Pius IX- a bad Pope?

[Caesar]

I was told that in Italy Pope Pius IX, the last Pope who ruled over the Papal States, is despised. He is seen as a tyrant and a warlord. He also instituted the last pre-nazi Jewish ghetto in Rome, and forbade the Jews in Italy from entering certain professions. It was also said that he had a young Jewish boy kidnapped from his parents and raised to be a priest.

Yet, I saw a website recently calling him a heroic leader. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1985.

Can anyone elaborate on this?

 

[whosebob]

I was told that in Italy Pope Pius IX, the last Pope who ruled over the Papal States, is despised. He is seen as a tyrant and a warlord … Yet, I saw a website recently calling him a heroic leader. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1985 … Can anyone elaborate on this?

JMJ + OBT​

The following webpages may be of some assistance at scratching the surface of the history and politics of the pontificate of Pope Blessed Pius IX:

newadvent.org/cathen/12134b.htm

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pius_ix

piustheninth.com/

That last one may have ties to or promote schismatic or sedevacantist Catholic groups, I wasn’t able to be sure based on a quick review.

Also, a number of the priests at the Oratory in Toronto are quite accomplished in their studies of Catholic history – they might be able to point you to some good history books that treat Pius IX’s pontificate and person critically and fairly. hint, hint

In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

IC XC NIKA

 

[whosebob]

piustheninth.com/

That last one may have ties to or promote schismatic or sedevacantist Catholic groups, I wasn’t able to be sure based on a quick review.

Whoops … yep that piustheninht.com site has pages and links to some wacky fringe stuff … sorry … but some of the information there seems reliable enough, and theholymass.com site and thecounciloftrent.com site seem to be of the same mixture, i.e. the basic information contained there – texts of the Council, photos of the Mass – is great, but there is also linked to and presented some ideas which could lead one into schism with the Catholic Church.

In Christ.

IC XC NIKA

 

[whosebob]

JMJ + OBT​

Something else from Catholic Answer’s This Rock archives:

“Glorious and Immortal” Pius IX

As the months wound down to the beatification of Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti — Pope Pius IX (1846–1878) — allegations of supposed anti-Semitism on his part were bandied about in the press. In May, the Italian press agency Adista published an article, “The Legend of the Kidnapper Saint,” that raised the case of Edgardo Mortara, a 2-year-old Jewish boy during Pius IX’s pontificate who ran the risk of dying for having been secretly baptized by an acquaintance. The child did not die, but a problem emerged for the Church: What should be done with a baptized child whose parents refused to raise as Catholic? Against the parents’ wishes, the Church took a hand in Mortara’s education, and in 1873 he became a priest. The case has been sufficient reason for some to accuse Pius IX of anti-Semitism. The Mortara case was also covered in June by the Washington Post, which condemned Pius IX’s work.

The Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) addressed these same accusations in a June meeting in Rome. At the opening of this congress, UCEI president Amos Luzzatto said, “We make it clear that this decision [Pius IX’s beatification] will entail consequences in our relations with the Vatican.”

Following a lengthy mandatory investigation, the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints had noresevrations as to the goodness of Pius IX’s actions. In fact, he was much loved by the Jewish people of his time—to the point that in 1847, the chief rabbi of the Israeli University in Rome dedicated a psalm and prayer to the pope, calling him“ glorious and immortal.”

Pius IX was responsible for the end of the Jewish ghetto in Rome, a neighborhood in the Eternal City especially reserved for Jews. He also sent men to defend the Jews from the fury of people angry over his decision. It was Pius IX who said that Jews should not be considered “foreigners.”

The psalm of Rabbi Mosè Israel Kazzan reads thus: “When an entire people is proud to conduct itself justly, You, Oh great God of the armies, grant it a king who is gentle, a prince who represents you worthily.” (The “king” Kazzan was referring to was Pius IX, who at the time was also the highest authority of the independent Pontifical States.)

Referring to Pius IX’s work in favor of Jews, Kazzan wrote, “He showed mercy to a degraded, exiled, dispersed, and persecuted people. . . . Before the world, he removed it from the disdain of peoples, because you wanted its restoration, Oh Eternal One!”

Kazzan’s psalm ends with these words: “Let it be known in the remotest islands with how much glory Pius IX governs, how he administers justice with exactitude, how the whole world shines with splendor because of him.”

On September 3, John Paul II beatified both Pope Pius IX and Pope John XXIII.

— Tim Ryland

In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

IC XC NIKA