POPE PIUS IX
On the night of July 13, 1881, in St. Peter's Square, the ancient bells chimed out midnight. On the echo of the last peal, a simple cortege formed in the piazza. Two closed carriages followed the hearse carrying the mortal remains of Pius IX, and after these walked a small number of clergy, the diplomats accredited to the Holy See, and a considerable group of devoted Roman citizens. The mourners all carried massive, lighted candles. As the slow procession went down the Borgo di Santo Spirito, a crowd suddenly materialized from the shadows of the narrow streets. They shouted angry words and made obscene gestures of derision.
In the wider space before Castel Sant'Angelo a larger crowd awaited, ugly in temper and armed with knives, stones and clubs. There was a rush towards the hearse and carriages; there were blasphemies and torrents of horrible invective in a concerted scream, "Death to the Pope! Death to the priests! The carrion to the Tiber! Throw the old pig in the Tiber!" Knives flashed, clubs rose and fell, and the screams of the injured rose through the shouting. The attending prelates, ambassadors and faithful formed a thick cordon about the hearse. They used their massive candles to good advantage in defense of their lives and Pius IX's body. Once across the bridge, the most serious rioting was over. The remaining distance across the city up to St.-Lawrence-Outside-the-Walls was dogged with shouted insults and blasphemies, and an occasional stone thrown at the hearse. As in the ancient basilica lines of soldiers were waiting, the mob faded away. Three years after his death, the mortal remains of Pius IX were again entombed, in an eloquent silence, while time began the slow process of sifting the massive lies against his memory.1
Saint-Lawrence-Outside-The-Walls
More than a century later, the dramatic scene of Ponte Sant'Angelo has become a metaphor of today's polemics around Pius IX,2 of the renewed hatred, of the lingering misunderstandings and willful distortions, of the ever repeated attempts to reinterpret his figure and his actions to fit personal or party agendas. September 3, 2000, marked another chapter in this effort at reinterpretation. On that day, John Paul II placed before the universal Church as worthy of public veneration two Popes separated by a century of time and by an unwavering fidelity to diametrically opposed, irreconcilable principles–Pius IX and John XXIII. How can the Pope of the Syllabus of Errors and the Pope of Vatican II be thus united?
At the homily given during the joint beatification, John Paul II spoke of Pius IX's personal virtues and holiness, of his faith and his compassion, as if they were distinct and separated from his public life as temporal ruler and of the "specific historical decisions he may have made." Such a statement seems to imply that there were in Pius IX two completely different prudences regulating and directing two different sets of actions in the same man: on the one hand, heroic practice of virtues (individual and private), and on the other, questionable concrete decisions regarding temporal matters (public and social).
Ponte Sant'Angelo
Pius IX himself, however, never even considered such a specious distinction: he saw his temporal sovereignty as an aspect of his spiritual sovereignty, and even his enemies considered them as inextricably bound. From the perspective of Pius IX, the Church was under attack both militarily and doctrinally, politically and spiritually. His enemies could not advance their political purposes without opposing the Church in religious matters, and the Pope could not defend religion without fighting on the political as well as the religious front.
This article is no more than a brief attempt to discern and show Pius IX in his integrity, one in doctrine, virtue, and political thinking, and to dissipate some of the mists of the liberal deception that has affected even us, that tendentious picture of Pius IX as an enigmatic Jekyll and Hyde, a man of divided principles and behavior.
We will consider only the main events in a determinate period of Pius IX's pontificate, from the 1848 revolution in Rome and his escape to Gaeta, to the defeat of the pontifical army under La Moriciere at Castelfidardo, in 1860.
| "Pius IX Was a Fable Imagined to Teach the People a Truth." |
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Carlo Attaneo
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Why these dates? They are chronologically equidistant–six years before, and six years after–from the supernatural apex of the pontificate, the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception in 1854. The number 12 has a particular symbolic value in the Christian tradition, and thus, this 12-year period may be given the symbolic value of what Pius IX was, on earth and most visibly, the Vicar of a crucified Lord.
The period itself was one of beginnings and ends. The year 1848 was the beginning of the revolutionary onslaught on Rome, while the war of destruction of the Papal States began in 1860. In 1848, Pius IX ended the two-year period of a much-demanded reform, having sufficiently exposed to public opinion the hypocrisy of the Revolution, showing that it did not want reforms, but rather the annihilation of the Papacy and even of the Catholic idea. And 1860 signaled the end of the grudging, hypocritical French "protection" of the Papal States.
