[This article from 1978, was written for the centenary of the death
of Blessed Pius IX, by the U.S. liaison for the Postulation of the Cause
of Beatification of the Servant of God, Pope Pius IX, who was beatified
by Pope John Paul II, 3 September 2000.]
On 7 February 1972 there was constituted at Rome the Association
of Promotors of the Cause of Beatification of the Servant of God, Pope
Pius IX. The Association's purpose is threefold: to diffuse Pius
IX's spirit of faith; to make known the singular virtues of the Servant
of God; and to advance the cause of his beatification. This latter had
already been begun by Pope St Pius X in 1907, at the prompting of Don
Orione, and had been sustained for more than sixty years by outstanding
personalities of the Church's hierarchy and of the Catholic laity.
On the occasion of the centenary of his death, some reflection on his
life and work is profitable. In a particular way, the English-speaking
world is in his debt. It was Pius IX who restored the Catholic hierarchy
in England in 1850, and established more than one hundred and
twenty-five dioceses and archdioceses in the United States. Considering
the tumultuous times in which he manned the Barque of Peter, these
accomplishments, to mention only two specific and large categories,
cannot be viewed as other than colossal. Further, at least 125 religious
communities of women in the United States were founded in the course of
his pontificate. The over-all growth of the Church during his long reign
points to the establishment on both the Old and New Worlds of 29
archbishoprics, 132 bishoprics, 3 apostolic delegations, 33 vicariates
apostolic, 15 prefectures apostolic. This includes the restoration of
the English hierarchy with an archbishop at Westminster and twelve other
local Ordinaries, as well as an archbishop and four bishops for Holland,
and a Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. Furthermore concordats were
concluded with Russia, Tuscany, Spain, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Austria,
Portugal, Naples, Wurttenberg, Baden, Honduras, Ecuador, Venezuela,
Nicaragua and San Salvador.
Friend of Don Bosco
The, man who was to become the beloved friend, patron and confidant
of St John Bosco, and associated with so many men and women of great
personal holiness in the course of his long reign, was born Count
Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, in Senigallia on May 13th, 1792.
Ordained a priest on April 11th, 1819, he was attached to the Holy See's
diplomatic mission to Chile from 1823 to 1825, then appointed archbishop
of Spoleto on May 25th, 1827, at the age of thirty-five. He was
successively named bishop of Imola on February 9th, 1833 and created a
cardinal on December 14th, 1840. He succeeded to the Chair of Peter upon
the death of Gregory XVI, June 16th, 1846. When he died on February 7th,
1878, it was the longest pontificate in the history of the Church. He
had been only fifty-four years of age upon his election and ruled for
nearly thirty-two years. His insignia was the Cross, his motto: Crux
de Cruce.
Pius IX was particularly distinguished for his defense and
explanation of Catholic doctrine. This is evidenced in the numerous
solutions at which he arrived in controversial matters, or for the
reproof of erroneous doctrines which rocked the foundations of society
itself. The historian, Roger Aubert, remarks that Pius IX's role was
important in matters of doctrine and that he "issued warnings or
condemnations against Ontologism and Traditionalism; against the
teachings of certain philosophers and theologians, notably Anton
Günther and Frohschammer; and against the tendencies of the school of
Döllinger".
De Fide Catholica
Referring to the First Vatican Ecumenical Council, the same historian
notes that the Constitution De Fide Catholica "was
characteristic of Pius IX's positive contribution and marked a strong
effort to eliminate the last traces of the naturalistic Deism of the
Enlightenment and to refocus Catholic thought on the fundamental data of
revelation". He lived in an age that had followed upon the
incredulity of Voltaire, Diderot and others, and in whose
teachings traditional values were discarded in the name of a
much-heralded liberty, by a liberalism which served up the most crude
negations of liberty itself. Among the most important documents of his
reign (apart from the definition of the Immaculate Conception of the
Virgin Mother of God and the celebration of the First Vatican Ecumenical
Council) first place, without doubt, is held by his Encyclical Quanta
cura of December 8th, 1864, with its accompanying Syllabus of
Errors, listing eighty condemned and proscribed
propositions. In the history of the Church, it might be recalled, the
cataloguing of errors is no novelty: the errors of Wycliffe and Hus were
solemnly condemned in 1414; those of Luther in 1520; those of Baius in
1563: and those of Jansen in 1567.
