Pope Pius IX (Italian: Pio IX, Pio Nono; born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878, the longest verified papal reign. He was notable for convoking the First Vatican Council in 1868 and for permanently losing control of the Papal States in 1870 to the Kingdom of Italy. Thereafter he refused to leave Vatican City, declaring himself a "prisoner of the Vatican".
At the time of his election, he was seen as a champion of liberalism and reform, but the Revolutions of 1848 decisively reversed his policies. Upon the assassination of his Prime Minister Rossi, Pius escaped Rome and excommunicated all participants in the short-lived Roman Republic. After its suppression by the French army and his return in 1850, his policies and doctrinal pronouncements became increasingly conservative, seeking to stem the revolutionary tide.
In his 1849 encyclical Ubi primum, he emphasized Mary's role in salvation. In 1854, he promulgated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, articulating a long-held Catholic belief that Mary, the Mother of God, was conceived without original sin. His 1864 Syllabus of Errors was a strong condemnation against liberalism, modernism, moral relativism, secularization, separation of church and state, and other Enlightenment ideas. Pius definitively reaffirmed Catholic teaching in favor of the establishment of the Catholic faith as the state religion where possible. His appeal for financial support resulted in the successful revival of donations known as Peter's Pence. He centralized power in the church in the Holy See and Roman Curia, while also clearly defining the Pope's doctrinal authority. His chief legacy is the dogma of papal infallibility. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 2000.
Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti was born on 13 May 1792 in Senigallia. He was the ninth child born into the noble family of Girolamo dai Conti Ferretti and was baptized on the same day of his birth with the name of Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro. He was educated at the Piarist College in Volterra and in Rome. As a young man in the Guardia Nobile the young Count Mastai was engaged to be married to an Irishwoman, Miss Foster (the daughter of the Bishop of Kilmore), and arrangements were made for the wedding to take place in the Church of San Luigi Dei Francesi. Mastai's parents opposed the marriage and, in the event, he did not appear at the church on the appointed day.
In 1814, as a theology student in his hometown of Sinigaglia, he met Pope Pius VII, who had returned from French captivity. In 1815, he entered the Papal Noble Guard but was soon dismissed after an epileptic seizure. He threw himself at the feet of Pius VII, who elevated him and supported his continued theological studies.
The pope originally insisted that another priest should assist Mastai during Holy Mass, a stipulation that was later rescinded, after the seizure attacks became less frequent. Mastai was ordained a priest on 10 April 1819. He initially worked as the rector of the Tata Giovanni Institute in Rome.
Shortly before his death, Pius VII – following Chilean leader Bernardo O'Higgins' wish to have the Pope reorganize the Catholic Church of the new republic – named him Auditor to assist the Apostolic Nuncio, Monsignore Giovanni Muzi in the first mission to post-revolutionary South America. The mission had the objective to map out the role of the Catholic Church in Chile and its relationship with the state, but when it finally arrived in Santiago in March 1824, O'Higgins had been overthrown and replaced by General Freire, who was less well-disposed toward the Church and had already taken hostile measures such as the seizure of Church property. Having ended in failure, the mission returned to Europe. Mastai had nevertheless been the first future pope ever to have been in America. Upon his return to Rome, the successor of Pius VII, Pope Leo XII, appointed him head of the hospital of San Michele in Rome (1825–1827) and canon of Santa Maria in Via Lata.
Pope Leo XII appointed the 35-year-old Mastai Ferretti Archbishop of Spoleto in 1827. In 1831, the abortive revolution that had begun in Parma and Modena spread to Spoleto; the Archbishop obtained a general pardon after it was suppressed, gaining him a reputation for being liberal. During an earthquake, he made a reputation as an efficient organizer of relief and great charity. The following year he was moved to the more prestigious diocese of Imola, was made a cardinal in pectore in 1839, and in 1840 was publicly announced as Cardinal-Priest of Santi Marcellino e Pietro. As in Spoleto, his episcopal priorities were the formation of priests through improved education and charities. He became known for visiting prisoners in jail, and for programs for street children. Cardinal Mastai Ferretti was considered a liberal during his episcopate in Spoleto and Imola because he supported administrative changes in the Papal States and sympathized with the nationalist movement in Italy.
Main article: 1846 papal conclave
The conclave of 1846, following the death of Pope Gregory XVI (1831–46), took place in an unsettled political climate within Italy. The conclave was steeped in a factional division between right and left. The conservatives on the right favoured the hardline stances and papal absolutism of the previous pontificate, while liberals supported moderate reforms. The conservatives supported Luigi Lambruschini, the late pope's Cardinal Secretary of State. Liberals supported two candidates: Pasquale Tommaso Gizzi and the then 54-year-old Mastai Ferretti.
