Athanasius Contra Mundum: June 21st, Anniversary of the coronation of Bl. Pius IX

Pope St. Leo the Great

"Out of the whole world one man, Peter, is chosen to preside at the calling of all nations, and to be set over all the apostles and all the fathers of the Church. Though there are in God’s people many shepherds, Peter is thus appointed to rule in his own person those whom Christ also rules as the original ruler. Whatever Christ has willed to be shared in common by Peter and the other leaders of the Church, it is only through Peter that he has given to others what he has not refused to bestow on them." -De Natali ipsius, 2

Pope St. Gregory the Great

"For when by the Lord’s resurrection we are led back to the world above, the damage done to the heavenly homeland is repaired. But now let us listen to what is said to the women as they arrive: “Do not be terrified.” It is as if to say, 'Let those be afraid who have no love for the coming of heaven’s citizens; let those be shaken who, under the pressure of carnal attraction, have given up hope of attaining their fellowship. But you, why should you become frightened o seeing your fellow-citizens?'"

Pope St. Pius V

"The inspired Blessed founder of the Order of Friars Preachers, [St. Dominic], in circumstances similar to those in which we now find ourselves, when parts of France and of Italy were unhappily troubled by the heresy of the Albegenses, which blinded so many of the worldly that they were raging most savagely against the priests of the Lord and the clergy, raised his eyes up unto heaven, unto that mountain of the Glorious Virgin Mary, loving Mother of God. For she by her seed has crushed the head of the twisted serpent, and has alone destroyed all heresies, and by the blessed fruit of her womb has saved a world condemned by the fall of our first parent." - Consueverunt Romani

Pope Benedict XIV

"Show your people with persuasive words that the sin and vice of usury is most emphatically condemned in the Sacred Scriptures; that it assumes various forms and appearances in order that the faithful, restored to liberty and grace by the blood of Christ, may again be driven headlong into ruin. Therefore, if they desire to invest their money, let them exercise diligent care lest they be snatched by cupidity, the source of all evil; to this end, let them be guided by those who excel in doctrine and the glory of virtue." -Vix Pervenit, no. 7

Pope Gregory XVI

"This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. "But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error," as Augustine was wont to say. When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin." -Mirari Vos, no. 14

Blessed Pope Pius IX

"By which impious opinions and machinations these most deceitful men chiefly aim at this result, viz., that the salutary teaching and influence of the Catholic Church may be entirely banished from the instruction and education of youth, and that the tender and flexible minds of young men may be infected and depraved by every most pernicious error and vice. For all who have endeavored to throw into confusion things both sacred and secular, and to subvert the right order of society, and to abolish all rights, human and divine, have always (as we above hinted) devoted all their nefarious schemes, devices and efforts, to deceiving and depraving incautious youth and have placed all their hope in its corruption." - Quanta Cura, no. 4

Pope Pius XI

"The ultimate consequences of the individualist spirit in economic life are those which you yourselves, Venerable Brethren and Beloved Children, see and deplore: Free competition has destroyed itself; economic dictatorship has supplanted the free market; unbridled ambition for power has likewise succeeded greed for gain; all economic life has become tragically hard, inexorable, and cruel. To these are to be added the grave evils that have resulted from an intermingling and shameful confusion of the functions and duties of public authority with those of the economic sphere - such as, one of the worst, the virtual degradation of the majesty of the State, which although it ought to sit on high like a queen and supreme arbitress, free from all partiality and intent upon the one common good and justice, is become a slave, surrendered and delivered to the passions and greed of men." -Quadragesimo Anno

Orestes Brownson

"No, I am by no means wedded to Americanism as understood and practised by my non Catholic countrymen. It may be destined to make the "tour of the globe" but I do not look to it or to any other possible political system for the regeneration of modern society or the salvation even of my own country. God may overrule evil for good but no political constitutions, changes revolutions, arrangements or adjustments whatever, if taken alone can do any thing for the progress of man and society. Without the Catholic Church, they are, to use a threadbare illustration "the play of Hamlet with the part of the prince of Denmark left out;" they lack the light the warmth and the life giving power of the sun and are what our material world would be were there no sun in the heavens." -Brownson's Quarterly Review, January 1878

Heinrich Pesch, S.J.

"Of the greatest importance for the general welfare and the public interest is the preservation of an extended middle- and small-sized type of farming, first of all, with regard to the economics of it, because here agriculture is carried on most intensively. In farm population which can work independently on its own soil and maintain itself by its own work, there will be a love of work, thrift, and morality, along with Christian family life, love of fatherland, and loyalty to God-given authority, and a sense of peace and order in social and political life." -Lehrbuch, vol. 4, book 2, p. 253.

