Blessed Pius IX (1846-1878)
GLEN COVE, NY — Like Popes Pius VI and VII (see
AUG. 12 column), Pius
IX (Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti faced anti-Catholic revolutionaries.
His enemies were Italian rather than French, but their ideals and their
hatred of the Church and the old social order were the same as those
faced by these two Popes. The Catholic Church bestowed the title “Blessed” on
him in 2000 in recognition of his holy life and a miracle attributed
to his prayers.
He was elected Pope in 1846 and perceived as a liberal reformer. Initially,
he did make some reforms, but he quickly realized that liberals and revolutionaries
were untrustworthy. A revolutionary uprising in Rome in 1849 resulted
in a brief Republic and sacrileges in Saint Peter’s Basilica.
By 1860, the more radical forces and the anti-Catholic liberals had
made common cause behind a newly created Kingdom of Italy. In that year,
this anti-Catholic Kingdom initiated a war against the Pope and seized
two large regions from him.
The year 1871 was one of dire events for the Church. In Paris, the
Communards seized power and murdered their archbishop. The new German
Reich took the first tentative steps toward the Kulturkampf, which would
ripen into a full blown anti-Catholic persecution that drove much of
the German clergy into exile. The Kingdom of Italy seized Rome.
The Blessed Pius IX excommunicated the government and king of the Kingdom
of Italy. He lived the last seven years of his life as a prisoner in
the Vatican, unable to leave without fearing for his life. When he died
in 1873, Italian revolutionaries unsuccessfully attempted to ambush his
funeral procession and throw his body in the Tiber.
His vast legacy includes the condemnation of Modernism (a heresy that
would allow Christianity to be changed to fit the fashions of the time),
the solemn definition of the Immaculate Conception, and the convocation
of the First Vatican
Council. The Council defined, among other things, the unchangeable
nature of dogma and the infallibility of solemn dogmatic definitions
by the Pope; the Holy Ghost preserves the Pope and the bishops from certain
forms of error. Vatican I also proclaimed that once a council of the
bishops of the Church provides a solemn formulation of one of the doctrines
of Christianity, the meaning cannot be changed by reason of the progress
In the process of conferring the title of “Blessed” on
Pius IX in 2000, it was discovered that his body was incorrupt. Certain
holy people sometimes escape the normal process of decomposition of their
bodies, even for centuries, and there is no scientific explanation for
Pius IX was always a favorite of American southerners, particularly
for his kindness to President
Jefferson Davis during his captivity and
mistreatment by the North. Pio Nono Avenue in Macon, Georgia, is named
The world was a far worse place in 1878 than it was in 1779. During
this period, Pius VI, Pius VII, and Pius IX heroically opposed the evil
changes of the time. Each was confronted by an overwhelming and unjust
military force, but each used his spiritual powers boldly to counter
The Confederate Lawyer column is copyright © 2009
by Charles G. Mills and the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation, www.fgfBooks.com.
All rights reserved.
Charles G. Mills is the Judge Advocate or general counsel for the
New York State American Legion. He has forty years of experience in
many trial and appellate courts and has published several articles
about the law.
See his biographical sketch and additional columns here.
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