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1789-1914 - 19th Century Papacy

252		Pius VII	1800-23
253		Leo XII	1823-29
254		Pius VIII	1829-30
255		Gregory XVI	1831-46
256	Blessed	Pius IX	1846-78
257		Leo XIII	1878-1903
258	Saint	Pius X	1903-14

The French Revolution began, and the several mid-century revolutions completed, the formation of a new political world dominated by the principle of democracy. There was a general attempt to eliminate, or at least to re-shape, almost everything that had survived from the mediaeval world; and the Church came in for its full share of attention from the advocates of progress. Many of these declared Catholicism to be incompatible with the principles of modern society, and predicted that the papacy would soon decay.

Instead of these expectations being fulfilled, there came a startling revelation of the vitality of the Church. The close of the nineteenth century found her with strength renewed, and with a great part of her ancient influence and honor restored. Her dominion has steadily expanded; and from every field of human activity have come new evidences of her enduring hold upon the best minds and wills of the human race. Her prestige with scholar and with statesman is now again, as of old, practically ecumenical; and her luminous, consistent, moral system causes her to be generally regarded as the one great hope of the world, not only in religion, but in social ethics also.

Thb demolition of ecclesiastical order, more especially the suppression of the institutions of learning and of the scientific corporations of the Catholic Church throughout the whole Continent of Europe, which ensued from the French Revolution and from secularization, was of immeasurable damage to ecclesiastical science, which had already suffered greatly by the rationalism of the eighteenth century and by the Josephist enlightenment.

After the reorganization of this ecclesiastical order, the Church, robbed of her property, possessed neither an adequate number of able teachers nor means to build up new institutions for study; besides which the State power debarred her from exercising any effective influence on the higher schools, over which the State claimed exclusive direction, and in point of fact enforced its claim.

As if to increase the evil, deistic and pantheistic philosophy continued to spread, and exerted the most pernicious influence on science, which became divested more and more of its Christian character. The old Catholic universities in Germany were either suppressed or changed into highschools conducted on the principles of so-called parity or equality, but in which Protestantism greatly predominated. The philosophy of a Kant, a Schelling, and a Hegel were presented by the professorial chairs, offering in a brilliant form the rationalistico-pantheistio views of German classics to the so-called educated public. By proceedings of this character the Catholic Church was muzzled; even the education of the clergy was conducted by the State.

In order to oppose the various erroneous opinions which endanger faith and theological science, the Apostolic See, in virtue of its office as supreme teacher, on various occasions and lastly at the Vatican gave expression to the correct principles on which theological and philosophical science is based, and within the limits of which the greatest liberty and independence may be exercised without wandering from the paths of faith and of true science. In particular, the Church desired neither a one-sided scholasticism nor any presumptuous ignoring of scholasticism, but rather that the conclusions arrived at by the great theologians of ancient times should be added to the results of modern investigation, and be put to use by serving to explain and defend the truths of faith.

As opposed to the Gallicans, Febronians, and Josephists, the modern canonists4 again came forward to defend the correct principles based on the articles of faith; and in doing so, decidedly oppose the unjustifiable and deplorable State-churchdom. Although the exegetical writings of the nineteenth century were not equal to the master-works of a Maldonat, etc., they were nevertheless of great importance as bearing on the questions of the day. Catholic exegetical writers devoted special attention to the introduction of the Sacred Scriptures, and refute particularly the false assertions of Protestant hypercriticism. In their commentaries on Holy Writ they attend as much to the contents as to the literal explanation of the books of the Old and New Testaments, in doing which they make use of the results of modern philology.

To the great satisfaction of Pius IX, almost all the bishops of France reintroduced the Roman liturgy in their dioceses. The dogmatical declaration of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1854) reflected a lustre of higher dignity on this festival, for which a new office and a new Mass was prescribed by Pius IX in a bull of Sept. 25, 1863. The decree on the veneration of relics (Dec. 10, 1863) confirmed the edict that had been previously issued un April 10, 1668, by the Congregation of Rites, regarding the phials of blood ("ampullae sanguinolentae, phialae cruentae") found in the Catacombs; yet it did not put an end to the controversy as to whether these are to be accepted as certain proofs of martyrdom. The number of the feasts of saints was increased by several beatifications and canonizations. By a decree of the year 1856, Pius IX extended the celebration of the festival of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus to the whole Church, and through a decree of Dec. 8, 1870, and one of July 7, 1871, the Pope (Pius IX) elected St. Joseph as patron of the whole Catholic Church.

Other manifestations may be seen in the frequent reception of the Holy Sacraments, the various congregations in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the very great interest shown by the people in missions and by the clergy in retreats, the great number of the faithful who entered the third order of St. Francis of Assisi, the almost universal propagation of the Confraternity of the Sacred Heart of Mary for the conversion of sinners, the Apostleship of Prayer (highly commended by the Holy See), the Association of Christian Mothers, the numerous pilgrimages, and, finally, the dedication of the whole Catholic world to the divine heart of Jesus.