#Catholic Church Austria

[will-darkness-turn-to-light]

st. michael’s church | vienna , austria

[leocadra]

Karlskirche, Vienna, Austria.

[helloparkerrose]

[totallyhussein-blog]

Charity committed to helping Christians in Syria

An international Catholic charity has assured Syria’s Christian community of its continued support after insurgent groups toppled the country’s government on Sunday, 8th December.

Regina Lynch, executive president at Aid to the Church in Need International said that the organisation has remained in close contact with its project partners in Syria and is continuing to provide emergency aid and other help, while also calling for prayers.

Ms Lynch said: “The fall of the Assad regime and the rebel takeover of Damascus mark a historic moment.

“While religious minorities have largely been respected during this transition, our past experiences remind us how religious freedoms can be severely restricted during times of instability in the region.”

She added: “We call on both the international community and the new authorities in Syria to ensure the protection of the fundamental rights of all religious communities, guaranteeing their freedom of worship, education and their right to live in peace.

“We are grateful that both our numerous project partners and ACN staff are safe and have not suffered any harm. We are in continuous contact with them.”

ACN support in Syria has included emergency aid, medical assistance and food supplies for Christian families.

The charity has also helped with the rebuilding of homes and provided support for pastoral activities and the installation of solar panels for Church buildings and schools to help reduce energy costs amid a crippling financial crisis.

Ms Lynch said: “As a Catholic foundation, we remain dedicated to supporting relief and reconstruction efforts in Syria.

“Our projects will continue to focus on providing essential aid, education, and spiritual support to the most vulnerable Christian minority, while promoting reconciliation and hope.”

She concluded: “We urge all people of goodwill to join in prayer for the people of Syria and to strengthen efforts to ensure that this transition leads to justice, peace, and dignity for all.”

[dokuzadaiyuho]

聖ペーター教会

Katholische Kirche St. Peter

[milkywayan]

Stained Glass Window Details, Belvedere Vienna, 2023

[divusvox]

🧷 Facebook • Instagram

[theodoreangelos]

Roman Catholic Parish Church of St George, Horn, Lower Austria Römisch-katholische Pfarrkirche zum Hl. Georg, Horn, Niederösterreich Римско-католическая приходская церковь Святого Георгия, Хорн, Нижняя Австрия Église paroissiale catholique romaine de Saint-Georges, Horn, Basse Autriche

[selenekallanwriter]

It's called the Malleus Maleficarum. I learned about it thanks to Serenade of Flames by Serenity. Amazing song btw.

From Wikipedia: The Malleus suggests torture to get confessions and death as the only certain way to end the "evils of witchcraft." When it was published, heretics were often sentenced to be burned alive at the stake and the Malleus suggested the same for "witches."

From The Historian: The Malleus was a misogynistic text. It claims that witchcraft stems entirely from carnal lust, which is allegedly insatiable in women. Philologists have even held the Malleus just as responsible as Christian demonology when it comes to the targeting of women as witches. This shows the vast influence the Malleus had on the view that witches were naturally female.

just learned today that there was a german monk who was obsessed with witches and women having sex so he wrote an entire book called the hammer of witches where in one part he describes in detail that witches have the ability to make people’s penises disappear and they keep the penises as pets and feed them oats

[drunken-boat]

Old church

Austria 2023

[whencyclopedia]

Peace of Westphalia

The Peace of Westphalia, the name given to the multiple treaties, marked the conclusion of the Thirty Years' War. Signed on 24 October 1648, it aimed to secure political autonomy for the multitude of small states that made up the Holy Roman Empire, allowing religious freedoms across the divided realm.

The peace also gave rise to the political concept known as Westphalian sovereignty, which declares that states, regardless of size, have the right to self-governance – a concept that still exists within the systems of international relations today.

Prelude to War

While many Christian states in Europe were relatively homogenous entities, subservient to the seat of power in their respective capitals, the Holy Roman Empire could more accurately be described as a collection of states and kingdoms of varying sizes unified under the authority of a single emperor, whilst being largely distinct from one another. This decentralised model allowed for considerable autonomy for the individual states, allowing significant political and diplomatic freedoms whilst still, in theory, maintaining allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor. At the same time, the freedoms of the constituent states allowed them to exercise levels of autonomy regarding religion.

