Pope Beatifies Pius IX

V A T I C A N   C I T Y, Sept. 3, 2000 -- Pope John Paul attempted tojustify his beatification of a 19th century conservative popeaccused of anti-Semitism today, saying even saints had humanlimitations and were conditioned by history.

The 80-year-old pope put two of his predecessors and threeother people who lived in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries onthe road to Roman Catholic sainthood at a solemn ceremony beforesome 100,000 people in St Peter’s Square.

The five beatified—the penultimate step before sainthoodin the Catholic Church—were Pope Pius IX (1792-1878), PopeJohn XXIII (1881-1963), Italian bishop Tommaso Reggio(1818-1901), French priest Guillaume-Joseph Chaminade(1761-1850) and Irish abbot Columba Marmion (1858-1923).

While the overwhelming majority of people in the crowd werethere to honor Pope John XXIII, the most controversial of thebeatified five was the ultra-conservative Pius IX.

Long Reign

His reign from 1846 to 1878 was the longest in Churchhistory and coincided with the loss of the papacy’s temporalpower and vast land holdings when Italy was unified.

Pius, who adamantly opposed religious tolerance and definedthe doctrine of infallibility, once referred to Jews as “dogs”and approved the kidnapping of a Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara.

Jews had urged the Vatican not to beatify Pius because ofthe Mortara affair. Progressive Catholics opposed it becausePius centralized power, published the 1864 Syllabus of Errors tocombat modernism and opposed the unification of Italy.

In his homily, the Pope addressed the controversy over PiusIX, saying that holiness was not immune to historical influence.

“Sanctity lives in history and every saint is not removedfrom the limitations and personal conditioning of our humannature,” the Pope, who appeared tired, said.

“By beatifying one of its sons, the Church does notcelebrate particular historical choices he made but ratherpoints him out for imitation and veneration for his virtues andpraising the divine grace that shines in them,” he said.

Fails to Mention Kidnapping

While making no mention of the Mortara kidnapping, the popewas repeating the Church’s position that Pius was beatified alsobecause he was credited with the miraculous cure of a crippledFrench nun who walked again after praying to Pius.

On June 23, 1858, papal police in Bologna entered the homeof the Mortaras, a Jewish family, snatched six-year-old Edgardo,and took him to a Rome school to be raised as a Catholic.

Several years earlier, when Edgardo was ill and on the vergeof death, an over-zealous Catholic servant in the home hadsecretly baptized him because she wanted “to save his soul.”

Papal police intervened to enforce a civil law that Jewishchildren who had been baptised had to be raised as Christians.

Ignoring international protests, Pius IX made Edgardo hispersonal ward and put him on the road to the priesthood.

“It was atrocious. It left deep wounds in the Jewishcommunity,” Rome’s chief Rabbi Elio Toaff said.

“Kidnapping a child, bringing him to a convent, making him apriest, taking him away from his parents—this is stuff rightout of the penal code of law,” he told la Repubblica newspaper.

“Pius’s beatification is quite simply a scandal,” EnricoModigliani, a member of the board of Rome’s Jewish community anda former member of the Italian parliament, told Reuters.

“In a year when the Church has made an effort to apologisefor the treatment of the Jews, it is not right to beatify PiusIX, who was one of the worst anti-Semites,” he added.

There was only scattered applause when the Pope said Pius IXhad been “very loved, but also hated and slandered.”

‘The Good Pope’

By contrast, the crowd roared in approval when he spoke ofPope John XXIII, known as “The Good Pope.”

John called the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), whichthrust the Church into the modern world, ended the Latin massand gave bishops more power. He was almost universally loved.

Beatifying both Pius IX and John XXIII at the same ceremonywas seen as a historical and theological juggling act attemptingto satisfy both liberal and traditional Catholics.