![]() He faced even tougher battles that might be called hand-to-hand struggles, against the declared or disguised errors, the external foes or internal enemy, which are a hundred times more dangerous. Amid all these tribulations, he continued to rule the Church with wisdom and courage. * * *īut Pius IX was not a man to be bent by the force of arms. However, their value did not prevent them from being crushed by the incomparably superior number of an adversary that was better armed and equipped. These soldiers were the personification of honor and courage, faith and detachment. They wrote one of the most glorious pages in the history of the Church, immortalized by the legendary figure of the Papal Zouaves. Young and old, noble and plebeian, men rushed to fight for the Pope. This time the Catholic powers did not heed his appeal, so Pius IX addressed the faithful worldwide. The Pope was left with only Rome and the surrounding Patrimony of Saint Peter, which he was willing to defend by arms. ![]() On March 26, Pius IX issued an excommunication “against all usurpers of the Church’s possessions.” Thus, Piedmont troops occupied several provinces of the Papal States. Controlling a centralized State is easier than coercing the various small local sovereigns of the Italian peninsula, which included the Pope, the Kings of Piedmont and Naples, the Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Dukes of Modena and Parma. However, the Revolution was determined to end the temporal power of the Popes forever by unifying Italy. After a few months, Pius IX returned to his capital. The Pope appealed to Catholic powers, which uprooted the revolutionaries from Rome and the other pontifical territories. Finally, they declared the civil power of the Pontiff to be over and proclaimed the “Roman Republic.” Meanwhile, the revolutionaries stalked the streets of Rome, sowing terror through an orgy of blood and desecration of churches and convents. The mobs stoned the Pontifical Palace, and the Pope had to leave the Eternal City secretly, taking refuge in Gaeta in the Kingdom of Naples. The revolutionary sectarians responded by inciting the Roman populace to mutiny. Whatever the answer, the fact is that, as soon as Pius IX cleared up the misunderstanding and energetically put an end to the revolutionary consequences they intended to draw from his acts, everything changed. Still others say that he was not a liberal and that his policies, permeated with clemency and liberality, were dictated more by his conciliatory temperament than by ideology, and that the Revolution sought to take advantage of this, appointing him as a “liberal” Pope, ready to carry out its designs. Some see him as a liberal who-mugged by reality-converted, becoming a “reactionary.” Others present him as a pragmatic diplomat who made a miscalculation when he thought he could placate the revolutionaries with a policy milder than his predecessor, the austere and energetic Gregory XVI. This question has been asked by historians 1 and the answers have varied. The first acts of his pontificate, especially the choice of his closest advisors and the release of hundreds of political prisoners, left his contemporaries perplexed. The conclave that met on Jto elect a successor to Gregory XVI was one of the shortest in history: it lasted only 36 hours, after which Cardinal Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti, Bishop of Imola, was elected and adopted the name of Pius IX. This short article will put the two events in the context of the life and pontificate of their main protagonist, Blessed Pius IX, the last Pope-King. At that time, the Pope was despoiled of his temporal power (September 20, 1870). The second event was a negative episode, which was the taking of Rome by the revolutionary hordes at the service of the House of Savoy. The first is a positive event, which was the proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility (July 18, 1870). The year 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of two events of transcendental significance for the Church’s life and history. The Grandeur of Pius IX: Vicar of Christ, Pontiff and King On the 150th Anniversary of Two Events of Transcendental Significance for the Life and History of the Church
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