SAINT PIUS X (1835-1914)

August 21

Presidential vetoes we understand. But imagine vetoing a papal election! Yet in the conclave of 1903, the Archbishop of Cracow (ironically, a predecessor in that office of Karol Wojtyla, the future John Paul II) vetoed the leading candidate on the order of the Austro-Hungarian emperor. Instead, the cardinals elected Giuseppe Sarto of Venice as Pius X, the first pope, after a succession of nobles and diplomats, to hail from humble origins. Nor did the papacy alter his endearing simplicity. Tailors eventually made his cassock cuffs detachable because he absentmindedly wiped his fountain pen on them, forgetting that his old black cassock had been replaced by papal white! Taking as his motto “To restore all things in Christ” (Ephesians 1:10), Pius condemned the theological innovations called “modernism,” yet dramatically altered the then-common practice whereby people rarely received Communion for fear of unworthiness, mandating early First Communion and urging everyone to frequent reception. Refusing to bless troops assembled in Saint Peter’s Square—“I bless peace, not war!”—he died brokenhearted as World War I engulfed Christian Europe despite his peacemaking efforts. — Peter Scagnelli,  Copyright © J. S. Paluch Co.