![]() ![]() He introduced tariff reform, horrified Europe’s aristocrats by granting former revolutionaries amnesty, abolished the requirement for Jews to attend weekly Christian sermons, included members of other religions in papal charities, and even set up a commission to introduce railways into the Papal States, an invention his predecessor Gregory XVI had condemned, sardonically quipping “chemin de fer, chemin d’enfer” (a play on the French “Railroads, the roads to hell”). Universally called by the Italian name “Pio Nono,” he was in his first years as pope viewed as a liberal. ![]() Pius’ lengthy pontificate made an indelible mark on the history of European politics and Catholicism. ![]() (There’s a complicated debate among scholars as to whether Peter’s office as pope precedes the 25 years he spent in Rome which would extend his dates closer to 34 years). However, he was and continues to be a fascinating figure in the history of the papacy, with numerous imitable characteristics, matched - as most true leaders are - by seemingly as many personal warts.īorn as Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, he was elected as Pius IX in 1846 and went on to serve for over three decades as perhaps the longest-reigning pope in history. Pius IX has been rather vilified in many secular, Jewish, and Christian circles as reactionary for his famous statement in the Syllabus of Errors that it is inconceivable that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization” (80). ![]()
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