During the first ballot, Mastai Ferretti received 15 votes, the rest going to Lambruschini and Gizzi. Lambruschini received a majority of the votes in the early ballots, but failed to achieve the required two-thirds majority. Gizzi was favoured by the French government but failed to get further support from the cardinals, and the conclave ended up ultimately as a contest between Lambruschini and Mastai Ferretti. In the meantime, Cardinal Tommaso Bernetti reportedly received information that Cardinal Karl Kajetan von Gaisruck, the Austrian Archbishop of Milan, was on his way to the conclave to veto the election of Mastai Ferretti. The government of the Empire of Austria as represented by Prince Metternich in its foreign affairs objected to even the possible election of Mastai Ferretti. According to historian Valérie Pirie, Bernetti realized that if Lambruschini was to be stopped and Mastai Ferretti was to be elected he had to convince the cardinals within a few hours or accept the election of Lambruschini. Bernetti persuaded the majority of the electors to switch their support to Mastai Ferretti.
Faced with a deadlock and persuaded by Bernetti to prevent Lambruschini's election, liberals and moderates decided to cast their votes for Mastai Ferretti in a move that contradicted the general mood throughout Europe. By the second day of the conclave, on 16 June 1846, during an evening ballot, Mastai Ferretti was elected pope. "He was a glamorous candidate, ardent, emotional with a gift for friendship and a track-record of generosity even towards anti-Clericals and Carbonari. He was a patriot, known to be critical of Gregory XVI." Because it was night, no formal announcement was given, just the signal of white smoke.
On the following morning, the Cardinal Protodeacon, Tommaso Riario Sforza, announced the election of Mastai-Ferretti before a crowd of faithful Catholics. When Mastai Ferretti appeared on the balcony, the mood became joyous. Mastai Ferretti chose the name of Pius IX in honour of Pope Pius VII (1800–23), who had encouraged his vocation to the priesthood despite his childhood epilepsy. However, Mastai Ferretti, now Pope Pius IX, had little diplomatic experience and no curial experience at all, a fact which did cause some controversy. Pius IX was crowned on 21 June 1846.
The election of the liberal Pius IX created much enthusiasm in Europe and elsewhere. "For the next twenty months after the election, Pius IX was the most popular man on the Italian peninsula, where the exclamation "Long life to Pius IX!" was often heard. English Protestants celebrated him as a "friend of light" and a reformer of Europe towards freedom and progress. He was elected without political influences from outside and in the best years of his life. He was pious, progressive, intellectual, decent, friendly, and open to everybody.
The end of the Papal States in the middle of the "Italian boot" around the central area of Rome was not the only important event in the long pontificate of Pius. His leadership of the church contributed to an ever-increasing centralization and consolidation of power in Rome and the papacy. While his political views and policies were hotly debated, his personal lifestyle was above any criticism; he was considered a model of simplicity and poverty in his everyday affairs. More than his predecessors, Pius used the papal pulpit to address the bishops of the world. The First Vatican Council (1869–1870), which he convened to consolidate papal authority further, was considered a milestone not only in his pontificate but also in ecclesiastical history through its defining of the dogma of papal infallibility.[22]
After the First Vatican Council concluded, an emissary of the Roman Curia was dispatched to secure the signatures of Patriarch Gregory II Youssef and the rest of the Melkite delegation who had voted non placet at the general congregation and left Rome prior to the adoption of the dogmatic constitution Pastor aeternus on papal infallibility. Gregory and the Melkite bishops ultimately subscribed to it, but added the qualifying clause used at the Council of Florence: "except the rights and privileges of Eastern patriarchs." This earned Gregory the enmity of Pius IX; during his next visit to the pontiff, before leaving Rome, when Gregory was kneeling, Pius placed his knee on the patriarch's shoulder, just saying to him: Testa dura! (You headstrong!). In spite of this event, Gregory and the Melkite Greek Catholic Church remained committed to their union with the Holy See.
The ecclesiastical policies of Pius IX were dominated by defence of the rights of the church and the free exercise of religion for Catholics in countries such as Russia and the Ottoman Empire. He also fought against what he perceived to be anti-Catholic philosophies in countries such as Italy, Germany, and France. The German Empire sought to restrict and weaken the Church for a decade after the Franco-Prussian war.
