Second Papal Schism

The **Second Papal Schism** occurred alongside the Second Risorgimento, the Italian front of the Second Weltkrieg, after the Socialist Republic of Italy captured the city of Rome from Papal forces after a major battle.

## History

Pope Julius IV was captured by Socialist forces after the defeat of the Swiss Guard, and died in capture while awaiting trial. The cause of his death remains controversial and disputed, with some believing he was murdered, while others believe his death came from a mixture of stress and existing heart issues. With the death of Julius IV, the Holy See became vacant, and its cardinals were called to host a new election. The Papal conclave proved incredibly divisive, as it devolved into infighting on whether to placate the syndicalists and seek reform in order to preserve the Church's existence, to continue Julius IV's controversial hardliner anti-syndicalist policies, or to build the Church into a purely apolitical force to protect its own people.

Ultimately, after a week of voting, white smoke would blow out of the chimney as Achille Liénart, the reformist champion of the worker-priest movement, would be elected as John XXIII. As an openly pro-syndicalist Pope would be elected, rumors and controversy circulated across the Catholic world that voting had taken place under intimidation at best and outright fraud at worst; this theory supported by certain cardinals who would later state that they voted in fear of the outright abolition of the Catholic Church.

Several of these cardinals, predominantly those with ties to the Black Nobility, would flee overseas, first to National France, then to Portugal. There, they would be granted the Alcobasa City State away from what was perceived as an illegitimate and dangerous position in the Vatican City State. After being established at the monastery complex, they would elect their own Eugenio Pacelli as Pius XII, colloquially called the "White Pope". He would immediately issue the "Decree against Syndicalism", declaring John XXIII an antipope with no legitimate ability to issue edicts, and recommending the excommunication of all professors of syndicalist doctrine. After his death, Pius XII would be succeeded by his protégé, Giuseppe Siri, who would name himself Pius XIII and continue his conservative anti-syndicalist policies.

## Repercussions

The schism between the exiled Alcobasa Catholics and the loyalist Roman Catholics would have major repercussions worldwide, dividing Catholic faithful across the world on whether to accept John XXIII, Pius XII and his successor, or to simply remain ambivalent.

### Western Europe

Internationally, though most leftist movements had been secular or outright atheist, the election of John XXIII would spark a wave of renewed interest in Christian socialism, being widely celebrated in the predominantly-Catholic nations of France, Belgium, Italy, the Iberian Federation, and Helvetia: the final of which would, due to its lack of a Metropolitan see, be immediately subject to many of the Roman reforms. Outside of the Third International, many across Western Europe would embrace the Roman pope, if not out of love for his reforms, then out of hatred for the fundamentalism of Alcobasa. This attitude would be prevalent in many countries with a less concrete clerical hierarchy and a stronger liberation theology movement, such as in Ireland.

### Eastern Europe

One of the first instigators to the Cold War occurred within Poland, as the far-right National Radical government cracked down on those who did not accept Pius XII as the official Pope. This policy was mirrored in East Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania, triggering the first of many crises as Moscow Accord Catholics would flee to either Bohemia or Yugoslavia after seeing family members be falsely branded as syndicalists and purged.

### South America

Political violence between the Liberal and Conservative parties in Colombia, already playing a large part in dividing the country, would come to be backed by divisive attitudes towards the Church by both parties, with Liberals often supporting the Roman faction and Conservatives supporting the Alcobasa faction. Likewise, the issue would divide Brazil as well, with the syndicalist Confederation of the Equator group launching widespread purges of Alcobasa-oriented clerics. In Peru-Bolivia, those openly supportive of John XXIII are often branded as APRA loyalists and beaten into submission by police.

### North America

Politics would be impacted differently in North America, as the Cristero movement in Mexico would be weakened by early infighting on whether to support the new Pope. In Quebec, support of the Alcobasa Papacy would become a key part of Union Nationale policy, with Duplessis famously stating: *"You're either UN, or a syndicalist. You're also either a true Catholic, or a syndicalist. Therefore, to be UN is to be a true Catholic."*

In 1950, in the Pacific States, a predominantly Mexican church that openly accepted John XXIII's reforms was burned to the ground by a group of White Catholics who branded them as open syndicalists: the group's perpetrators faced only a $150 fine.