Pius IX, Pope (1792–1878)

From a noble family with a strong Marian devotion, Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, possibly an epileptic, needed papal dispensation for his ordination in 1819. He was appointed auditor to the Church mission sent to several emerging South American republics in 1823. His diary reveals that, though he did not oppose independence, he felt that leaders attacked the church to gain power. The trip likely taught Mastai about the Church's presence and importance outside Europe; traced to it are his emphasis on missions, and provisions for non-Italians to train in Rome and to attend the First Vatican Council (1869–1870), which he had summoned June 29, 1868. His insistence on clerical loyalty also may have been shaped by debate over whether the patronage was transmitted from Spain and Portugal to the new nations or devolved to Rome.

After serving in several positions in the Italian hierarchy, Mastai ascended to the papacy on June 16, 1846, beginning the longest pontificate in history. After an initial period of reform of the papal state's government resulted in revolution, his administration was conservative, emphasized papal power, and expressed antagonism toward liberalism and nationalism. Pius IX enabled non-Italians to study in Rome by founding regional colleges; among the first was the Latin American College (1858). Numerous Latin American hierarchical leaders of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries resided there, and many of them manifested an emphasis on loyalty to Rome, meticulous obedience to church doctrine, and intransigent positions on secularization.

Pius IX defined the modern Church and papacy: stripped of political power, it would be absolute in spiritual and moral power, and would demand doctrinal compliance from clergy and laity, and their support and activism to regain influence. In Latin America, as in Europe, this had mixed results at best: Conservatives cited it to support their opposition to the growth of state power and secularization, but liberals took it as proof of Catholicism's destabilization of the nation and its social fabric.

See alsoCatholic Church: The Modern Period .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Coppa, Frank J. Pius IX: Crusader in a Secular Age. Boston: Twayne, 1979.

Pius IX. "Quanta Cura" [Condemning current errors]. December 8, 1864. Available from Catholic Culture. Available from http://www.catholicculture.org/library.

Ramírez, Manuel Ceballos. El catolicismo social: Un tercero en discordia. Mexico City: Colegio de México, 1991.

                                      Kristina A. Boylan