Catholic Commonwealth (21st Century Crisis)

The Commonwealth of Catholic Nations (Latin: Rem Publicam Catholicae Nationum, Spanish: Comunidad de Naciones Católicas, Italian: Commonwealth delle Nazioni Cattoliche, German: Einheit der Katholischen Nationen, Polish: Wspólnota Narodów katolickich, Portuguese: Comunidade das Nações Católicas, Filipino: Samahan ng mga Bansang Katolik, Korean: 가톨릭 국가의 연방, Arabic: الكاثوليكية الكومنولث) known as the Catholic Commonwealth in short, is a global political-religious organization, composed of countries that profess Roman Catholicism as their faith, or nations with Roman Catholicism as their most-followed religion, or those with a high Roman Catholic population. It was found during the Cold War, as the United Catholic Coalition during Nikita Kruschev's leadership of the Soviet Union and had a goal of "aiding" the west against the communist threat.

The Catholic Commonwealth is currently led by the Pope, and the center of leadership revolves around the Vatican, he serves as the Pope of the member nations. The Catholic Commonwealth is by-far, one of the largest religious global organizations, with the other one being the Islamic Caliphate.

Its aims are "helping Catholic natons understand each one another's cultures, through unity, brotherhood, sisterhood and charitable and humanitarian works".

Laws and Regulations for Membership
The rules and laws regarding the attaining of membership in the Catholic Commonwealth is rather fluid, and truly up to the leaders and elders, as well as the Pope. However, the Holy Decree does provide a few guidelines, restrictions and overall rules for countries to follow to attain membership.

The first step into attaining membership is to have a population of Catholics over 50%. At the time of membership request, the leader of a particular nation must profess a recognized form of Catholicism as their faith and cannot follow outside religions of Catholicism. If during the process, the leader converts to another religion, the membership status of that country would be voided and rejected, that leader must re-request to attain membership and revert to Catholicism in order to be re-considered for membership.

Once that country is officially admitted, that leader would present themselves in front of the Pope and proclaim their faith in the Roman Catholic Church. Membership of a country is not limited to a certain leader's term, and carries forth, even if the succeeding leader is a non-Catholic, unless a succeeding leader withdraws his or her country out of the commonwealth.

Disputed/Observer States
The Catholic Commonwealth also designates several countries as "disputed" or "observer" states. These countries are those that have a differing status within the Catholic Commonwealth depending on the source of information, with some sources considering the following countries to be member states, while others do not. These states often have representatives at Catholic Commonwealth events, and the flags of their countries present, enjoying the same status as the flags of full member states.

United States
The United States serves as the best example of a disputed state, and has been regarded as the most disputed state within the Catholic Commonwealth, with its status undergoing a roller-coaster of back and forth considerations within the Catholic Commonwealth. Protestants, Baptists, Pentecostals, Seventh Day Adventists, Orthodox, Mormons and other non-Catholic Christians do not consider the United States to be a member of the Catholic Commonwealth, and have actively fought against attempts at an official inaugaration of the United States as a member. Therefore, it is truly up to individual research groups to determine whether they consider the United States a member. The United States has many representatives, placing the fourth largest in terms of members population, and its flag is represented at the Annual Catholic March. However, the Roman Catholic population of the United States is a minority, though a large minority, which would disqualify it from fulfulling the requirement to be above "50%". Yet, this fact is largely ignored as the United States still have enough considerable Roman Catholic influence in its history and population to possibly be considered, having that requirement waived.

The Southern Baptist Convention released a statement stating, "We are Americans, and we do not bow down to any foreign monarch, in this case, the Pope. He, nor the Vatican represent even a quarter of American Christians, and to place us under the control of some foreign Pope is a danger to our constitutional freedom."

According a research done by William Buck of the conservative political commentary TV/radio show Being Right, 65% of Americans opposed becoming a member of the Catholic Commonwealth.

During Pope Francis' visit to the United States, Barack Obama made another failed attempt to have the United States become an officially recogonized and undisputed member of the Catholic Commonwealth.

Canada
Like the United States, Canada is also a disputed member and its story is near-identical to that of its southern neighbor United States. Catholics consider Canada a member, arguing Canada's Roman Catholic population to be 52%. However, Protestants, Baptists and Westminster conservatives of Canada fought attempts towards Canada's official inaugaration, wanting to preserve the Protestant and Anglican traditions of the country. Non-Catholic research groups estimate the Catholic population of Canada to be at 45% at best, mostly residing in Quebec and Ontario, with less than 20% of adherents considering themselves faithful. Some groups, even having high ties to American non-Catholic Christian groups opposed to either country being considered a member of the Catholic Commonwealth.

Joseph Mackenzie, premier of Alberta said, "Canada and the United States are not Catholic nations, our nations were founded on Protestant and Anglican up-bringing. Wanna talk about a Catholic nation in North America? You got Mexico. While Roman Catholics are certainly free to worship as they wish in Canada and the United States, all I can say to Catholic leaders and politicians, is to stay away from our great nations, and quit tainting us with your laws."

Morocco
Moroccan Catholics sought to have Morocco become the second Arab nation to be represented as a member of the Catholic Commonwealth. The Muslim-Christian population of Morocco often tends to differ, and the nation is near half and half, and conflicting sources towards Morocco's Catholic population, as well as its Islamic monarchy are two huge contributing factors to the difficulty of Morocco being admitted. At most, even through exaggerated status, Morocco's Catholic population is 47% at best. Some biased sources claim 52% at most, in hopes to fulfill the Catholic Commonwealth's requirement to have a Catholic population above 50%. As a result, many Catholic leaders in Morocco have gone through vigorous and rigorous attempts to convert clans, groups and families of Muslims to Catholicism in order to heighten the population. Still, the King and Prime Minister of Morocco would both have to convert to Roman Catholicism, and renounce Islam as Morocco's state religion to even have a change of being considered. Also, pan-Islamists in Morocco have prevented the country from being considered part of the Catholic Commonwealth.

Suspended states
After Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte made several anti-Catholic and anti-papal comments, the Philippines was suspended for one year between 2015 and 2016. This recieved huge opposition from Philippine bishops and clergy. An inquiry was submitted to the Annual Table of Flenty Summit in Mexico City, regarding the rules of membership, presented by both Philippine petitionees and their supporters.

The Philippines had huge support in urging the Commonwealth to change it rules regarding a president's Catholic status. The Council of Leaders voted on a 17-0 decision to rule a president of a member state does not have to be Catholic, but a non-Catholic leader of a Catholic nation would still be barred from attending all Commonwealth events, and the replacing representative would have to be a Catholic of the next highest political position.

After this ruling was made, the Philippines was re-instated.

In South Syria, many South Syrian Catholics have also been urging membership in the Commonwealth. However, Syria does not meet the 50% requirements, and due to South Syria's allyship with Russia, was and is currently suspended.