St. Cassian of the Desert

"And why do you wonder that those duties enumerated above will cease, when the holy Apostle tells us that even the higher gifts of the Holy Spirit will pass away: and points out that charity alone will abide without end, saying "whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease: whether there be knowledge, it will come to an end," but of this he says "Charity never faileth." For all gifts are given for a time as use and need require, but when the dispensation is ended they will without doubt presently pass away: but love will never be destroyed." -The Institutes

St. John Chrysostom

"The divine law indeed has excluded women from the ministry, but they endeavor to thrust themselves into it; and since they can effect nothing of themselves, they do all through the agency of others; and they have become invested with so much power that they can appoint or eject priests at their will: things in fact are turned upside down, and the proverbial saying may be seen realized—“The ruled lead the rulers:” and would that it were men who do this instead of women, who have not received a commission to teach. Why do I say teach? For the blessed Paul did not suffer them even to speak in the Church. But I have heard some one say that they have obtained such a large privilege of free speech, as even to rebuke the prelates of the churches, and censure them more severely than masters do their own domestics." -On The Priesthood, Book III

St. Ambrose

St. Francis Xavier

"Then at last I baptize them in due form, and I give to each his name written on a ticket. After their baptism the new Christians go back to their houses and bring me their wives and families for baptism. When all are baptized I order all the temples of their false gods to be destroyed and all the idols to be broken in pieces. I can give you no idea of the joy I feel in seeing this done, witnessing the destruction of the idols by the very people who but lately adored them." -Letter from Cochin, 27 January 1545

St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort

St. Maxamilian Kolbe

"There is no greater enemy of the Immaculata and her Knighthood than today’s ecumenism, which every Knight must not only fight against, but also neutralize through diametrically opposed action and ultimately destroy. We must realize the goal of the Militia Immaculata as quickly as possible: that is, to conquer the whole world, and every individual soul which exists today or will exist until the end of the world, for the Immaculata, and through her for the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus." -The Immaculata Our Ideal, p. 37

22 June 2009

June 21st, Anniversary of the coronation of Bl. Pius IX

I had intended to put this yesterday on the anniversary of Pius IX's coronation, but it was impossible due to my time constraints. My current situation requires more work and prayer than blogging. But it is interesting that I have almost finished two biographies of Bl. Pius IX and this year June 21st occurred on a Sunday, just as it did 163 years ago when the triple crown was placed on his head.

Nevertheless, upon his election to the Papacy, Bl. Pius IX, one of the last truly great Popes in the Church, this most wonderful account is given:

"The Blessed God, who humbles and exalts has been pleased to raise me from insignificance to the most sublime dignity on earth. May his holy will be ever done. I am sensible to a certain extent of the immense weight of such a charge, and I also feel my utter incapacity, not to say, the entire nullity of my powers. Cause prayers to be offered, and do you also pray for me. The conclave has lasted forty-eight hours. If the city should wish to make any public demonstration on the occasion, I request that you will take measures-indeed I desire it-that the whole sum so destined to be applied to purposes which may be judged useful to the city, by the chief magistrate and the council. As to yourselves, my dear brothers, I embrace you with all my heart in Jesus Christ: and far from exulting, take pity on your brother who gives you all his apostolic blessing." (Rome, 16 June, at 11PM)

On Sunday, June 21st 1846, he was borne to St. Peter's where the chapter received him at the door singing Tu es Petrus. After kneeling in prayer before the altar of the blessed Sacrament, he received the homage of the cardinals beneath the chair of Saint Peter, whose successor he is. Then he assumed the pontifical vestments, and he moved in procession around the choir of the mighty basilica, till he reached the chapel of St. Processus and St. Martinianus, where the master of ceremonies lighted a bunch of flax, saying : "Holy Father, thus passeth the glory of the world." On his return to the altar Mass began. During it a cardinal descended to the tomb of the apostles, and intoned an ancient litany, which seemed to be the prayer of all the past ages of Christendom welling up from the grave to heaven. After the mass the Pope received the insignia of Pontiff and King. The Triple crown was placed on his head in the Loggia of the Vatican by the first cardinal deacon.
Pius IX began his wonderful reign, which was to be unexampled in length, remarkable in the great acts performed, in the great sufferings undergone.

-The Life of Pope Pius IX
John Gilmary Shea, LL.D
1878