As Pius IX himself, Msgr. Pie saw clearly that, in a world that was in desperate need of true reform, buffeted by the winds of unbelief, and faced with an enemy which would bear no quarter–because "Liberalism is a beast that cannot be tamed"–the only true solution of the problem was supernatural: the conflict was a rehashing of the age-old battle between Christ and Satan, and nothing less than a re-enactment of Our Lord's death on the Cross in the person of the Pope would suffice to conquer Lucifer once more.
Martyrdom is, I think, the evident mission of this Pope. The Revolution enjoys sacrificing those that the day before it has praised to the extreme. As this Pope is a saint, perhaps the Church will add, in fifty years time, another name to her Martyrology. At the very least, she will reap the fruits of his immolation. Thus I judge the work of Pius IX: his passion seems to me more important than his reforms for the salvation of Church and society.
In the mind of Cardinal Pie, the mission of Pius IX was "to render the Revolution inexcusable and to prove that it is essentially satanic." Thus, Providence had assigned him a double role–that of Victim of the Revolution and Doctor of the Immaculate.
Realizing this, Pius IX lived in hope, against all human hope, submitting to those marvelous dispositions that are the secret and the irony of divine Providence–unfailingly and courageously proposing the Truth to a world which increasingly refused to listen; proving the vitality and authority of the Church, just when more attacked and contested; consolidating the figure and role of the Pope, in the moment of the violent despoliation of his temporal rule; never escaping into a consoling but selfish "spiritualism," never resigning himself to accept the reduced role that the enemies of the Church tried to impose on her...
The Myth of the "Liberal" Pope
As every one of us has had occasion to realize in the course of our own life, any lie, however outlandish, if sufficiently repeated, will be believed and survive. Thus, by sheer force of repetition, a sharp division of this pontificate into two periods had become a dogma of historiography–first, a period of liberal openness to the modern world, up to 1848, and then, for the rest of the pontificate, a sudden and unexpected betrayal, "an authoritarian and reactionary involution,"3 a reaction that, in the judgment of our neo-modernists, revealed in Pius IX the lack of prophetic spirit, of theological knowledge, of historical and political sense, and a good dose of superficiality, sentimentality and even psychological instability.... Fortunately, that is not true, and historians are now acknowledging that this sharp distinction of periods originated post-factum in the intellectual circles of the victorious Risorgimento. In fact, there was only continuity. Pius IX was always himself, no separation whatever between his being and his action–he was Pope, and even as a politician, he acted as Pope.4
Throughout the 19th century, the turn of events had made clear for the Popes that the revolutionary movements in Europe and Italy were not simply the expressions of legitimate desires of independence and freedom, but were guided by a precise intent of de-Christianization.
Thus, in the two first years of his pontificate, Pius IX undertook most of those concrete reforms that, although termed "liberal," were compatible with Catholic principles and his mission as Pope, but he never wavered in the principles themselves, and his essential mission was never compromised, either before or after 1848.
In those first two years, he enjoyed a great popularity, but much of it was based in misunderstandings that had been carefully prepared and orchestrated.
It was known that Giovanni Mastai-Ferreti, as bishop of Spoleto and later of Imola, had expressed criticism of, and suggested reforms for, the existing administration of the Papal States,5 and for that he was suspect to the most intransigent group in the Curia. He was in favor of technological advances, as railways and gaslight in the streets, which were in any case inevitable. He had shown prudence and a firmness tempered by compassion during the 1831 revolution, qualities that were less evident in the acts of the other Cardinal-Legates. The first concrete measures taken, especially the amnesty, increased immensely his popularity, and the anecdote of the Roman people taking away the horses of his carriage and pulling it themselves up to the Quirinal, amidst general rejoicing, is well-known.
