Did Bl. Pius IX really do this?

[jam070406]

I’ve heard that there is a historical account of Pius IX proclaiming the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. It was dark and stormy outside. A sudden ray of sunshine came through the dark clouds and shone down on the Pontiff, as he was in tears.

 

[Alcuin2010]

The story gets repeated a lot. However, I found this 1970 reference to the charge that Pope Pius stepped on the Melkite Patriarch’s neck:

“Dans les cercles melkites l’on raconta longtemps que Pie IX aurait manifesté son mécontement d’une manière violente …] en lui infligeant des …] voies de fait indignes. …] Néanmoins nous n’avons trouvé aucun document écrit qui pût attester la réalité historique d’un tel traitement pontifical.”
-J. Hajjar, “L’épiscopat catholique oriental et le 1er concile du Vatican”, Revue d’histoire écclésiastique, 65:3/4 (1970), p. 755.

Hajjar writes that he has found no documentary evidence for the “oft-repeated story in Melkite circles”, although in the same paragraph he does mention that the story is “likely-sounding” (“vraisemblable”), presumably in keeping with the Pope’s character.

 

[Shin]

Gossip… Remember what that is folks?

 

[Brian777]

AMEN! In my humble opinion, Pope Benedict should be doing this to a few if not several of the bishops nowadays. like Mahoney… (coughMaHeresycough)

i replace mahoney with that hispanic bishoop who told the little girl her abortion was ok, and is now up for considertion to lead the new dicastry of evangelization…(???)

 

[Rogerteder]

Apparently, at the end of Vatican I, when the Greek Melkite Patriarch Gregory II Youssef advanced to kiss the feet of the Pontiff, His Holiness stepped on the Patriarch’s neck with his full weight, and verbally berated him, calling him “a stubborn mule”. If this is true, well, my respect for Pius decreased.

Why would that make you lose respect for Pius IX?

 

[MrSylvester]

If it did happen, remember, Pius IX was rather mentally disabled: he suffered from Epilepsy. It could have been done in an outburst after all the pressure of sitting through the entire council.

 

[Leon_Bloy]

We really always need to have reliable sources for any such accusation. I personally do not believe it.

Especially since Blessed Pius IX was at the time - and still is - the “whipping boy” for everything secularists and anti-Catholics (including those inside the Church - yes) hate about the papacy and the Church in general.

 

[Mike30]

Isn’t there some regulation concerning resurrecting old threads? This one is approximately four years old.

 

[JimmytheButcher]

Conjecture, speculation, and rumour… who gives a load about it?

I grew up thinking there was actually a guy looking for the Fountain of Youth. It was just a story repeated ad nauseum to make fun of Catholics.

The story probably never happened. And, even it did. It doesn’t matter. It would have been between two men. Men have tuffles now and again.