The question of religious freedoms in particular began to strain the political cohesion of the empire. Following Martin Luther's 95 Theses and the start of the Protestant Reformation in 1517, the Holy Roman Empire gradually became divided over which form of Christianity was seen as legitimate, with the emperor and his allies championing the established Roman Catholic tradition, whilst the Schmalkaldic League (established on 27 February 1531) embraced the new Protestant Lutheran tradition. This division inevitably led to conflict between the two factions, culminating in two wars known as the First (1546-1547) and Second (1552) Schmalkaldic Wars. These conflicts officially ended in 1555 at the Peace of Augsburg, which split the Holy Roman states between Catholicism and Lutheranism and allowed the ruler of each state within the empire to choose their religious preference. The peace, however, was far from perfect, and tensions between the two groups continued to grow, eventually coming to a head as Europe entered the 17th century.

In 1608, one of the Holy Roman Empire's most important governmental bodies, the Imperial Diet, was called, and the most pressing matter was that of the Peace of Augsburg. Between the signing of the Augsburg treaty in 1555 and the diet, the Protestant states of the empire had greatly increased their power. Many more states had converted to Protestantism, and the new Protestant leaders had begun to seize land formerly owned by the Catholic Church. The Peace of Augsburg stated that Protestant monarchs who had converted prior to 1552 and who had incorporated seized Catholic assets by that date were permitted to keep them, whereas any monarch who converted to Protestantism after 1555 would not be permitted to incorporate any Catholic assets they had seized into their own territorial churches.

Religions in Europe in the 16th Century

Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-ND)

The treaty, however, was purposefully vague, and both the Catholics and Protestants interpreted the limitations of the treaty differently. Despite the supposed limitations, Protestants continued to expand their influence within the religious institutions of the empire well after 1555. By the Imperial Diet of 1608, the expansion of Protestant influence had become a pressing issue, and so debate around the Peace of Augsburg was at the forefront of the gathering. The Protestant leaders had come to the diet calling for a renewal of the 1555 treaty. Fearing the Protestants would continue to use the treaty to strengthen their position, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, who had led the premier Catholic state in the Empire, agreed they would renew the treaty, but only if the Protestants agreed to return all Catholic land taken since 1552. The Protestant delegates were expectedly furious at the suggestion and left the diet in protest. In reaction to the hostile end to the Imperial Diet, the Empire was effectively split into two factions: The Protestant Union, founded in 1608 by Frederick IV of the Palatinate, and the Catholic League, founded the following year by Maximillian I, the Duke of Bavaria.

Continue reading...

[princesssarisa]

That post about all the different possible interpretations of Frankenstein, and my response post about the different interpretations of Little Women, have made me think of all the different ways that other stories can be interpreted.

For example, the opera The Magic Flute. Some people wonder why I never get tired of that particular opera. Well, one reason is that no two productions feel exactly the same, because it can be looked at in so many different ways.

Here's a list of different interpretations I've read. This is probably just scratching the surface of possible perspectives, though.

Nor are these readings mutually exclusive: several can be and have been combined with each other.

*The Magic Flute is about the Age of Enlightenment. The Queen of the Night represents the Baroque era (hence the pseudo-Baroque style of her music), with its powerful Catholic church and ancien régime: luxuriantly beautiful and captivating, but decadent, manipulative and ruthless. Sarastro and his priests represent the Enlightenment, and in particular the Freemasons, with progressive values of reason, mercy, fraternity, self-control, etc. The Queen's ultimate downfall and Sarastro's rise in her place represents the social, cultural and philosophical changes that swept the Western world in the 18th century, leading to the American and French Revolutions, among other reforms. (As for why the progressive men still oppress women and own slaves... well, just look at real life.) Tamino and Pamina are an idealized young everyman and everywoman, who learn to embrace Enlightenment values and will carry them into the future.

*The Magic Flute is a socio-political and Masonic allegory focused expressly on Austria. All the sentiments above still apply, but the Queen specifically represents the staunchly Catholic Empress Maria Theresa, Tamino her more progressive son Emperor Joseph II, Sarastro the prominent Masonic leader Ignaz von Born, and Pamina the country of Austria itself, whose soul they struggle for.

*The Magic Flute is about Freemasonry as religion, namely as an offshoot of Christianity. Pamina's late father, who bequeathed his power to Sarastro, represents Jesus Christ himself. His widow the Queen of the Night, who sees herself as his rightful heir, expressly represents the dazzling yet corrupt Catholic church, the so-called "Bride of Christ." Sarastro and his priests, again, represent the Freemasons, who are portrayed as the true heirs of Christ, faithful to His teachings of mercy, brotherhood, endurance, and forgiveness. Tamino and Pamina learn which religion is false and which is true, then prove their worthiness to be initiated into the true religion.

