Antilles–Sovereign Patriarchate relations
 Antilles |
 Sovereign Patriarchate of Avignon |
|---|---|
| Diplomatic mission | |
| Embassy of the Antilles, Avignon |
Apostolic Nunciature, Columbia City |
Relations between the Antilles and the Sovereign Patriarchate of Avignon, formally known as Antilles–Avignon relations, were officially established in 1937. Relations were created due to shared opposition towards Landonism and the Continental States along with shared opposition towards the Roman Catholic Church following the latter's creation in 1934 due to its adherence and promotion of Christian socialism. The same year relations were established, the Sovereign Patriarchate became the first nation to recognize the Antilles as the United Commonwealth of America and as a sovereign state. As of 2022, it remains only one of ten nations to recognize the Antilles as an independent state and its claims to the American Mainland.
The Antilles has a formal representative to the Avignonese Papacy and the latter has a apostolic nunicature in Columbia City. The Antillean government has lone since recognized the Avignonese Catholic Church as the legitimate claimer to the original Papacy.
History
Well before the Second Western Schism in 1934, the Catholic Church had an established presence in North America and within the United Commonwealth of America with its history dating back to the colonial era. Towards the later years of the United Commonwealth of America, the Catholic Church became a prominent force in American life, especially among immigrants from Southern Europe such as Italy and Spain along with Ireland. The Catholic Church and Catholicism maintained a strong presence and a large portion of the overall American population despite anti-Catholic sentiments from many within the nation's Protestant majority.
The Continental Revolutionary War (1917–1922) would be a turbulent period for the American Catholic Church as it had largely sided with the ruling Federalist Party and the Federalist regime, however many of them supported the Continentalist Party leading an internal division. In 1921, the Federalists and their allies and supporters began what is commonly known as the Great Retreat where they withdrew to the Antilles, then a territory of the United Commonwealth before the war. Over three million people fled to the Antilles which included many Catholics who feared retribution by the Continentalists for the church's support for the Federalists before the war with many church officials being prosecuted during the Federalist trials.
Embassy of the Antilles, Avignon
Apostolic Nunciature, Columbia City
The Holy See appointed an Apostolic Delegation to the United Commonwealth of America on 24 January 1893, headed by Francesco Satolli as the first Apostolic Delegate. The mission was based in Chicago, the country's capital, but during the Continental Revolutionary War the delegation evacuated and fled to the Antilles along with many refugees and supporters of the Federalist Party. The Apostolic Delegation continued its work on the Antilles to serve Catholics there, although this was not a political statement, because a delegation, unlike a Nunciature, exists to assist the Catholic population of the country rather than having any formal diplomatic function to represent the Holy See to the country's government. This left the Continental mainland, now under the rule of the Continentalist Party of the United Commonwealth that sought to control religion, without any representation of the Holy See. After the Council of Avignon and the Second Western Schism in 1934, President Amelia Abarough was opposed to the decision of Pope Pius XI to sign the Lateran Pact with the Landonist-Marxist government of Italy. As a result the Antilles broke their ties with Rome and recognized the new papacy that was established in Avignon, establishing formal diplomatic ties with the Sovereign Patriarchate of Avignon in January 1937. The Apostolic Delegation in Columbia City, then led by the conservative archbishop Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, was raised to an Apostolic Nunciature, becoming the Sovereign Patriarchate's diplomatic mission to "the United Commonwealth on the Antilles."