Moreover, Pius IX appeared to moderate liberals as the incarnation of the Utopian neo-Guelph ideal proposed by Vincenzo Gioberti, the unification of Italy under the guidance of the Pope, considered as the only principle of unity for states separated by traditions, mentalities and history.6
To many other liberals, Pius IX was the answer to that expectation that Felicite de Lamennais had articulated, and Frederic Ozanam voiced then again, "a Pope sent by God to accomplish the main business of the century, the alliance of religion and liberty."7
But his popularity was also owed to the manipulation of public opinion, as the revolutionaries "created a fictitious opinion by their discourses, journals, books and pamphlets, and by their public celebrations."8 The sincere admiration for him and the joy for his beneficial reforms were artificially maintained and exacerbated to fever pitch. Giuseppe Mazzini, from the Marseille headquarters of the subversive "Young Italy" movement, ordered a secret strategy: "We will make of him the fatted ox of politics; we shall suffocate him with flowers."9 The multitudes threw themselves at the feet of Pius IX, demanding his blessing, yelling at the top of their lungs "Long live Pius IX," but amidst the tumult could also be heard "Death to the Jesuits!" Popular enthusiasm was turned into "an endless riot."10
Why? Carlo Cattaneo, one of the figures of the Risorgimento, said years later that "Pius IX was a fable imagined to teach the people a truth"11 –the fiction of a liberal Pope was created to make the people realize that the accomplishment of their expectations, their destiny, was in their own hands. Giuseppe Montanelli, another Italian "patriot" of the times, explained further that these enthusiastic demonstrations increased the pressure on pontifical authorities, but above all, fixed in the minds of the multitude images of joy and fulfillment that, under the skillful manipulation of the revolutionaries, would turn into expectations and demands, which, further manipulated, sooner or later would generate the revolution.12The people had to be kept rejoicing for the first reforms, not so much for what they objectively were, but for being considered as the first steps towards greater liberal concessions–making the people believe that such greater concessions were possible, that the Pope intended to yield to them, and was impeded only by the reactionaries in the College of Cardinals, in the Curia, in the government. The aim was not so much to make the Pope yield to the demands of liberalization coming from all quarters–something that the true revolutionaries well knew that Pius IX would not do–but to provoke the disappointment of the people; after so many daydreams, a disappointment that could be easily turned into revolution...
On their part, the European governments demanded more, undetermined reforms, publicly, in a loud voice, just when the Papal States were under the pressure of sedition and invasion, thus effectively putting the weapon of the pressure of international public opinion in the hands of the revolutionaries, and all the while pretending hypocritically to work for the protection of the Pope and the peace of his States...13
Pius IX may have been a moderate, but his moderation had very precise limits, determined by Catholic principles, which he would not trespass to accommodate revolutionary demands. He was not affected by "this plague of our times, this obsession of modern thought, always ready to break away from the truth to accommodate itself to the errors of the day."14 To the ambassador of Louis-Philippe, king of France, he made clear that, as Pope, he could not throw himself into the Utopian schemes proposed by liberals of every shade–that he will neither yield to the abolition of the temporal power of the Papacy to make room for an Italian Republic, nor put himself at the head of a confederation of Italian "consultative monarchies."
His position was clear, for all those who wanted to see, in his very first encyclical, Qui Pluribus, which already exposes the principles that he will develop years later in the Syllabus of Errors [Quanta Cura and The Syllabus of Errors, available from Angelus Press. Price: $3.45]
As a result of the filthy medley of errors which creeps in from every side, and as the result of the unbridled license to think, speak and write, We see the following: morals deteriorated, Christ's most holy religion despised, the majesty of divine worship rejected, the power of this Apostolic See plundered, the authority of the Church attacked and reduced to base slavery, the rights of bishops trampled on, the sanctity of marriage infringed, the rule of every government violently shaken and many other losses for both the Christian and civil commonwealth.15
We hope that political leaders will keep in mind that the kingly power has been conferred on them not only for ruling the world but especially for the protection of the Church. We hope that with their aid and authority they will support the objects, plans and pursuits which we have in common, and that they will also defend the liberty and safety of the Church, so that the right hand of God may also defend their rule.16
Msgr. Pie, contemplating from afar the beginnings of the pontificate, was also happy and hopeful–"Here is the hand of God!"17 he wrote to Archbishop Morlot of Tours–but, knowing the Revolution better, took a far more realistic view of these transports of public joy. Moreover, he feared that the generous reforms and concessions might turn against Pius IX, who could be perhaps too trusting in the sincerity and honor of men...16
Under the pressure of the popular agitations of 1848, Pius IX made a last concession, the most daring of all. His approval of the "Fundamental Statute for the Temporal Government of the States of the Church" introduced the constitutional system in the Papal States, establishing a popular representation in the government, deliberative as well as consultative, but carefully restricted, as all legislation was subject to review by the College of Cardinals, and ecclesiastical and foreign affairs were excluded from the legislature's competence. This measure did not appease the popular movement; on the contrary, it only excited it further. As the rumor spread that Lombardy and Venetia had revolted against Austria, the cries of "Away with the barbarians!" resounded in Rome, and the mob called on the Pope to declare the holy war against Austria. Pius IX refused. He understood the desire and joy of an independent Italy, but he was not to cooperate in a war in which he was not attacked. Religion not being in danger, he chose to remain foreign to it, as befits him who is common Father of Christian nations.