*The Magic Flute is about the progress from nature to civilization. The Queen of the Night is a matriarchal nature goddess who reigns in a realm of stars, rocks, birds, and animals, where there is no law, only emotion, intuition, and personal will. Sarastro, by contrast, rules a patriarchal city and religious order, where laws, rituals, collectivism, and codes of virtue reign supreme. The opera celebrates the progress from the former to the latter, which has occurred in every country since recorded history began. Yet because humans need emotion and intuition as well as law and order, Sarastro's world keeps the best aspects of the Queen's world: her daughter Pamina, the Three Boys, and the magic flute and bells.

*The Magic Flute is about man vs. woman. Sarastro and his followers define all their values as "manly," while all things "womanly" are associated with the Queen of the Night. "Manhood" equals strength, reason, self-control, steadfastness, and light, while "womanhood" equals passion, intuition, vulnerability, manipulation, and darkness. The entire struggle between the Queen and Sarastro, which Tamino, Pamina, and Papageno are caught up in, embodies the tension between the sexes and all the principles associated with them. As for the resolution, there are two ways of viewing it:

**(a) The story is entirely pro-man and anti-woman. Masculinity triumphs, femininity is defeated. An individual woman (Pamina) can only redeem herself by renouncing her femininity (her bond with her mother the Queen) and aligning herself with masculine principles (joining Tamino in his trials and being initiated into Sarastro's order).

**(b) While the male characters think the solution will be the triumph of man over woman, they're wrong: the true solution is for man and woman to reconcile. The conflict is resolved not by the Queen's defeat (which is almost an afterthought), but by the union of the sexes through Tamino and Pamina. Both the hysterical Queen and the stern Sarastro are too extreme in their feminine and masculine principles, so they can never reconcile, but Tamino and Pamina succeed by loving each other and by balancing the feminine with the masculine (using the Queen's magic flute to survive Sarastro's trials).

*The Magic Flute is about growing up. It's a fantastical version of a Bildungsroman. The Queen of the Night represents the mother, nurturing and indulgent, but smothering if the child stays in her care too long, as personified by Jung's "devouring mother" archetype. Sarastro represents the disciplinarian father, who teaches the child right from wrong and trains him to be an adult. Tamino and Pamina are symbolic children: they start out in the Queen's thrall, like a baby attached to its mother, but then switch to Sarastro and undergo his trials, like an older child who outgrows his mother's apron strings and switches his focus to earning his father's respect. In the end, they achieve a synthesis of both parents, using the Queen's flute to succeed in Sarastro's trials, and are initiated into adulthood.

*The Magic Flute, contrary to popular belief, is a post-Enlightenment work of early Romanticism, which revolves around spirituality. Sarastro and his brotherhood are priests, after all, not scientific philosophers or politicians. Tamino and Pamina's journey involves rejecting not only "nature" (i.e. base instinct, which reigns supreme in the Queen of the Night's realm), but cold, worldly reason too. They learn to "renounce the world," transcend earthly fears and temptations, and achieve unity with the divine. Central to this journey is their love for each other, which transcends mere mating instinct in favor of a mutually inspiring spiritual bond, and the spiritual power of music via the magic flute and bells. The Queen of the Night's downfall is that she seeks worldly power. But Sarastro leads Tamino and Pamina down a more godly path instead.

*The Magic Flute is about the search for love. It revolves around three lonely young protagonists, Tamino, Pamina, and Papageno, whose deepest desire is to love and be loved. At first they look to the Queen of the Night to grant them love, and then to Sarastro. But neither the Queen nor Sarastro can do so, because they're both too detached from love – the Queen in her hatred, Sarastro in his noble yet chilly ideals – and use the young people as pawns in their battle against each other. Yet with help from the ethereal Three Boys, the story's purest embodiments of goodness, they find love in the end. Tamino and Pamina unite and save each other, Papageno finds Papagena despite not having "earned" her, and love conquers all.

