You and Illuminator are as bad as each other. It's now become a standard response that when you are shown and challenged regarding an ongoing Catholic practise that is entrenched within the mindset of the hierarchy, is utterly unbiblical and antithetical to everything God has established for His people, was clearly forbidden as a practice smokey God's church, is a particular characteristic of pagan thinking, was encouraged and introduced into the church by the most respected and renowned of Catholic theologians and scholars, both considered doctors of faith, (Augustine and Aquinas), is currently being promoted and exercised by not just the present Pope, but was also to a more or less degree by every Pope before him, the automatic response is
A. Blame it on a 'few' bad apples and
B. Point out individuals' sins in other churches which are not the typical practise of the church itself, but indeed are of a few individuals.
Which in relation to the union of church and state, bears absolutely no relevance whatsoever. We are not discussing a few bad popes here and there, I am not denying there may be a few good popes, the discussion is about politics in the church. Or the church in politics. A combination of statecraft with Christianity, a mingling of the profane and holy, a compromise and spiritual adultery whereby the church itself, the actual institution, has within the framework of it's very nature, the acceptance of force and the use of state powers in the military, the political arm, and in judicial legislation to spread the Christian ethos in the world. The excuse when persecutions and killings are mentioned is either the state did it, or a few bad eggs did it.
Let me make something abundantly clear. If my church began to practice political chicanery and the use of the military to enforce Sabbath keeping or Bible study or any other valid or invalid Christian practise, I would leave the church yesterday. And if my church refused to effectively deal with perpetrators of abuse in the church, of whatever nature, I would leave the day before yesterday. And what's more, if my church has in its persona, a characteristic whereby persecution and the use of the "sword" was seen as an acceptable means by which to establish God's kingdom on earth, and the leading theologians from it's inception wrote on the topic, published manuscripts and books extolling the virtue of a union of church and state and the appropriate use of force to compel people to worship according to the rules of the church, I would never join. And I left your church for those very reasons.