Syllabus of Pius IX
The Syllabus of Pius IX, however, is of superior value to
those previously promulgated, for in Pius IX's condemnation the evil
condemned was not an isolated tenet in the current of thought of one or
another man, but rather, what was condemned was an entire age with a
complexity of heresies. Above all, the most serious and widespread
philosophical errors were denounced: pantheism, which confused
God with nature; materialism, which sustained the existence of
matter alone; rationalism, which recognized human reason
alone as the unique and exclusive source of truth; indifferentism,
which stated that every religion is equally good and true; and finally, liberalism,
as embodied in the atheist State and in indiscriminate and absolute
liberty in matters of worship, teaching, and communications.
Moreover, in a more generic manner, but with specific references and
documentation, Socialism and secret societies were condemned, as well as
the theory which avers that the State is the origin and source of all
rights.
The publication of the Syllabus appeared to be a betrayal of
the contemporary world, of science and civilization, of progress and of
the rights of the State and of peoples. The Pope was accused of
obscurantism, fanaticism and medievalism. In view of the clarity of his
exhaustive documentation, such accusations, though comprehensible, given
the distress it caused some, were of the customary and facile sort. But
looking back, our perspective must necessarily be less myopic, and our
enthusiasm for novelties ought to be much less heady. In reality, what
was accomplished in such a document turned out to be a true benefit to
society, for it denounced the occult evil of doctrines that have led
men, time and again, to the shedding of blood, and have produced the
most bitter fruits and ruin in their wake.
Laid foundation
Through the Syllabus, along with other countless
documents which preceded and followed upon it, above all the positive
work of the Council, Pius IX projected the entire doctrinal teaching of
modern Pontiffs. He set the keystone for the work of reconstruction
under Leo XIII. In germinal form his teaching became a complete basis
for the condemnation of modernism by Pius X. Further, his teachings
embody the principles that would come into play in the numerous battles
against immorality, violence, and aberrations of a false nationalism and
racism, especially during the two pontificates of Pius XI and Pius XII
respectively. Further, the deep admiration of John XXIII for the
pastoral figure of Pius IX took into account as well a special concern
for the Diocese of Rome, while the problems and complexities of history
in the present, make the pontificate of Paul VI not altogether unlike
that of his predecessor of a century ago.
To his gifts of intelligence, Pius IX joined the gifts of grace which
had matured in his soul since childhood. He was possessed of a deep,
invincible, clear faith in the final triumph of the Church, and he did
not hesitate, as even a cursory perusal of his pronouncements and
addresses attests, to resist with intrepidity and with a severity that
might make some shudder, any and all enemies of truth, even the most
powerful political figures and institutions. This was his norm in public
as well as in private life. As he once remarked, "If Cabinets have
their politics, I have mine, too. And my politics is: 'Our Father, who
art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.’"
Man of prayer
All who lived with him testified that he was a man of profound
prayer, a man habitually steeped in converse with God and contemplation
of things divine. In the midst of the myriad preoccupations of his
pontificate he found time for long hours to be spent before the Blessed
Sacrament, whether in the daytime or at night. This spirit of prayer was
conjoined to his pastoral sense. As Aubert has noted, "Notable were
his touching simplicity, his great goodness, his serene courage in
adversity, his lively practical intelligence, and his fervor that
aroused the admiration of all who saw him at prayer and corresponded
with his intimate sentiments. Still more remarkable were his pastoral
virtues, his care to act always as a priest, and even under the torment
of the Roman Question to comport himself not as a sovereign defending
his throne, but as a man of the Church cognizant of his responsibility
before God for the defense of Christian values menaced by the rise of
laicism, rationalism, and impiety."
From the earliest days of childhood he had been devoted to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus and to the Immaculate Virgin, "the greatest grace of
my pontificate", as he liked to describe her. He frequently
employed the discipline and the hairshirt, was abstemious in food and
drink, and never allowed himself more than five hours of sleep a day. As
Pope, he did not disdain to preach like a simple priest, to administer
the Sacraments in churches and hospitals, or, as in 1857, to travel to
Umbria to convert, confess and absolve a man who, to all appearances,
was a street criminal. More than fifty years ago, Carlo Prati chided
those who would remove from the lives of the Popes "every activity
in any way picturesque, individual or impromptu". He added that
"If Gregory VII and Innocent III, Julius II, Leo X and Pius VII,
indeed Pius IX himself until 1870 displayed their personality at every
turn and therefore lived a life at once individual and original, it was
because they constantly engaged in public life and maintained in
unbroken contact with their subjects."
