Simón Apablaza

PIUS IX
Pius IX was “one of the most remarkable men to
occupy the chair of Peter”1.
-Bokenkotter

What did Bokenkotter mean by that statement? Pius IX’s pontificate was
definitely one of the most polemical ones. There were people against his pontificate and
all he signified, and people completely devoted to him. In fact, during his papacy on the
one hand, the Church lost all its temporal powers, but on the other, it gained an immense
moral authority. Not only that, but the first Vatican council, called by him, declared the
Dogma of papal infallibility.
To overview the papacy of Pius IX, we will divide this work into three headings:
the first is the Pope’s attitude to the Risorgimento, that is, the movement for the
unification of Italy. The second is his attitude towards liberals generally, and lastly his
promotion of ultramontanism.2

POPE’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS RISORGIMENTO

The problems that Pius IX was to face, were growing during the Papacy of
Gregory XVI. In his Papacy, a confederation of countries (Autocratic Austria, liberal
France, Czarist Russia, bureaucratic Prussia and ‘amphibious England’) met in Rome. On
the eve of 21st of May, 1831, they issued a memorial that was to inaugurate a new era of
better government. They all were to share the wardship of the Church.3 The memorandum
outlined reforms in almost everything and provided for popular election and a
predominant lay participation in the Papal government. Pope Gregory agreed to introduce
reforms, but refused to abandon his rights of sovereignty.4
In 1846 Pius IX became Pope. He started the Papacy resolved to make every
concession to material progress, popular liberties, and participation of the laity in the

1
Thomas Bokenkotter, A Concise History of the Catholic Church, (New York: Image Books, 1979), 330.
2
Alec Vidler, The Church in an Age of Revolution, 1789 to the Present Day (London: Penguin Books,
1990) 147.
3
One can be quite certain that the intentions of such Catholic, Protestant, and Greek alliances could not be
altruistic, nor could they be united on religious purposes.
4
Raymond Corrigan, The Church and the Nineteenth Century (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing
Company, 1948), 50-1.

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government. However, every time he made a move, he had to be so careful not to cross
the line between progress and change, or between the healthy and the perilous.5
Two years after Pius IX became Pope, his parliament declared war on Austria,
trying to ally with the Risorgimento, (the Italian movement of liberation and unification
of Italy). The Pope however could not declare war against Catholic Austria. The decision
became unpopular and rage swept the streets of Rome, with riots and demonstrations; the
Pope’s prime minister was murdered and revolution erupted. The Pope managed to flee to
Gaeta, and the revolutionaries set up a republic in Rome and declared the temporal power
of the Pope ended.6 The Pope appealed for help to the Catholic powers, but only France
sent a small army on April 29, 1849. They drove the troops of Garibaldi out of Rome and
the political government in Rome was restored on July 14; the Pope then came back from
his exile.7
Consequently, the question about the position of Pius IX with regard to the
Risorgimento runs into the larger question of the Pope’s position against liberalism in
general, that is, to all the ideas that came to Europe from the French revolution.

ATTITUDE TOWARDS LIBERALISM

After the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Church grew in strength and vitality, as
well as in number and missions. The religious orders were strengthened, Pius VII restored
the Society of Jesus and they helped to reorganize the Church in Europe and in the
mission fields and the intellectuals turned away form the scepticism and rationalism of
the Eighteen Century enlightenment.
The word liberalism has many shades in its meaning. In the nineteen-century,
basically denominated all those people that were in favour of constitutional and

5
Bokenkotter thinks that the grants of the Pope Pius IX, were produced only because he was yielding to the
political pressures of the moment. See Thomas Bokenkotter, A Concise History of the Catholic Church,
314.
6
With this, all the dreams cherished by many nationalists that hoped for a federated Italy headed by the
Pope, were utterly shattered. It is hard however, to even think that the Pope could collaborate with the
extremist Italian liberals like Mazzini and Garibaldi, because their religion positions were irreconcilable.
see Kenneth Latourette, Christianity in a Revolutionary Age, ( New York: The Paternoster Press, 1970)
267- 268.
7
Donald Attwater, A Dictionary of the Popes (London: Burns and Oates, 1939), 303-4.

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representative governments, religious toleration, separation of Church and state, and in

liberty all around, press, associations, education, etc.8
It is an old cliché to say that before 1848 Pius IX was liberal and after he became
authoritative. Pius IX was a man dealing with a difficult time, a time of lies, deceit, and
revolution. We can make a distinction between reforms and revolution: reforms are made
within a system they want to improve, Revolution instead, is made outside a system and
aims to destroy it. Revolution takes on a mask of reforms because if it shows it true
nihilistic, ideological, and destructive essence, it would lose its consensus. Pius IX lived
this time of reforms and revolution in the Papal States.9
Christianity and Liberalism were seen to be in opposition and Christians and
liberals took opposite sides. They became more and more hostile towards one another and
the battle between clericalism and anti-clericalism added to this.
Pius IX’s pontificate was not at all easy and he suffered in fulfilling his mission to 

serve to the Gospel.  Alec Vidler, a modern historian, criticised Pius IX saying that “he
failed to read the signs of times”, and that “a wise Pope would have set himself prudently

to educate the Church into an understanding of its new historical environment…”10. He 

was much loved, but also hated and slandered. He was said to be guilty not only of being

authoritative, but also of laying down the foundations for a monolithic and centralizing
concept of the Church and society, especially with the syllabus.

