August 22, 2012
For the past many months, I have been doing a bit of reading on popes, as I am totally fascinated with the Vatican and the way it conducts itself. As I was reading through the book which I found in a convent in Cardiff, the following lines made me ponder over them again and again “The pontificate of Pope Saint Pius X (1903 – 1914) was one of the most controversial in modern times. No intellectual himself, immediately upon his election he was faced with the monumental problem of reconciling the received truths of the faith with the demands of contemporary scholarship”. There was a photo of a stern looking Pope Pius X next to these lines. For a moment I did not know what to do. I took a minute and began thinking about my association with this saint. Well how can my favourite saint be a controversial figure?
Pope Pius X was one of the first saints to whom I was introduced, as he is the patron saint of our parish. In fact, the whole vicinity around our parish is called PIUSNAGAR. Located about 4 kms from the town of Kundapur, Piusnagar is a coastal village. On every Tuesday, my mom used to take me and my elder sister to the novena of the saint and used to tell us that whatever we pray for would be granted by this powerful saint. We were in school then and all we asked is good grades and our faith in this saint increased when we actually got good grades. Moreover on the day of his feast August 21, we were allowed to take half day off from school. This was just another reason why we consider St Pius X as our favourite saint.
In Konkani, St Pius is called as “Pius Dhavo” (meaning St Pius the Tenth) and I used to think it as “Pius Dhovo” (Pius the white). This perception was built within me, from childhood, as he looked fair and regally handsome in papal robes in the statue of our church. Then I slowly began to realize it is Dhavo and not Dhovo. All these years I have prayed and said his novena and he had come across as a simple and humble person, who rose up to the highest ranks in the church. How could he be controversial? I had to do some research on it. Immediately I remembered a brother from our parish who had visited the birthplace of our saint. I was sure that he would have knowledge and some literary work on the saint. Fortunately he had, and unfortunately it was all in Latin. I have not been able to pick up any of the books, as I was caught up with my own worldly mess. Someday soon J
There is no much written on St Pius X on the internet, but I would like to briefly narrate his life. Giuseppe Melchiore Sarto was born on June 2nd, 1835 in the northern Italian village of Riese. He was ordained as a priest in 1858, after he completed his theological studies from the seminary at Padua. He worked as an assistant priest and then as a priest in the parish of Salzano. In 1875 the Bishop of Treviso asked him to render his services as spiritual director in the seminary and simultaneously as a chancellor of the diocese. In 1884 he was appointed as Bishop of Mantua and then in 1893, he was appointed as a cardinal. Barely three days later, he was made Patriarch of Venice. I fairly knew about all this, as I had read these in our novena book. So far there was no controversy whatsoever.
Pope Leo XIII, who had opened the Vatican archives for historians to research died on July 20th, 1903. The election which followed was a dramatic one, which saw my favourite saint rise from nowhere to become the next pope. I was wondering whether there was a controversy in the elections. There was indeed a little controversy. Austria- a major catholic power vetoed against the favourite candidate Cardinal Mariano Rampolla. The first ballot clearly was won by Cardinal Rampolla and Cardinal Sarto got only 5 votes. The second ballot too favored Rampolla. During the third ballot, a Polish Cardinal vetoed against Rampolla’s nomination in the name of the Austria- Hungarian Emperor. Cardinal Sarto was gaining votes now and the fourth ballot saw Rampolla at 30 and Sarto at 24. After the veto, however the fifth ballot clearly gave Sarto a majority with 50 votes. All this while Cardinal Sarto declined his nomination considering himself unworthy, but he was asked to reconsider his decision and finally he accepted papacy and the very first thing he did was to abolish this privilege of veto by any monarch. This was a controversy indeed, but not associated with Cardinal Sarto directly. It was something which was not in Sarto’s control.
So where does the controversy lie? I remember the line “to restore all things in Christ” many times in our church. I wasn’t aware of the background and no one explained it to us. Pope Pius X‘s predecessor, Pope Leo had opened the Vatican archives for historians for research, a move according to me was to show that there are no hidden bones anywhere in the church. Many modernist s questioned Christianity in due course.
As soon as Cardinal Sarto became Pope Pius X, he embarked on a mission of restoring all things back to Christ and was extremely severe on them. Some intellects had doubts about churches proclamation that Moses had written the first 5 books of the bible, or Matthew’s gospel was the first of the four to be written etc. Pope Pius X had ordered all Catholics sternly to accept what was told in the bible. He was very harsh against these modernists. Thus he might have mishandled the delicate matter of balancing the modern intellects and faith. This was the controversy which I was referring to in the first paragraph. There were also some political issues in France which added to these controversies. He was more of a spiritual pope, than a political pope. Career diplomats in the Vatican were replaced by clergymen: another reason why his papacy is termed as “controversial”.
Pope Pius X died on August 20th heartbroken by the outbreak of the World War 1. He was a very devout person and encouraged the Eucharistic devotion. He also lowered the age to receive communion and also restored the Gregorian chant into the liturgy. He was canonized 40 years later and has ever since been a favourite saint of many people. He is one of the few incorruptible saints and his body is still in Vatican for the faithful to see.
Well, I have a few things to say as a young catholic from Udupi diocese. I hope many priests and clergymen read this article and agree with me, when I say that as Catholics, we are less aware about our religion. For instance, I was asked by a taxi driver the other day to state the best part about Christianity. I wasn’t able to say anything. I was completely out of words. Well maybe I am the one to be blamed for this unawareness. But from where do get this knowledge? Catechism classes are of great help, but are they effective? We were taught some prayers, some biblical stories in lower classes and then some completely difficult to grasp kind of philosophies in higher classes. To be frank, I was happy to finish catechism after 11thand my convenient reason for not attending 12th catechism classes was tuitions. Now ,I am not even sure whether there were classes for 12th grade.
I am of the opinion that every parish should have a small library with divine, historical and theological books. As a new diocese, I feel it is the right time to inculcate reading habits into young children. Any doubts encountered could be easily cleared by the parish priest. It would a great educational experience for youngsters to read about their favourite saints, their life and maybe give them an opportunity to serve the lord better. Now this is again a delicate matter for the diocese authorities to decide whether to spend too much money on library buildings or on books.
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