Love for all men
In this regard, Pius IX was characteristically openhearted, embracing
all men, faithful followers and rebels, friends and enemies. He
published a solemn decree of amnesty within one month of his election. A
month before his death, learning that the King of Italy, who had
confiscated the material goods of the Church, was near death, he
exclaimed, "I will do everything in my power so that Victor
Emmanuel may appear before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ with my
pardon in hand". His goodness reached the heights of the
extraordinary and heroic. His years at Spoleto and Imola were replete in
outstanding public and private charity. His fraternal love knew no
distinction of race, nationality, or religion. One day, while passing
through the Jewish ghetto in Rome, he saw a poor man lying unconscious
in the street, a multitude of bystanders looking on and making no effort
to assist him. The Pope ordered his carriage to stop, and he alighted.
Someone in the crowd shouted: "Holiness, leave him alone, he's a
Jew!" The Pope responded in a severe tone: "Is it possible,
perhaps, that a Jew is not our neighbor?" He then ordered the man
lifted into his carriage, took him to the hospital, and there left an
offering to cover the expenses. The same charity was evidenced in the
course of the cholera epidemic of 1867. When he visited the soldiers of
Garibaldi who were being held prisoners in Castel Sant'Angelo, he moved
them to tears with his remark, "Lo, my friends, here before you is
the 'vampire of Italy,' as your general calls me; oh, why have you taken
up arms against me, a poor old man?" He sent a message by word of
mouth to Garibaldi in 1867: "Tell him that the old man he calls the
'vampire of the Vatican' has compassion for him and loves him, and
proved it today by celebrating Holy Mass for him".
Sad years for the Church
The years of Pius IX's reign were years of universal and great
sadness for the Church as he stood virtually helpless in the face of a
political situation which daily grew worse; partially due to the
intensifying onslaughts against religion and morality at every level,
partially owing to the utter confusion and social retrogression
resultant upon the intestine and petty squabbling of the various
political factions within the Italian State. Although he showed himself
openminded to the cause of Italian unity, he would not make war
against Austria. Consequently, the Quirinal Palace was attacked by
revolutionaries and Pius IX withdrew to Gaeta in the Kingdom of Naples,
returning to Rome after its occupation by the French in 1849. From the
time of his return in 1850, the temporal power of the papacy declined,
until with the sacking of Rome by Victor Emmanuel on the infamous day of
September 20th, 1870, the Pope became a virtual prisoner within the
Vatican.
But if the Pope proved himself an exemplar of Christlike goodness and
charity, he also stood forth like a lion of undaunted firmness in the
defense of the cause of Christ and His Church. Apart from the firmness
he demonstrated with respect to the Italian situation, he was
indomitable in his resolve to proceed with firmness against certain
policies of Napoleon III, and made his loud and clear reply: "Non
volumus, non possumus, non debemus"—"We will not,
we cannot, we must not." His strength in the face of the cruelty of
Bismarck's Kulturkampf was highlighted when the political
authority opposed the raising to the cardinalate of the Archbishop of
Poznan, Monsignor Mieczyslaw Halka Ledochowski, who later became Prefect
of the Propaganda. His celebrated retort to Bismarck was:
"Tell Bismarck that he is a power that will pass away, we are a
power that remains forever."
Pius IX died in Rome on February 7th, 1878, having ruled the Church
of God for thirty-two years, the first Pope to equal and exceed the
quarter-century that Peter governed the Church at Rome. He was entombed
in a simple crypt of his own choosing in the Basilica of St. Lawrence
Outside-the-Walls. Though in the course of his reign as a temporal
sovereign literally millions had passed through his hands, offices and
dignities of every sort had been at his disposal, and his family was
noble and in easy circumstances, still the fortune which he bequeathed
to his heirs did not come to a half a million lire. This entire freedom
from nepotism offers a striking proof of the moral ascent and
purification achieved by the papacy in the course of the ages and
crowned in his example.
His life had been filled with disappointments and sadness. He had
suffered daily treachery, insult, and persecution. In retrospect, the
impartial historian will judge him one of the greatest pontiffs of all
time, worthy to stand beside Gregory VII for his fearless and heroic
constancy, beside Pius VII for his untold sufferings, and beside Pius X
for his personal sanctity of life. And, without a doubt, Pius XI, who
resolved the Roman Question, gained much strength from the example of
his predecessor, which in no small measure encouraged him through the
trying years before the ratification of the Lateran Treaty.
Striking spiritual success
Since the death of Pio Nono numerous favours have been ascribed to
his intercession in both the physical and spiritual order. On the vigil
of the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in
the Marian Year of 1954, Pope Pius XII approved the introduction of the
Apostolic Process for his beatification.