Sylabus of errors
On the tenth anniversary of the encyclical of the Immaculate Conception, Pius IX
issued an encyclical called Cuanta Cura, accompanied by the document Syllabus
errorum. This was one of the most controversial documents ever written. It covers a wide
range of topics, condemning the errors of the time in eighty points. Pantheism,
naturalism, and absolute rationalism and moderate rationalism, were denounced.
Indifferentism and latitudinarism followed. It rebuked socialism, communism, secret

8
Alec Vidler, The Church in an Age of Revolution, 148.
9
Carlo Liberati, “Did Pius IX Change radically After 1848?” in L’osservatore Romano, Weekly Edition in
English, n. 38 (19 sept, 2001), 9-10.
10
Alec Vidler, The Church in an Age of Revolution, 150.

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societies11, Bible societies, and clerico-liberal societies. Then it turned to the errors
concerning the Church and its rights, the errors about civil society, of ethics, marriage,
and on the power of the Pope. The final paragraph created a big agitation: (it is an error
that…) “the Roman Pontiff can and should reconcile himself to agree with progress,
liberalism, and modern civilisation”12. Many said that the Pope was failing to adjust the
Christian faith to the revolutionary world and so, he was piloting the barque of Peter
towards shipwreck.13 However, the Pope was firmly guiding this barque towards the same
course that it had held across the centuries.14 This last paragraph of the Syllabus, has to be
understood with the quotation taken from an allocution made by the Pope, “the Roman
Pontiff does not have to reconcile himself with progress and modern civilisation if by the
word ‘civilization’ must be understood a system invented on purpose to weaken and
perhaps to overthrow, the Church…”15
The Pope had no intention to stir up trouble, but he had the obligation to warn
Catholics of the poisons that they were in the atmosphere and that they were breathing.
Pius IX was at perpetual war with the thoughts of his time, and because he devoted so
much time to erase the fallacious thoughts of his time, it meant that his successor Leo
XIII had a effective foundation upon which to erect a solid constructive social
philosophy.16

PROMOTION OF ULTRAMONTANISM
The upswing of the Church in the modern world dates from the time that the
Church recovered from the damage done by Napoleon Bonaparte. Many things were
done for and in the Church, and the Papacy, which had been weakened since the 17th
century, took the lead in them. The fact that the Pope Pius VII resisted so strongly against
Napoleon even facing imprisonment, gained the admiration and approval of many
11
Free-masonry was, and has been, one of the fiercest enemies of the Church, and they were not happy at
all with the pontificate of Pius XI. See the article published in the Zenit, (N. of article: ZS99122305)
www.zenit.org .
12
Ds § 2980.
13
Alec Vidler attacks Pius IX by saying “The Syllabus is the supreme instance of Pio Nono’s Ineptitude and
of his failure to discriminate between true and false in ‘Liberalism’”. See Alec Vidler, The Church in an
Age of Revolution, 152.
14
Kenneth Latourette, Christianity in a Revolutionary Age, 275-279.
15
Allocution of Pius IX against Piedmont’s Spoliation of convents and harassing of priests; quoted by
Thomas Bokenkotter, A Concise History of the Catholic Church ,p. 325.
16
Raymond Corrigan, The Church and the Nineteenth Century, 178.

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authorities. From this point on, Papal spiritual power began to grow, as well as the trend
towards centralization of ecclesial administrative power in Rome, and towards Papal
primacy of jurisdiction throughout the Church.
While the Risorgimento and nationalistic ideas were undermining the political
power of the Church, Pius IX was expanding the authority of his office, extending his
administrative control over ecclesial structure and enhancing that structure where it was
weak. In Germany for instance, ultramontanism was represented by strong figures. Even
in France, the swing to ultramontanism was pronounced. In the same year of the Pope’s
flight to Gaete, the restoration of the hierarchy in England was settled. In the 1850s, 60s,
70s, the Pope repeatedly acted to strengthen the Church in Latin America, appointing
bishops and creating new dioceses. He founded over 200 new dioceses and vicariates
apostolic including Melbourne, Brisbane, Armidale, Ballarat, Sandhurts.17 He negotiated
with the Dutch governments; hierarchy was renewed in Netherlands. The growth of the
Church in United States of America, Canada, and Australia, mainly through immigration,
helped too, to enhance the authority of the Pope. The expansion of missions that was
under the direction of Propaganda fidei, and therefore of the Pope, consolidated too the
authority of the Pope.
In 1848, while in exile in Gaeta, he sent a commission to investigate the question
of the Immaculate Conception. The large majority was eager in its reply, and so when the
Papal endorsement was made, it was assured of the general support. Hence, on December
8, 1964, Pius IX solemnly proclaimed, on his sole authority, the bull Ineffabilis Deus, The
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as doctrine revealed by God and to
be believed firmly by the faithful. The fact that in a time like that, the Pope could win the
general acceptance in the Church in a matter of such importance, said something about
the growing authority of the Pope. 18
The length of his Papacy helped him to tighten control over his bishops, he was
able to shape the character of his episcopate by choosing the bishops and keeping contact
with them. Finally, the personality of Pius IX was most attractive (as all the saints are).
He made himself accessible to all who visited Rome, spending great time giving
audiences. This and his sufferings and persecutions gained through him passionate
17
See Class notes , p.7.
18
Kenneth Latourette, Christianity in a Revolutionary Age, 270-73.