**For a more sympathetic view of both Sarastro and the Queen, we can argue that they're both seekers of love too. The Queen loves her daughter and is desperate to get her back, but fails because her love is possessive and selfish. Sarastro's love is an idealistic, detached, universal love for all mankind, which is admirable, yet cold in a way. Tamino and Pamina strike a balance between the two by loving each other in a personal yet generous and unselfish partnership.

*The Magic Flute is a symbolic, proto-Jungian or -Freudian journey through the psyche of Tamino, a young everyman. Pamina is his soul, or his self, whom he needs to find and unite with to be complete. The Queen of the Night is his "feminine" unconscious, who embodies all his powerful and dangerous emotions, which he learns to resist... yet not discard completely, as symbolized by the fact that his soul, Pamina, is her daughter. Sarastro embodies his moral conscience and his noblest ideals and aspirations, which he learns to embrace as his ultimate guides. Meanwhile, Papageno represents his base, "animal" side that cares only for bodily safety and pleasure, which needs to be kept in check (hence Papageno can't be initiated), yet still honored (hence he does find joy with Papagena). And Monostatos represents his darkest and most selfish urges, which his nobler self (Sarastro) must suppress. Tamino's journey with all these aspects of himself represents the process of self-actualization that we all go through.

**With a few small tweaks to this outline, it can also be read as a more gender-neutral journey through the human psyche, with Tamino and Pamina as co-protagonists who represent two halves of one person seeking to unite.

*The Magic Flute is specifically a journey through Mozart's psyche. Tamino and Papageno each reflect aspects of Mozart – his "higher" and "lower" selves, respectively – while Pamina and Papagena likewise reflect his beloved wife Constanze. The Queen of the Night can be viewed as a caricature either of his difficult mother-in-law Cäcilia Weber (as Amadeus indicates) or of her daughter Aloysia Weber, Constanze's sister, whom Mozart once loved and who rejected him. (Make what you will of the fact that the soprano who first sang the role was Constanze and Aloysia's other sister and Cäcilia's daughter.) The trials of initiation into Sarastro's brotherhood reflect Mozart's relationship with Freemasonry, and possibly also his efforts to please his difficult father Leopold. While of course Mozart didn't write the libretto, he put his soul into the music, and he may have influenced Schikaneder enough to infiltrate the libretto too.

*The Magic Flute is just a classic fairy tale of good vs. evil, with some Masonic overtones, which Mozart and Schikaneder wrote as a crowd-pleasing, moneymaking spectacle.

Some of these interpretations I like better than others, but none of them are necessarily wrong.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @leporellian, @tuttocenere, @cjbolan

[sly-s-n0nfusion]

Irl world inspirations for Orsterra and Solistia 🗺 pt1

So I've wanted to write this post for a while and I think I finally feel comfortable enough to do so. I will cover the 8 Orsterra regions as well as Solistia's regions, and also declare a hypothetical irl nationality for all 16 travelers, since some of them aren't native to their starting region.

I won't be covering COTC content because I feel like it does make quite a mess especially regarding the Woodlands. A huge thank you to my friends @sazuka57, @legendaryandroid, @hanpaopaoo, @saarovar, @silverwarewolf, @captwaddledoo, @postalninja and others

Of course, this is just the final product of speculations and none of the info here are official/canon, but I hope this post does help any content creator with their art or writing :)

Orsterra

the Frostlands: The cold regions were perhaps the hardest place to pinpoint a clear irl world inspiration for. The Frostlands could be Finland (Lapland), even though the Flamesgrace church is clearly of catholic inspiration. We know that Ophilia Clement isn't native of Flamesgrace, but she was taken in by Archbishop Josef for she was an orphan. I would even say her name and surname were given to her by the Archbishop himself, since they sound like names members of the clergy would give orphans (especially the surname, Clement, which is similar to orphans' surnames like Innocent, or Godswill). In the Octopath official Guide book timeline is stated that she comes from a small village named Creek, in the Riverlands

Lapland, Finland

the Flatlands: Given how the Flatlands are a kingdom of their own (the kingdom of Wold) with their capital city being Atlasdam and featuring a Royal Palace and a king, I think it's safe to say that the inspiration for this region was England. Atlasdam probably mimics a place like Oxford or Cambridge, given its academic nature and the vaste grassy areas, with Whispermill's flocks of sheeps and mills, give off British countryside vibes. Also because of his name and accent, Cyrus Albright sounds British to the core

