The Catholic Church, like the Mormons, like the Scientologists, like McDonalds, is just as much a real estate empire as it is other things. It owns 277,000 square miles of land. And given that it remains impressively politically sovereign despite the Vatican being the smallest country in the world, as well has inarguably placed that land quite strategically across most of the developed world, it is magnitudes a better representation of 270,000 square miles of modern politics than everyone clamoring for a modern "Texas," which is, in fact, (barely) smaller.
This is what I mean by the fact that the Vatican needs modern representation, somehow, or shouldn't be a civ at all. It is ulteriorly massive and yet most people are totally unaware not only of its influence, but also that it is structured as a monarchical state , as well as a corporation, in a way no other old world religion really is.