The problem was not the formation of "Italy," but by which means, how was it to be done.... He opposed the artificial and violent homogenization of the country imposed by violence by a sectarian minority. He opposed the project of building a "new" Italy according to the Utopian categories of the French Revolution, allowing the "old" Italy to be swallowed by Piedmont, and with it, the States of the Church, the providential guarantee of the liberty and independence of the Holy See.19
The confrontation between the Pope and the idea and then the reality of a unified Italy, was not only regarding the temporal power, neither was it a struggle for territorial conquest (at least not on the part of the Pope), but a profound ideological opposition.
Pius IX saw in the kingdom of Italy, in Piedmont first and then in the unified kingdom, the worst of the spirit of the times, the most consistent and enduring fruits of the French Revolution–rationalism, naturalism, liberalism, and the independence of politics from morality. To these errors, embodied in Piedmont, and most particularly in Camillo Benzo di Cavour, its Prime Minister, Pius IX opposed the Christian proposition–keeping the temporal and spiritual orders distinct but not separated, seeking a balance that would preserve the principles while granting the legitimate aspirations of the peoples. Pius IX saw the temporal order as ordained to the supreme end of the Church, and the Church as a teacher of faith and morals, even in the civil and social orders.
Thus, Pius IX was one of the less "political" Popes that have ever existed, and one of the most deeply faithful to the spiritual mission of the Church.20 He judged everything from a religious point of view–distinguishing in every occasion the part of man, who in certain circumstances cannot act but in a certain way, determined by his duty and the oaths taken, and the part of God, Who can confound human expectations and make even the most holy desires to remain unfulfilled.
The Roman Revolution
In the wake of the revolutionary movements of 1848, Charles Albert of Piedmont, who called himself the "Sword of Italy," invaded the Austrian province of Venetia, a move that provoked wild enthusiasm in Rome. The Pope yielded to the popular demand and allowed General Durando to depart with 12,000 newly recruited soldiers, but with strict instructions for using his force only to defend the papal dominions from foreign invasion, and not to attack Austria. In the field, however, Durando began hostilities against Austria and joined the Piedmontese army.
Pius IX reacted immediately, expressing his distress and horror for this disobedience, repudiating the actions of his troops, and threatening with excommunication those who would persist in disobeying his command. Those who until now had pretended to picture the Pope as a revolutionary liberal took off their masks, denouncing him as a "traitor to his country" and a "friend of despots." Riot followed riot in Rome. The Pope's Prime Minister, Count Pellegrino Rossi, himself something of a revolutionary in his younger days, was murdered when entering the Cancelleria, where he had gone to open the parliament. That night a ghoulish mob screaming and shouting with delight carried the dagger of the murderer in a torchlight procession throughout the city. Around the streets they went, past the house of the minister itself, where his weeping widow heard their screams of delighted triumph.21
On the following day the Pope himself was besieged in the Quirinal by the mob demanding more and more impossible concessions. Msgr. Palma, a papal prelate, who was standing at a window, was shot, and the Pope had to give in to the revolutionary demands, as advised by the foreign diplomats gathered at the Quirinal, but Pius IX called upon them to give witness to the fact that such concessions had been wrung from him by force.
With the assistance of the Bavarian ambassador, Count Spaur, and the French ambassador, Due d'Harcourt, who feared he would be assassinated, Pius IX escaped from the Quirinal in disguise and fled to Gaeta, in the kingdom of Naples, where he was joined by many Cardinals and by all the foreign representatives before the Holy See, except the American.
