The Pope Casts his Lot in the New World. Complications in Europe Rendered his Residence in Rome Undesirable. No Refuge in Europe Available for his Holiness. Generous Offer of the Southern States of the American Union. The Papal See transferred to Rio Janeiro in 1945. The relations of the United States of the Americas with Italy in 1999 were of a character that demand more than a passing notice, going far to illustrate the political eminence that had been attained in that year by the great American Republic. In the year 1927, the long standing and severe tension that had existed between the Papacy and the Italian government ever since Napoleon III in 1870 withdrew his French garrison from the Holy City, became greatly intensified and had reached an acute stage that proved beyond human endurance. The strained relations between the Vatican and the Quirinal had reached a critical stage. The fierce struggle between Church and State had attained a point of utmost tension. It became obvious, even in that year, that the break and parting of the ways could not be very distant. In 1927 the Popes of Rome had already been prisoners in the palace of the Vatican for a period of over fifty years. Patience in their case had ceased to be a virtue. Rome had long been a house divided against itself and its rule under two kings could not always endure. The delicate position of the Pope became a most unenviable one. The insolence of the Roman rabble even found its way under the glorious dome of St. Peter, where, on Palm Sunday, in the year 1923 Pope Pius X was insulted by a clique from the Roman slums. That the Holy Pontiff, the spiritual ruler and sovereign of 328,000,000 Catholics, should experience insult in St. Peter's, his citadel of strength and power, proved a scandal beyond belief. Convinced that his temporal power was forever broken, Pope Leo XIV in the year [The Pope Decides to Leave.] 1945 decided, after consulting a Conclave of Cardinals, to abandon the city of Romulus and Remus and to shake from his sandals the dust of ancient Rome. It was at first thought that the College of Cardinals would check their baggage and take the overland route to Avignon, in southern France, an honor which many centuries before had already fallen to the lot of that ancient municipality. But it was otherwise decreed and great was the astonishment of the world when its nerves were thoroughly startled by the startling news that Pope Leo XIV had elected to remove the Papal See from Rome and to establish it in the United States of the Americas. The world's astonishment was akin to consternation when the news of this radical change of base was first announced and it was learned that the Vatican intended to cast its lot in the new world.