Pius IX has been rather vilified in many secular, Jewish, and Christian circles as reactionary for his famous statement in the Syllabus of Errors that it is inconceivable that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization” (80). However, he was and continues to be a fascinating figure in the history of the papacy, with numerous imitable characteristics, matched — as most true leaders are — by seemingly as many personal warts.
Born as Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, he was elected as Pius IX in 1846 and went on to serve for over three decades as perhaps the longest-reigning pope in history. (There’s a complicated debate among scholars as to whether Peter’s office as pope precedes the 25 years he spent in Rome which would extend his dates closer to 34 years). Pius’ lengthy pontificate made an indelible mark on the history of European politics and Catholicism.
Universally called by the Italian name “Pio Nono,” he was in his first years as pope viewed as a liberal. He introduced tariff reform, horrified Europe’s aristocrats by granting former revolutionaries amnesty, abolished the requirement for Jews to attend weekly Christian sermons, included members of other religions in papal charities, and even set up a commission to introduce railways into the Papal States, an invention his predecessor Gregory XVI had condemned, sardonically quipping “chemin de fer, chemin d’enfer” (a play on the French “Railroads, the roads to hell”).
However, the revolutionary spirit of 1848 changed Pius’ mind about social issues and subsequently altered the perception of him by leftist-leaning Italians of the period. He refused to support an Italian unification effort and make war on Catholic Austria, encouraging the Italian people to remain loyal to their various princes and rulers. “Overnight, from being the most popular man in Italy, he became the most hated. Rome became increasingly ungovernable, and in November 1848 his lay Prime Minister, Pellegrino Rossi, was murdered on the steps of the Cancelleria. The pope fled. Disguised as an ordinary priest, he left Rome by night on 24 November, and took refuge in Gaeta in Neapolitan territory. Rome erupted into revolution, and Garibaldi and Mazzini established themselves at the head of a fiercely anticlerical republican regime…The liberal honeymoon was over” (Saints and Sinners, 288).
Pius became convinced that the Risorgimento movement was atheistic and diabolical, and that it was his duty to fight any loss of temporal sovereignty with all his strength. In retrospect, it has often been commented that the eventual settlement in the Law of Guarantees in 1870 freed the pope from the messy and sometimes crushing responsibility of ruling central Italy, allowing him to focus on evangelization and spiritual goals. However, at the time, Pius refused to accept such a proposal, declaring himself “Prisoner of the Vatican” and refusing to set foot outside its walls in protest of the Italian nationalist movement. The Non Expedit issued by Pius prevented Italian Catholics from voting or participating in civil government in any way. Such an unpalatable confrontation lasted for the next 59 years until the Lateran Pacts created the modern microstate of Vatican City in 1929.
Theologically, Pius became increasingly aligned with the ultramontane movement which viewed the papacy as a powerful and unifying force in Christian history. He held a very centrist and monarchical vision of the office of pope, even going so far as to exclaim in frustration, “Tradizione? La tradizione son’io!” (“Tradition? I am the tradition!”). This anecdotal aphorism became forever linked with Pius and the ultramontanists.
The height of ultramontanism was reached at the First Vatican Council. While its proponents, spurred on by Pio Nono, succeeded in arguing for the definition of papal infallibility, the resulting text was actually a compromise position, carefully limiting the exercise of such inerrancy. The relevant passage reads “we teach and define as a divinely revealed dogma that when the Roman Pontiff speaks ex cathedra, that is, when, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church, he possesses, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed his Church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals. Therefore, such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are of themselves, and not by the consent of the Church, irreformable” (Dei Filius, 9).
The great theologian John Henry Newman was notably pleased with the statement’s moderation, commenting “[the ultramontanists] hoped to get a decree which would cover the Syllabus, and they have not got it” (Letters & Diaries xxv, 224).
Pio Nono’s lengthy reign resulted in a completely altered Catholic landscape. He appointed nearly every bishop by the end of his pontificate, created 200 new dioceses and apostolic vicariates, and oversaw the growth of a strongly papalist American church. While certainly manifesting a number of faults (most notoriously in his dealing with the Uniate Catholics he viewed with suspicion as half-schismatic and the horrific black-eye of the Edgardo Mortara affair), Pius did much good in his 31 years on the Chair of Peter. He defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and helped foster the virtue we currently recognize as loyalty to the pope. America magazine once called him “the first papal mega-star” (August 26, 2000). He was unquestionably devoted to prayer and charitable works for the impoverished. For his numerous qualities of sanctity, he was beatified by Pope John Paul II in September of 2000 and his cause for canonization remains in progress, with many supporters in the contemporary Italian Curia.
Michael M. Canaris of Collingswood is a Ph.D. candidate in systematic theology at Fordham.