In 1302 a devout lay Catholic was sentenced to death by a papal legate for refusing to surrender his city’s freedom to foreign control. He spent his life in exile, wrote the Divine Comedy, placed popes in Hell for political corruption — and died in full communion, now praised by recent popes as a gift to the Church. Part 2 shows how Dante distinguished the divine office of Peter from fallible political decisions, defended patriotism as a Christian virtue, and gives today’s Catholics clear permission — straight from Aquinas, Bellarmine, and the Catechism — to love the Church deeply while protecting their homeland when the two loyalties seem to collide.

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Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat.