A Guide to Italian Anti-Catholicism in the Late 1800s

Like their American, Mexican, and Spanish peers, Catholics in modern-day Italy were not immune from the growing anti-Catholicism of the 1800s.

The Papacy of Pope Pius IX Amid Growing Anti-Catholicism

Pope Pius IX led the Church from 1846 to 1878, an eventful 32-year papacy. This was a time of wars among the countries of Europe,[1] persecution against Catholics,and the rise of many harmful ideas rationalism, materialism, liberalism, pantheism, communism, and others. Seeing the dangers inherent in these concepts, Pope Pius bravely condemned them. In Quanto Conficiamur Moerore (On the Promotion of False Doctrines), published on August 10, 1863, Pius IX spoke against materialism.

Pope Pius IX also warned Catholics of the errors of certain philosophers in Qui Pluribus (On Faith and Religion). This encyclical was sent out to the bishops on November 9, 1846, and states in part:

…Also perverse is the shocking theory that it makes no difference to which religion one belongs, a theory which is greatly at variance even with reason. By means of this theory, those crafty men remove all distinction between virtue and vice, truth and error, honorable and vile action. They pretend that men can gain eternal salvation by the practice of any religion, as if there could ever be any sharing between justice and iniquity, any collaboration between light and darkness, or any agreement between Christ and Belial [the devil].

In November 1848, a group of revolutionaries seized control of Rome and declared a republic,[2] and Pius IX, disguised as a simple parish priest, was forced to flee the city and seek refuge in Gaeta[3], a coastal town south of Rome. He remained in exile there for more than a year, during which time he issued a number of condemnations of the revolutionary movements and reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s commitment to its traditional teachings and authority.

Pius IX returned to Rome in April 1850[4], after a French army intervened on his behalf and restored his temporal rule over the Papal States. However, the experience of his exile had a profound impact on him and his papacy, and he became increasingly wary of liberal and nationalist movements – in Italy specifically and more broadly in Europe. It was while in exile that, in August 1849, he instituted the Feast of the Most Precious Blood to be celebrated by the Universal [Catholic] Church.[5]

On December 8, 1864, Pope Pius IX published Quanta Cura (Condemning Current Errors) with the Syllabus of Errors attached. The Syllabus is simply a list of errors but also contains the dates of the corresponding Allocution, Letters, or Encyclicals of the Pope that discuss the specific error fully.

These errors appeared so pernicious that the Pope appointed a commission of fourteen Cardinals and theologians to consider an agenda for a possible Council. After their report was submitted, the Pope issued Aeterni Patris on June 29, 1868, which convoked a Council at the Vatican. The Council would begin on December 8, 1869, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. No governments were invited to send representatives, unlike previous Councils.

The Loss of the Papal States

The Papal States[6] were a region in modern-day central Italy that existed from the 8th century until the unification of Italy in the 19th century. The Papal States were territories directly controlled by the Pope and were considered a sovereign entity.

The Papal States were established in 754 A.D. by Pope Stephen II when he received a donation of lands from Pepin the Short, the king of the Franks. Over the centuries, the Papal States grew to include much of modern-day central Italy, including Rome, and they became a significant political and military power in Europe.

The Papal States were governed by the Pope and a group of Cardinals and were recognized as a sovereign state by other European powers. The papacy used the Papal States as a source of wealth and power, and they were also an important center of art, culture, and learning. It was important that the Church should have its own lands and not be subject to the bidding of any one king.

The Papal States continued to exist until the 19th century when Italian nationalists sought to unify Italy and overthrow foreign rule. In 1870, Italian revolutionary troops captured Rome and the Papal States were subsequently dissolved. The Papal States were conquered as was Rome. Victor Emmanuel II, the king of Sardinia, was proclaimed king of Italy by the revolutionary armies. He allowed the Pope to retain possession of the Vatican and the Lateran Palaces and Castel Gandolfo on the Alban Lake.[7]

Persecution from the Protestant Prussians of Modern-Day Northern Germany

At this time, the First Vatican Council famously issued its decree on papal infallibility, which was not well received by the civil authorities in several European countries.

A Kulturkampf a war of cultures, the State versus the Church was called by the Prussian government (1871-1891). It was an attempt by the German chancellor, Otto Von Bismarck, with support from intellectual elites (e.g., professors, doctors, lawyers), to place the Catholic Church under the rule of the State government. The bishops refused to cooperate. Bismarck attempted to suppress the Church. This attempt to subdue the Church failed as Catholic Prussians solidified their allegiance with the Church. Similar scenarios occurred in other countries.

The Church had very little in the way of lands and temporal authority. There were ongoing attempts to undermine and eradicate her. Bishops were no longer held in high esteem since the false philosophies of modernity had taken hold. The time had come for her to assert her authority and true power, the power of the Holy Ghost,with the election of Pope Leo XIII (18781903).

Pope Leo XIII defined, in no uncertain terms, that the Church’s mission and mandate is to undo the works of satan and return everything back to God through His Son, Jesus Christ. He would write a prolific number of encyclicals – 85 of them – during his pontificate. Also worth noting, on January 6, 1884, Pope Leo XIII ordered the Leonine prayers to be recited throughout the world after the anti-clerical Kingdom of Italy was created, which absorbed the sovereignty of the Papal States. And after his death, he would be succeeded by St. Pius X, who would seek to further restore all things in Christ, though the modernists would ultimately triumph after his death.

The Collapse of OnceCatholic Italy

Italy would continue to spiral further from the Church under Benito Mussolini, who served as the fascist dictator and Prime Minister of Italy from his March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 1943. His overt socialism and fascism were condemned forcibly by the Church.[8]

After World War II, Italy became a secular government on June 20, 1946, with the adoption of the new Italian Constitution. Under the new system, the State was responsible for education, social services, and public welfare, while the Catholic Church was recognized as a religious institution but had no formal role in government.Italy had fallen into the grave error of the separation of Church and State.

The Italian government would descend further and further away from the Faith. One clear manifestation of this is seen when Italy legalized abortion in 1978 with the passage of Law 194. Italy has fallen far from her Catholic roots.

Fatima and the Restoration

And like all formerly Catholic nations of Europe, we must work to restore Christian morality through our laws and undo the evils being openly allowed today. Authentic morality will only come hand in hand with the restoration of authentic Catholic doctrine and liturgy. As Our Lady Herself has told us, in these times, only She can help us. We must all heed the Message of Fatima

May Our Lady of Fatima intercede for an end to such sins which cry to Heaven for vengeance. Let us pray for this intention when we pray our Rosary today and fulfill our First Saturday devotion this month.


ENDNOTES:

[1] The Napoleonic Wars ushered in the 19th century. They have rightly been referred to as the first “world war.” Atheistic thinkers like Marx, Freud, Jung, and Nietsche greatly influenced the intelligentsia and ruling elite. Popes prior to Pius IX were already raising the alarm and valiantly fighting these growing errors as well.

[2] Pius IX had appointed a liberal, Pellegrino Rossi, as the ‘prime minister’ of the Papal States. Rossi was assassinated in the public streets of Rome on November 15, 1848. The Swiss Guards were overrun and the Pope became a prisoner within the Quirinal Palace. It was during the ensuing public disorder and chaos that the Pope was able to escape.

[3] Gaeta was a city within the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, ruled by King Ferdinand II. His lands were also suffering revolutions organized by freemasons. Nevertheless, he was able to offer Pius IX safety and the two monarchs lent one another support.

[4] During his exile, following the Feast of the Holy Name, Pius IX called for public veneration of the Holy Face of Jesus (Veronica’s shroud) and other instruments of Our Lord’s Passion at St. Peter’s Basilica. The Catholic faithful responded with zeal. After three days, on January 6, 1849, miracles were witnessed in the holy icon. Learn more through the conference, ‘The Holy Face and Fatima’ by David Rodríguez.

[5] Fr. Johann Evalgelist Zollner (1883) relates the following: “This feast, which had been celebrated in some dioceses since the fifteenth century, on Monday after Trinity Sunday, was extended by Pope Pius IX over the whole Christian world, and its celebration prescribed for the first Sunday of July. The time of persecution and suffering had already begun for the Sovereign Pontiff. Compelled by a revolution to leave Rome, he repaired to Gaeta, in the kingdom of Naples, where he lived in exile for seventeen months, till April, 1850. Here it was that on the tenth day of August, 1849, he instituted the Feast of the Precious Blood.” The Feast was later fixed to July 1st as part of the changes of Pope St. Pius X that removed most feast days from being fixed to Sundays.

[6] At this time, the Papal States was the oldest existing political entity with continuity in government and integrity in territory. In 1870, no other nation on earth had existed for more than 1116 years (a millennia!).

[7] Forgotten by many, Vatican City is a city-state that was established only relatively recently on February 11, 1929, with the signing of the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See (the governing body of the Catholic Church) and the Kingdom of Italy. The treaty ended a long-standing dispute between the two entities over the status of the Papal States and recognized Vatican City as an independent sovereign state.

[8] In 1931, Pope Pius XI issued an encyclical called Non abbiamo bisogno, which criticized Mussolini’s government for its attacks on the Catholic Church and its interference in matters of religion. And in 1938, after Mussolini had allied Italy with Nazi Germany and introduced a series of discriminatory laws against Jews, the Church’s condemnation of his regime became more pronounced. Pope Pius XI issued another encyclical, Mit brennender Sorge, which condemned the Nazi ideology and its racist policies.

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