Pius IX celebrated several jubilees including the 300th anniversary of the Council of Trent. Pius celebrated the 1,800th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Apostle Peter and Apostle Paul on 29 June 1867 with 512 bishops, 20,000 priests and 140,000 lay persons in Rome. A large gathering was organized in 1871 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his papacy. Though the Italian government in 1870 outlawed many popular pilgrimages, the faithful of Bologna organized a nationwide "spiritual pilgrimage" to the pope and the tombs of the apostles in 1873. In 1875, Pius declared a Holy Year that was celebrated throughout the Catholic world. On the 50th anniversary of his episcopal consecration, people from all parts of the world came to see the old pontiff from 30 April 1877 to 15 June 1877. He was a bit shy, but he valued initiative within the church and created several new titles, rewards, and orders to elevate those who in his view deserved merit.
Main article: Cardinals created by Pius IX
Pius IX created 122 new cardinals, of whom 64 were alive at his death, as compared to the limit of 70 living members allowed in the College of Cardinals. Noteworthy elevations to the "red hat" included Vincenzo Pecci, his eventual successor Leo XIII; Nicholas Wiseman of Westminster; the convert Henry Edward Manning; and John McCloskey, the first American ever to be elevated into the College of Cardinals.
According to Bishop Cipriano Calderón, the pope intended to nominate the Bishop of Michoacán, Juan Cayetano José María Gómez de Portugal y Solís, to the Sacred College in 1850 and even had Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli send a letter to him to express his intentions. However, the bishop died shortly before the letter was received in Morelia and had he lived, he would have been the first Latin American cardinal elevated five months later. According to the Benedictine monk Guy-Marie Oury, a letter addressed by Prosper-Louis-Pascal Guéranger to his Benedictine colleague Léandre Fonteinne on 6 March 1856 indicated that Guéranger had learned that Pius IX wanted to name him a cardinal in November 1855, but he refused the honor because he did not want to live in Rome. As a result, Pius IX included the Bishop of La Rochelle Clément Villecourt in his selection.
On 22 August 1861, the pope informed the Patriarch of Venice Angelo Ramazzotti that he would name him a cardinal, however, Ramazzoti died three days before the consistory. Also in 1861, the dean of the Sacred Rota Ignazio Alberghini declined the pope's offer of nomination into the Sacred College. In December 1863, Pius IX intended to elevate the Archbishop of Gniezno and Poznań Leon Michał Przyłuski to the cardinalate, but he died before the consistory took place. In 1866, Pius IX wanted to nominate a Barnabite to the College of Cardinals before he opened the First Vatican Council. While the pope originally decided on appointing Carlo Giuseppe Vercellone, a noted biblical scholar, Vercellone refused due to his precarious health, instead proposing that Pius IX instead nominate Luigi Bilio. In 1868, Pius IX nominated Andre Pila to the cardinalate, however, he died the day before he would have been elevated as the only person for elevation in that April consistory. Also in 1868, Pius IX offered the cardinalate to the Bishop of Concepción José Hipólito Salas y Toro whom he had met during the First Vatican Council, inviting him to join the Roman Curia. However, the bishop preferred to live in Chile and declined the offer, while Pius IX did not offer it again in the future.
In 1875, Pius IX intended to nominate the papal almoner Frédéric-François-Xavier Ghislain de Mérode to the Sacred College, however, he died just eight months before the consistory was to be held. Pius IX also decided to nominate Augusto Negroni, but he declined and instead joined the Society of Jesus in mid-1874.[
Pope Pius IX canonized 52 saints during his pontificate. He canonized notable saints such as the Martyrs of Japan (8 June 1862), Josaphat Kuntsevych (29 June 1867), and Nicholas Pieck (29 June 1867). Pius IX further beatified 222 individuals throughout his papacy, including the likes of Benedict Joseph Labre, Peter Claver, and his two predecessors Pope Eugene III and Pope Urban V.
Pius IX named three new Doctors of the Church: Hilary of Poitiers (13 May 1851, naming him as "Doctor divinitatem Christi" or "Doctor of the Divinity of Christ"), Alphonsus Liguori (23 March 1871, naming him as "Doctor zelantissimus" or "Most Zealous Doctor"), and Francis de Sales (19 July 1877, naming him as "Doctor caritatis" or "Doctor of Charity").
