclesiology on the relationship between Church and State is complex and ambivalent.
Francis seems to favor a Catholic Church that is free from the protections inherent in the established Church model, especially in terms of its public role. In fact, since he has become pope he has gone against some of the old features of the established national Catholicism that the Concordat (updated in 1984) created.
For example, he has said for-profit ventures that the Church runs (such as the "religious hotels") should pay taxes like other businesses. He has cleaned up the so-called Vatican bank, which was one the safe havens created in 1929 by the legal fiction that is the Vatican State. And he has advocated for a more humane policy towards migrants and refugees, knowing that this will transform Italy into a much more multicultural and multi-religious – and less Catholic – state.
But there are a few issues to remember when we trying to understand Pope Francis' attitude toward the established religion model. The first is that the legal and political framework of the Church is very different from country to country. Francis is very aware of that, being the first pope to take seriously the global dimension of Catholicism.
In fact, he has never spoken in general terms of the kind of legal and constitutional treatment Catholics should get or look for in a particular country.
In places where Catholics are in the majority or form a substantial minority, there are two extremes. For example, in countries such as in Italy and Germany the signing of concordats has secured certain favors for the Church. In other countries, such as France and the United States, there is separation between Church and State of various degrees.
The model of the established Church model, solidified by use of concordats during the rise of nation states in the 19th century, is in crisis. It is no longer viable, but it's not clear how and when it will come to an end.
There are calls for an abolition of the concordats in Italy and Germany. This is something Church officials clearly do not want, while politicians are uncertain of what it would cost politically. The concordat is a huge legal-constitutional enterprise of a complex bilateral and international nature.
The second issue is Pope Francis' particular way of addressing political issues. As a Jesuit, he does not shy away from denouncing the injustices of our economic system, but he's also very aware that he risks being manipulated by politicians, as happened in Italy with popes before him.
He wants to keep politicians at arms' length and does nothing to hide that. And this is another typical feature of post-20th century Catholicism. But this must not be mistaken for a political theology that advocates the radical ending of an "established Church" where it still exists.
The third factor is that Francis is a radical social Catholic. He defends a way of life and a social system that is threatened by what he calls in the encyclical Laudato si' "the technocratic paradigm."
He is also a progressive Catholic, in the sense that he has no nostalgia for an idealized past. Yet there is an anti-modern mindset in him typical of Catholic thinkers of the 1930s (the decade he was born), such as Romano Guardini whom he quotes more than once in Laudato si'.
The fact that some progressive Catholics are reluctant to abolish the established Church model is connected to the role the Church plays within the "technocratic paradigm" (to use the pope's phrase). For instance, the established Church is one of the few remaining bastions against the destruction of the welfare state, "turbo capitalism" and the radical individualization of human life.
It is not just about the amount of social work and welfare the Church can provide through taxpayer money, as stipulated by concordats. It's not merely about charitable and philanthropic initiatives, but work that the government outsourced to the Churches a long time ago in some cases and is now an integral part of the social-economic system.
This is certainly a major factor for wanting to preserve the established Church model. But an even bigger reason is probably based on the fear that its abolition would jeopardize a bully pulpit that has given the Catholic Church a major platform to speak in favor and on behalf of those who are excluded from the economic system.
This is not just one of the deep continuities between Francis and his predecessors. It is also one of the issues that mark a clear difference between the Euro-Latin American Catholicism (which Francis embraces) and the Catholicism of the Anglo-American world. In the latter model the very idea of giving taxpayers money to a Church that opposes key elements of the capitalistic system is perceived as ridiculous.
As important as the liberal vs. conservative divide is, the dilemma of the established Church model is one of the many examples of how the rifts within global Catholicism are being redefined.
Follow me on Twitter @MassimoFaggioli
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