Oxford, England

the Coastlands: I believe the inspiration for the Coastlands are the coasts of Italy, especially Liguria's Cinque Terre. Rippletide, Goldshore and Grandport all seem to have the same similar aesthetic to it of Italian harbour towns. Tressa Colzione, as well as her parents Olneo and Marina all have names of Italian inspiration

Cinque Terre, Italy

the Highlands/Hornburg: The inspiration for both the Highlands and Hornburg is probably Southern Germany or Austria (Bavaria/Austrian Alps) because of the very high mountains and German-sounding names. Olberic Eisenberg comes from Hornburg, Erhardt comes from Grynd (which was stated to be a village near Hornburg) so it's safe to say both have germanic origins

Austrian Alps

the Sunlands: This region is probably of Middle Eastern/Arabic inspiration, and it's understandable because of the architecture, the villagers' clothing style and the spice markets around the Sunland towns, to say some. Primrose Azelhart, however, is native of Noblecourt, in the Flatlands, so she probably also has British origins like Cyrus

Palangan, Iran

the Riverlands: This one was a bit tricky to understand. A very green land, rich in water and with catholic influences (Saintsbridge) immediately made me think of Ireland. Not clearer evidence I can bring to the table other than that though. Irish Alfyn Greengrass does sound right to me though

Westport, Ireland

the Cliftlands: The Cliftlands seem to have Peruvian inspiration to them. The local monsters encounters being big eagles/condors, the villagers having colorful cloths in their houses and the main local resource being alpaca fleece (I know I said I wouldn't bring up COTC in my argumentations but I'cirlo was a clear example of alpaca farms). We don't know much about Therion as he is likely an orphan as well but his poncho also might be of Peruvian inspiration

Peruvian Andes

the Woodlands: The Woodlands are heavily inspired by Norse culture and Viking architectures. the village of S'warkii especially, where H'aanit and Z'aanta come from, is clearly inspired by the village of Njardarheimr, in Norway

Njardarheimr

Part 2 (Solistia) coming soon!!

[th3-0bjectivist]

Dear listener, this will be my final musical entry for 24’ and for several months, and we’re gonna end it with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the elite few great classical composers of all time. I feel like these days, classical music has been somewhat devalued and relegated to running in the background of ultra-absorbent paper towel commercials. This is a damn shame, because classical music changed music on planet Earth forever, and composers like Mozart once represented bleeding-edge innovation in the realm of music. For his time, Mozart wrote music in every available and accessible genre and excelled at each of them as well. Much like classical music in a broad sense, WAM attempted to create works that were universal in application. Much like me, the man genuinely enjoyed pleasing every segment of his wide-ranging audience with his personal versatility. Is it any wonder that you’re familiar with WAM’s name and works even though you weren’t even living during his era? So, how do men like this become immortalized? Join me below for an answer from some guy on the internet. Just above is The Requiem in D minor, K. 626, a piece Mozart didn’t even finish before he died. It is haunting, beautiful and really exemplifies WAM’s range. Thank you, all my dear listeners on Tumblr, for celebrating another year of music with me. I’ll be doing more of the same next year as well, but without further ado… the WAM you’ve been waiting for.

Dying young at 35 but filling his entire short life with his own firebrand of musical creativity, WAM started his career at an extremely fresh-faced 5 years old when he wrote his first keyboard composition. He wrote his first SYMPHONY when he was an 8-year-old… and I don’t know if anyone is aware of this but, that kind of natural compositional talent doesn’t exactly grow on trees these days, or even hundreds of years in the past. Like many other classical artists, WAM was brought up in the Church, specifically in the Catholic faith. He is well known for composing ‘divinely inspired works’, specifically designed for Mass between Epistle and Gospel. Performing for imperial courts as a mere child and then going on to create 600 + total musical works in his lifetime, WAM wasn’t just some musician from Austria; he was a Bonafide genius. He could speak over a dozen languages, was awarded the Order of the Golden Spur by Pope Clement XIV and was perhaps one of the most notable and famous Freemasons of all-time. WAM even went as far as producing openly masonic works like The Magic Flute and Thomas, King of Egypt. Unlike other classical artists (Brahms, Beethoven, Vivaldi), WAM was a family man who cherished his children but left very little to them because of his excessive drinking, extravagant general spending, and personal generosity. His lack of money-management aside, WAM stands tall as one of the most, if not the MOST famous Austrian musician of all time. Fun fact: WAM loved fart and poop jokes. I’m NOT kidding. He went as far as writing scatological music for his recreational and drunk buddies and quipped about his bowel movements to close friends and family members in numerous letters. Why would I mention this, you may ask? Because, for his time, this man was a walking immortal on Earth. Mozart’s shit-based humor humanizes him to me, and I love how this yester century genius thought absolutely anything coming out of the human ass was hilarious. Having been subject to numerous infections and bumps on his skin before his untimely death, WAM died young and under entirely mysterious circumstances which have never been properly identified or explained. Just below, you’ll find The Best of Mozart. Smash play, enjoy, Happy New Year. It was a pleasure, as always, to provide Tumblr with music and information in 24’.

