Maybe 1,000 years or so ago when there were divine right kings. Pretty much where Islam is stuck. Now rather than a government/state or political force the Church is better characterized as the world's oldest and largest bureaucracy. With all the problems a bureaucracy brings.
The Church is still a state with a government that has a lot of bureaucracies just like our own secular state and government.
You cannot have an organized religion without some type of governing body and bureaucracy. What makes Catholicism different is that it is a religious state modeled on the ancient Roman Empire. The government and bureaucracy is the same as the Roman Empire which is not surprising when you consider the history of the Church. The Vatican is a nation state.
