[Alex Murphy]

....when Napoleon marched up the altar of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, he did not kneel before Pope Pius VII as the French monarchs before him had done and as Pius surely expected. As Pius raised the crown, Napoleon instead turned to face the onlookers in the pews, snatched the crown out the pope’s hands and placed it on his own head. In Jacques Louis David’s famous painting of the incident, completed four years later, Pius stands sullenly back, watching as Napoleon crowns his wife queen.

[muawiyah]

The Peace of Westphalia brought it all to an end ~ 1.5 centuries earlier.

[MeganC]

The Pope ceased being powerful when Catholics ceased believing in Papal power.

The same thing happened to the communists in Eastern Europe. One day everyone realized they were not the omnipotent masters they had presumed to be and their power evaporated almost overnight.

With the Pope there was no physical empire to lose so the losses were less rapid and less dramatic, but losses all the same.

[Tanniker Smith]

Well, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul brought the Soviet Union to its knees, so some of them still have a bag of tricks under their mitre.

[Popman]

As a non Catholic Christian...(spare me the posts that claim that's not possible)

Over the years I have come to admire the strength and steadfastness of the Catholic church in opposing the spiritual and cultural rot of homosexuality and abortion infesting the world...

No other organization in the world has stood up to the dark powers that would would destroy innocent life and righteousness...

That being said...the pope is just a man just like me...puts his pants on just the same and we have the exact same standing before God...

A sinner saved by grace...

I certainly hope the next pope chosen will be younger more conservative and fearless in confronting the evils in this world...

[Paladin2]

Follow the money/wealth (and the # of strong followers).

[Campion]

In Jacques Louis David’s famous painting of the incident, completed four years later, Pius stands sullenly back, watching as Napoleon crowns his wife queen.

?? The Pope is seated on the throne behind Napoleon, not "standing sullenly back".

[Longbow1969]

A few weeks earlier, French voters had overwhelmingly approved a referendum elevating Napoleon Bonaparte from first consul to emperor, the beginning of the end of France’s democratic revolution.

Another lesson that people will never learn. Humanity is what it is, and we are doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again. One hopes the founding documents, like our US constitution, is strong enough to blunt man's worst instincts - but in the end it probably only slows the time it takes for human nature to wreck everything again.

I so wish the Catholic church could be more than what it is. It reaches so many people and could really help prevent the next dictatorships that are sure to rise. I wish that its leadership would stop confusing social justice with socialism. That it would understand that big government, even with the best of intentions, is always a path to disaster. All too often the Catholic church simply acts as a leftist organization. Aside from abortion and gay marriage, it's on the wrong side of most big issues of the day. It's pro gun control, anti immigration enforcement, it's against the death penalty, etc. Such a waste.

[Carl from Marietta]

I would argue that Martin Luther posting the 95 theses, King Henry VIII telling the pope to put it his pipe and smoke it, the discovery of the new world, and the mass publication of the Holy Bible did more to end the Pope’s secular power than anything else.