In February, 1849, the Roman Republic was proclaimed. Rome was ruled by traitors and adventurers who abolished the temporal power of the Pope and in the name of democracy and liberty terrorized the people and committed untold outrages. Mazzini was granted Roman citizenship and thus enabled to become the head of the newly elected government, which, faithful to the ages-old revolutionary ideal of restoring a pagan Rome, was composed by Consuls...
Turning Towards The Immaculate
The Pope's passion had begun in earnest; the crucifigatur had replaced the hosannas. Looking for help, putting his trust not on the powers of this earth, Pius IX asked from the Church a cry of faith and love, to reach God and to avert the merited punishment. Having to work for redemption of the world, Pius IX started where God Himself had started, with Our Lady.22
One of the first acts of his pontificate had been the granting of the request of the American bishops to proclaim Mary Immaculate as patroness of the United States. Now, exiled in the kingdom of Naples, he multiplied his pilgrimages to shrines in which Our Lady was particularly venerated as the Immaculate Conception, while new requests came to him in favor of the definition of the dogma.
In 1830, the Blessed Virgin had herself proposed her unique prerogative by thrice appearing to St. Catherine Laboure and directing her to promote the medal with invocation, "O Mary, conceived without sin, have mercy on us who have recourse to Thee." Such medals began to appear in 1832 with the authorization of Hyacinthe de Quelen, archbishop of Paris, and the authenticated benefits, such as the conversion of the Jew Alphonse Ratisbonne, soon spread fame of the Miraculous Medal. These apparitions at the convent of the Rue du Bac, in Paris, and later at La Salette, in 1846, had an immense impact and were received as Heaven's answer to the rationalism and naturalism of the times.
The definition of the dogma was thus intended as a sign of hope for the Church–the Woman crowned with the Sun, crushing under her heel the serpent of Revolution! It was also an added confirmation that, for Pius IX, the preaching of the Faith and his own spiritual mission had primacy over political contingencies, however urgent they might be.
On December 16, 1848, the Pope appointed a commission of Cardinals, bishops and theologians to study the opportunity of the definition, and this commission suggested a consultation of all the bishops. The answers received overwhelmingly favored the definition.
The year 1854 was declared a year of Jubilee, and wide indulgences were granted to those making the pilgrimage to Rome. The people of the world and their Bishops were quick to take advantage of the occasion. Over seas and mountains they came. The Pope multiplied his audiences and homilies. He seemed to be everywhere, taking his people to his heart. Once again the domes of the churches were lighted at night, and the holy city was gay with hymns and flowers. It seemed quite like the old days before the revolution. Only the omnipresent red pantaloons of the French soldiers indicated there was a difference...23
All the Bishops of the world had been invited to come to Rome, to give their advice in person, and to attend the ceremonies of proclamation. By the end of November, almost 200 of them were in Rome and at the invitation of the Pope they assembled in consistory. Four great sessions took place, from November 20-24, and the definitive text was ready on December 1st. On December 8, 1854, Pius IX, surrounded by enormous multitude of prelates, clergy and faithful, proclaimed the dogma.
Two days later, the Pope, accompanied by 185 Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops, solemnly consecrated the reconstructed basilica of St. Paul-Outside-the-Walls, which had been destroyed by fire in 1823, the very night of the death of Pius VII, who had been also Bishop of Imola....The symbolism of the ceremony could not pass unnoticed to the many attendants: here was Rome, Catholic Rome, reborn from its ashes, as the phoenix, eternal...24
All these events had not only a theological or spiritual import. As Alphonse de Rayneval, the French ambassador, reported to his government:
This great meeting has a particular importance, one that goes beyond the avowed reason for it. Bringing together people representing the same beliefs in different and far away countries, it is clear that it will strengthen the bond of religious brotherhood that unites the bishops, giving thus a new strength to the principle of Catholic unity. It is extraordinary to see such an agreement between people coming from so different countries, and it reveals the unity of the Roman Church and the extension of her influence.25
Dogmas have their opportune moment; for their definition coincide historical causes and occasions, and even subjective conditions, but following a path that has already been traced by God. We can only admire the ways of divine Providence, how God was preparing the future of His Church by this proclamation, as it condemned anew the errors of the time. By implicitly reaffirming the reality of original sin, it refuted the modern deification of man. By visibly affirming the power and infallibility of the Pope, performing this formal act on his sole authority, before the universal Church and demanding her submission, it denied admission into the Church to the democratism and equalitarianism of the Revolution.26 And as it strengthened the spiritual power of the Pope, and Catholic unity around it, it gave the Papacy new forces to resist hostile political powers when it would have lost the temporal power...