A prodigy, more versatile than his contemporaries, and more influential than the vast, vast majority of any common musician…Mozart is a legend and an inspiration. Is it any wonder that his surname is well-known even to this day… even though he had no grandchildren? Image source: https://www.redbubble.com/i/kids-t-shirt/Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart-digital-painting-in-high-resolution-by-hypnotzd/142756337.VXRIW

[ishparpuaqib]

And what would this "althist thingy" be, precisely? 👀

there's an enduring legend among the Croats that Croatia (or, rather, the Republic of Ragusa) had a short-lived colony in India, extrapolated from one 17th century chronicler's brief mention of Ragusan merchants offering to fund the construction of a Catholic church in Goa (which had been under Portuguese sovereignty since 1568, a claim Ragusa certainly didn't have the strength of arms—or balls—to dispute)

now. is there any way to plausibly have the Republic of Ragusa establish a colonial enterprise in India by the 17th century? well, no, but there is a rather elegant way to have 18th century Austria do the same: have the Asiatic Company of Trieste and Antwerp (or the "Austrian East Indies Company", as it's sometimes known) not go fubar by the 1780s, and maybe, just maybe, allow the Austrians to establish a monopoly on international pepper trade through the land grants lended to them by the court of Mysore (well, "lended"; there was a great deal of ambiguity over what exactly did Haidar Ali's grants to the Austrians imply for Mysorean sovereignty over the lands in question, ambiguities I think would've been interesting to see escalate)

I find the idea of a Habsburg presence in India very attractive—I think it's because of the intuitive aesthetic similarities between Catholicism and Hinduism. if I decide to go through w the project, I'd like to focus largely on the Croat–Slavic element in Austrian colonisation of the Malabar coast, especially after the opening of the Suez Canal (or in-universe equivalent, whose construction might actually be sponsored by the Austrians ITTL if they still lose their holdings in the Netherlands) shifts the Habsburgs' focus from the Austrian Netherlands/Antwerp to the Adriatic. Croatia can into the East Indies!

[girlonthelasttrain]

I know it's a tumblr classic and I can see the appeal of attributing Napoleon III's sudden change of pace on the Italian unification entirely to the Mortara case and the outrage it caused among the French public opinion, however it was... definitely not just because of that. The Plombières Agreement of 1859 was essentially an alliance against Austria (which back then included most of northern Italy, including Milan and Venice) between France and the Kingdom of Sardinia, the latter having ridden nationalist sentiment for its territorial ambitions for quite some time but also having lost what it's now called the First War of Indipendence against Austria. But Napoleon III still very much did not want the political unification of Italy back then, or even directly risk an attack inside the Papal State, even though there were Austrian garrisons both in Rome and Bologna and he theoretically could've used those as reason enough to send an ultimatum to Austria. In fact Napoleon III told Cavour (prime minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia) that a much better pretext for war would be to engineer a nationalist insurrection in the Duchy of Modena. And the agreement allowed the Kingdom of Sardinia to proceed with France's military assistance against Austria only in exchange for the territories of Nice and Savoy, which have in fact been part of France (mind you they'd always been French-speaking areas) since the Second War of Independence. Also Cavour was able to get Napoleon III's ear only because he (in)famously had decided to send troops all the way to Crimea during the war of 1853-56. SO IT'S COMPLICATED I GET IT and also I get that US history classes rightly focus on other more important things that were happening over there around those years but saying that the unification of Italy happened because the world was appalled at the antisemitism of the Catholic Church is quite the stretch! Not saying that the Catholic Church doesn't deserve that outrage but uhm. lol. That is definitely not the whole picture neither of the unification, nor of the extent of the Church's antisemitism which is millennia old very violent history as we all know. I'm sure the Mortara case helped Napoleon III save face though!