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affection and devotion to the Pope. In fact, the veneration for the Vicar of Christ started
19
with Pius IX.

Vatican I
The First Vatican Council (1869-1870) gave the papacy a firmer grip over the
Church.20 It was three hundred years since the last Council took place. Many changes had
taken place in Christendom, and many issues needed to be addressed. Where the Syllabus
and other pronouncements had only irritated the patient, the Council could bring the ill
society to health.21
In April 1870 the Constitution Dei Filius, was issued. Its fame was earned
because it stated that there is no conflict between faith and reason. The other document is
Ecclesia Christy, which proclaimed the infallibility of the Pope when he defines a
doctrine of faith or morals to be held by the whole Church. Bokkenkofer sees this
declaration as a political necessity: since the French concordat of 1801, priests were
receiving a salary from the state, which was gaining influence with priests. Therefore a
dogma of papal infallibility was what was needed, because “the liberty of the Church was
at stake”.22 The council had to be prorogued on the 20 of October of 1870, because
Garibaldi’s troops had entered Rome and it was not safe to continue it.
It is paradoxical that two months after the promulgation of infallibility, Garibaldi
despoiled the last of the Papal States (Rome). On the one hand the Church had lost all its
lands (and with it its temporal power), but on the other, it had gained infallible spiritual
authority. The Pope proclaimed himself a prisoner of the Vatican, as did all subsequent
popes, where each of them was visited in his apostolic prison by multitudes, year by year.
They bore witness to the growing religious influence over the world.23

19
Thomas Bokenkotter, A Concise History of the Catholic Church, 329.
20
The council was officially convoked on June 29, 1869, by the bull Aeterni Patris. The solemn opening
took part on the 8 December the same year. Nearly 800 bishops attended including many from the Catholic
Eastern Churches.
21
Raymond Corrigan, The Church and the Nineteenth Century, 185.
22
Thomas Bokenkotter, A Concise History of the Catholic Church, 338.
23
This custom lasted until 1929.

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CONCLUSION
The papacy of Pius IX was one of the most controversial ones. He strengthened
the papacy as no Pope had done before, in a very hostile time, originating with the French
Revolution. Pope Pius IX knitted the Church together under Rome, convoked the Vatican
council which declared the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope. On the other hand, the
Church lost all his temporal powers. He lost all the land that was its heritage. The Papal
States were taken away by United Italy, and amalgamated into it, making Italy as it stands
today.
Pius IX was “one of the most remarkable men to occupy the chair of Peter”,
because in a time of chaos, he guided the Church as a true pastor, facing the difficulties,
not compromising with the pressures of the time. He is remarkable as well because in his
actions it can be seen that he put all his hope in God, and in his promise: “You are Peter,
and on this rock I will build my community. And the gates of the underworld can never
overpower it” (Mt 16:18).

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anonimus. Papa Pío IX, la Masonería y el Fin del Poder Temporal de la Iglesia. in the
the webpage of the religious order of the “Siervas de los Corazones Traspasados
de Jesús y María”: http://www.corazones.org/santos/pio9papa.htm.

Attwater, Donald. A Dictionary of the Popes. London: Burns and Oates, 1939.

Bokenkotter, Thomas. A Concise History of the Catholic Church. New York: Image
Books, 1979.

Corrigan, Raymond. The Church and the Nineteenth Century. Milwaukee: The Bruce
Publishing Company, 1948.

Latourette, Kenneth. Christianity in a Revolutionary Age. New York: The Paternoster

Press, 1970.

Liberati, Carlo. “Did Pius IX Change radically After 1848?” in L’osservatore Romano,
Weekly Edition in English, n. 38 (19 sept, 2001).

Sale, Giovanni. “Pio IX e le Pressa di Roma” del 20 Settembre 1870, Un Documento

Inedito”, in La Civilta Cattolica. 153, 3654 (21 Sep 2002): 455-468.

Vidler, Alec. The Church in an Age of Revolution, 1789 to the Present Day. London:
Penguin Books, 1990.