Castelfidardo27
After Pius IX appealed to the Catholic powers for help, Austria advanced in the north, defeating Piedmont at Novara, and rapidly occupying Parma and Florence, and continued towards the Romagna and the Marches. When it became clear that Austria was poised to restore single-handedly the Pope to his States, the Prince-President Louis-Napoleon, after months of delay due to his hostility and political scheming, allowed French troops to disembark in Civitavecchia. On June 1849, General Oudinot restored order to Rome, and on April 1850, the Pope returned to his City.
When Pius IX visited his provinces in the summer of 1857, he received everywhere a warm and loyal reception. But the fate of his temporal power was sealed when in 1858 Cavour and Napoleon III met at Plombieres, concerting plans for a combined war against Austria, the subsequent territorial extension of the Piedmontese kingdom, which would take over most of the Papal States, leaving the Pope restricted to Rome and a small territory about it, and the constitution of an Italian confederation, with the Pope at its head, as a compensation for the loss of the greater part of his States, a gesture similar to "the purple robe thrown across the shoulders of the dying Christ."28
The war against Austria was declared in April, 1859, and ended with a stunning defeat for Austria. During the war, the agents of Cavour completely upset all possibility of a confederation for Italy. The revolutionaries in Tuscany, Modena and Parma threw over their ducal rulers. With the subsequent withdrawal of the Austrian troops from the Legations, insurrections immediately broke out in Romagna, the Marches and Umbria. Piedmont, answering to the "popular" request expressed in the suffrage, annexed the Romagna in September, 1859. Early in 1860, Msgr. de Merode, the minister of war, persuaded the Pope to enlarge his army by asking for volunteers from around the world, and putting at its head General de La Moriciere. And the volunteers came–10,000 Zouaves from France and Austria, from Ireland, England, Spain and the Confederate States of America, at their own expense, being paid a salary that was not enough to support them.
At Chambéry, on August 28, 1860, Cavour and Napoleon III arranged the final details of the attack. Raids and disorders were engineered throughout the Papal States, in Umbria and the Marches, and these were exaggerated by the liberal press in Piedmont, France and England, thus preparing the scene for Piedmont to step in with the excuse of restoring order.
Cavour sent an ultimatum, demanding the Pope to restore immediately order in his states, otherwise Piedmont would intervene. Before a reply could be drafted, General Cialdini invaded the Papal States. La Moricière had expected attacks from everywhere except Piedmont, and by forced marches he tried to get his small army to the safety of Ancona, but he was caught at Castelfidardo. After a heroic defense against vastly superior numbers, the papal army was defeated and scattered. La Moricière and a small group of men managed to get to Ancona, which finally surrendered on September 20, 1860.
The military defense of his States had been, for Pius IX, not only an affirmation of his sovereign rights, but it had also a religious meaning: it was a necessary political act to guarantee the independence, autonomy and liberty of the Church.29 As he said in the apostolic letter Cum Catholica Ecclesia, denouncing the French intervention at the side of Piedmont in the despoliation of the Papal States, the temporal power was not an end in itself, but a means to secure the survival of the Church, a condition of the political independence necessary to exercise, without obstacles and in favor of all, the Pope's spiritual authority and jurisdiction. Later, in 1864, on the feast of the Cathedra of St. Peter, he clearly said that "in the present order of Providence, the liberty of the Church is indissolubly tied to the monarchy of the Pontificate"–the temporal rule was a providential historical condition, not metaphysical or theological.