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, surely
an objective source, notes that "Though an apparent failure from a
political point of view, the pontificate of Pius IX was one of striking
success in its spiritual and ecclesiastical achievements". This, of
course, is quite true, as his successors in the Chair of Peter have had
reason to attest with gratitude.
It is time, surely, that the pontificate of Pius IX should be
revisited, not to deduce all sorts of arguments against the things he
did, but rather to face simply and plainly the fact that in him history
presents an extraordinary man who will not in character and personality
be lent to facile exploitation in a series of post hoc, ergo
propter hoc theorems. One need only go to his writings and
pronouncements, including countless addresses to audiences of every
variety, his Encyclicals and other Apostolic missives, as well as
non-public communications. It is necessary to sift the wheat from the
chaff, to commence to study without professorial preconceptions, for Pio
None's greatest hours are at once hours of paradox and deprivation,
hours of deep spiritual refinement and, even at times, of mystic
exaltation. In the last third of our twentieth century his pontificate
and his writings should be of special interest, for they deal very much
with the question of revolution, terrorism, political opportunism,
militant atheism, corruption of faith, morals, and culture, scandal to
the young, murder in the streets and a generally moribund
liberalism-rationalism, whose death throes seem forever to be postponed.
Though he would have been the first to disclaim it (and he does in one
of his addresses), Pius IX appears very much like John the Baptist,
truly a voice crying in the wilderness. His outspokenness, even after a
hundred years, is refreshing. His sense of humour and undoubted gifts of
oratory, as well as a profound openheartedness and familiarity, make him
come alive and beam splendidly.
Quite apart from theological and political questions, volumes could
be filled with the true stories and the legends that so abound in humour.
One small anecdote will suffice in this regard. In his last several
years, physical pain aggravated the heavy burden of his mental anguish.
He was tormented by varicose veins and walking became altogether very
difficult and painful. Through it all he maintained his serenity and a
sparkling wit. He was requested one day on behalf of a distinguished
Catholic lady (who, it is said, had already canonized him in her mind)
to be so gracious as to give her a few pairs of his old stockings, for
the stockings, she contended, that had touched the Pope must certainly
possess the power to work miracles and, of course, cure her of her
rheumatism. "Surely" Pius IX responded with amusement,
"she is welcome to all my old stockings, if she wants them, but I
forewarn her they will work no miracles, otherwise they should have
begun by curing my varicose veins!"
Denounced communism
Alas, to some critics, Pius IX is a convenient figure on whom to pin
every possible allusion of excess and backwardness. One would think that
he had written nothing other than the Syllabus, which continues to burn
modern ears as it did in his own day. But even in this, one must see
everything in clear context as a worthy device classically—and
dramatically—utilized by Papa Mastai-Ferretti to assail precise
errors. Therein matters concerned with Church-State relations must be
viewed, first of all, in terms of a particular tradition in which Pius
IX had freely, deliberately and unequivocally placed himself, as well as
in terms of the drastic conditions in which the Church and society
at-large found itself in his day. He would, however, prove to be
comprehending of particular application of his viewpoint in a given
instance as made, say, by a Newman, or a Dupanloup. But what is most
important, and must be clearly and determinedly underlined, is that the
essential evils condemned by Pius IX remain essential evils. Oftentimes,
too, his attitude on religious indifferentism is looked upon as
xenophobic, but it must not be forgotten that a certain valid irenicism
characterized his own spirit and in a practical manner he was no laggard
in this regard, having invited the Orthodox bishops to take their place
in the Vatican Council, an invitation which, for various reasons, was
declined.
Harsh criticisms
Likewise, we must see his denunciation of Communism, secret
societies, Freethinking, for what such have proven to be, namely,
totally at variance with, if not inimical to, the Catholic Christian
Faith. That is why, too, it would hardly be historically honest to say
that now his views should have an apology appended to them, or shelved
as somehow embarrassing. In fact, quite to the contrary, these can be
studied with great profit for, as matters are viewed with greater
objectivity, it is possible to note that things have not changed all
that much, and that the Church and society face much the same ferment,
though on a grander, more intensified scale.
Last but not least, Pio None's simple piety, not without sentiment,
but never sentimental, tells us much about his fatherly goodness and
righteous indignation, his forgiveness and correction: all together a
mosaic that is the best portrait of his sparkling personality and
gracious character. From him we have much to learn; because of him there
is much for which to be thankful to his and our Lord.
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