Main article: Papal States under Pope Pius IX
Pius IX was not only pope, but until 1870 also the last Sovereign Ruler of the Papal States. As a secular ruler he was occasionally referred to as "king". However, whether this was ever a title accepted by the Holy See is unclear. Ignaz von Döllinger, a fervent critic of Pius' infallibility dogma, considered the political regime of the pope in the Papal States "wise, well-intentioned, mild-natured, frugal and open for innovations". Yet there was controversy. In the period before the 1848 revolutions, Pius was a most ardent reformer advised by such innovative thinkers as Antonio Rosmini-Serbati (1797–1855), who reconciled the new "free" thinking concerning human rights with the classical natural law tradition of the church's political and economic teaching on social justice.[34] After the revolution, however, his political reforms and constitutional improvements were considered minimalist, remaining largely within the framework of the 1850 laws mentioned above.
Pius IX's liberal policies initially made him very popular throughout Italy. He appointed an able and enlightened minister, Rossi, to administer the Papal States. He also showed himself hostile to Austrian influences, delighting Italian patriots, who hailed him as the coming redeemer of Italy. "They want to make a Napoleon of me who am only a poor country parson", he once declared.
In Pius' early years as pope, the government of the Papal States improved agricultural technology and productivity via farmer education in newly created scientific agricultural institutes. It abolished the requirements for Jews to attend Christian services and sermons and opened the papal charities to the needy amongst them. The new pope freed all political prisoners by giving amnesty to revolutionaries, which horrified the conservative monarchies in the Austrian Empire and elsewhere. "He was celebrated in New York City, London and Berlin as a model ruler."
In 1848, Pius IX released a new constitution titled the "Fundamental Statute for the Secular Government of the States of the Church". The governmental structure of the Papal States reflected the dual spiritual-secular character of the papacy. The secular or laypersons were strongly in the majority with 6,850 persons versus 300 members of the clergy. Nevertheless, the clergy made key decisions and every job applicant had to present a character evaluation from his parish priest to be considered.
Financial administration in the Papal States under Pius IX was increasingly put in the hands of laymen. The budget and financial administration in the Papal States had long been subject to criticism even before Pius IX. In 1850, he created a government finance body ("congregation") consisting of four laymen with finance backgrounds for the 20 provinces.
Pius IX is credited with systematic efforts to improve manufacturing and trade by giving advantages and papal prizes to domestic producers of wool, silk and other materials destined for export. He improved the transportation system by building roads, viaducts, bridges and seaports. A series of new railway links connected the Papal States to northern Italy. It soon became apparent that the Northern Italians were more adept at economically exploiting the modern means of communication than the inhabitants in central and Southern Italy.
The justice system of the Papal States was subject to much criticism, not unlike the justice systems in the rest of Italy. Legal books were scarce, standards inconsistent, and judges were often accused of favoritism. In the Papal States and throughout Italy, organized criminal gangs threatened commerce and travelers, engaging in robbery and murder at will.
The papal army in 1859 had 15,000 soldiers. A separate military body, the elite Swiss Guard, served as the Pope's personal bodyguard.
The two papal universities in Rome and Bologna suffered much from revolutionary activities in 1848 but their standards in the areas of science, mathematics, philosophy and theology were considered adequate. Pius recognized that much had to be done and instituted a reform commission in 1851.
During his tenure, Catholics and Protestants collaborated to found a school in Rome to study international law and train international mediators committed to conflict resolution.
There was one newspaper, Giornale di Roma, and one periodical, Civilta Cattolica, run by Jesuits.
Like most of his predecessors, Pius IX was a patron of the arts. He supported architecture, painting, sculpture, music, goldsmiths, coppersmiths, and more, and handed out numerous rewards to artists. Much of his efforts went to renovate and improve churches in Rome and the Papal States.
He ordered the strengthening of the Colosseum, which was feared to be on the verge of collapse. Huge sums were spent in the excavation of Christian catacombs, for which Pius created a new archaeological commission in 1853.
Main article: Pope Pius IX and Judaism
The Papal States were a theocracy in which the Catholic Church and its members had far more rights than other religions. Pius IX's religious policies became increasingly reactionary over time. At the beginning of his pontificate, together with other liberal measures, Pius opened the Jewish ghetto in Rome. In 1850, after French troops defeated the revolutionary Roman Republic and returned him from exile, the Pope reversed the Republic's religious freedom laws and issued a series of anti-liberal measures, including re-instituting the Jewish ghetto.
In a highly publicized case from 1858, the police of the Papal
States seized a 6-year-old Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara, from his
parents. A Christian servant girl unrelated to the family had
reportedly informally baptized him during an illness six years prior,
fearing he would die. This had made the child legally a Christian
convert, and Papal State law forbade Christians being raised by Jews,
even their own parents. The incident provoked widespread outrage
amongst liberals, both Catholic and non-Catholic, and contributed to
the growing anti-papal sentiment in Europe. The boy was raised in the
papal household, and was eventually ordained a priest at age 21.