After the defeat of the papal army at Castelfidardo and Ancona, as Victor Emmanuel deprived the Pope of all his possessions with the exception of Rome and its vicinity, the temporal kingdom had begun to pass away, a temporal sovereignty to which, per se, Pius IX had never been personally attached:
I care neither for the royalty in itself, not for the pleasure of commanding; I abhor all the trappings of domination.... And what are the kingdoms of this earth? Only misery, a great misery!30
Conclusion
Pius IX stood as a rock, refusing, in the name of eternal truths, to accept the passionate enthusiasms of modern man, those modern ravings about the infallibility of progress, the moral authority of the majority, and the omnipotence of the State. Faced with the enormous social, political, doctrinal and moral problems of his day, he could not count on natural means, but could only hope to wage the war after having enlisted her who is as an "army arrayed in battle," "glory, splendor and safeguard of the Holy Church."31 The Pope's strength lay in his mysterious alliance with the Immaculate. She strengthened him to overcome much hatred in his own day and even in posterity, and to restore to the Papacy authority within the Church and an unheard-of prestige outside, among men of good will.
That alliance with the Immaculate, sealed with the dogmatic definition, could have signified an enduring peace, but because of the crimes of men, it was only a truce...32 Nonetheless, who can know how many secret conquests for the Church were achieved, how much of a reprieve, because of it?
Let us turn to the example of Pius IX. In human terms, our horizon is equally somber. Like him, let us be defenders of the Church, but first of Truth, prudentially using the human means at our disposal, but knowing that the true resolution of our trial remains in the hands of God, and thus, "in hope, against all hope," in absolute trust, let us submit to His will, even when it contradicts our most legitimate expectations...
Allow me to quote once again Louis Veuillot, a well-known passage of The Liberal Illusion [translated by Angelus Press and to be published in Summer, 2005 -Ed.] that, although not explicitly referred to Pius IX, nonetheless sums up his exemplary attitude, at the same time that it is for us a lesson of supernatural hope:
Let us imagine the worst; let us grant that the flood of irreligion has all the strength it boasts of, and that this strength can sweep us away. Well, then, it will sweep us away! It is of no importance, provided that it does not sweep away the Truth. We will be swept away, but we will leave the Truth behind us, as those who were swept away before us left it.... Either the world still has a future, or it has not. If we are arriving at the end of time, we are building only for our eternity. But if still long centuries must unfold, by building for eternity we are building also for our time. Whether confronted by the sword or by contempt, we must be the strong witnesses of the Truth of God. Our testimony will survive. There are plants that grow invincibly under the hand of the Heavenly Father. There where the seed is planted, a tree takes root. There where the martyr's bones lay, a church rises. Thus are formed the obstacles that divide and stop the floods.33
1. The description of this scene is taken almost literally from Thornton, 254-255.
2. Gnocchi, 14.
3. Gherardini.
4. See Gherardini.
5. See the summary of his memoir addressed to Msgr. Rioberti, in September 1845, in Chiron, 123-126.
6. Chiron, 121.
7. Quoted in Daniel-Rops, 241.
8. Baucher, 559.
9. Quoted in Daniel-Rops, 242.
10. Veuillot, Pie IX.
11. Quoted in Frigerio.
12. Quoted in Frigerio.
13. See Veuillot, Pape et diplomatic, 4.
14. Veuillot, Pie IX, 464.
15. Qui Pluribus, n. 18.
16. Qui Pluribus, n. 35.
17. Quoted in Baunard, Histoire, 1:169.
18. Letter to Count de l'Estoile, quoted in Baunard, Histoire, 1:169.
19. See Gnocchi, 29-30.
20. Giovanni Spadolini, quoted in Frigerio.
21. Thornton, 111.
22. Baunard, Pontifical, 5.
23. Thornton, 145.
24. Bruley.
25. Quoted in Bruley.
26. See Veuillot, Pie IX, 477.
27. All this section follows closely Thornton, 174-179.
28. Pierre de la Gorce.
29. Gnocchi, 27-28.
30. Quoted in Brunetti, Risorgimento.
31. Ineffabilis Deus.
32. Baunard, Pontifical, 8.
33. Veuillot, Illusion liberate, 67-68.
Bibliographical References
Baucher, Dom, OSB. "Les Papes et la franc-maçonnerie. VII: Pie IX." Revue Internationale des Sociétés Secrètes, June 15, 1930 (Vol. XIX, No.24).
Baunard, Emile. Histoire du Cardinal Pie, évêque de Poitiers. Poitiers: H. Oudin, 1886.
Baunard, Emile. Le Pontifical de Pie IX. Orleans: Blanchard, 1871.
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