Earlier this month, Pope John Paul II stirred international controversy when he beatified two of his predecessors: Popes Pius IX and John XXIII. While Pope John was beloved by Roman Catholics worldwide, the selection of Pius - also known as Pio Nono - has drawn loud criticism from some church leaders. Time, PBS and other national and international media - and now the GSJ's Mary Jo Curtis - have since turned to anthropology Professor David Kertzer, author of 1997's acclaimed "The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara," for his take on the pope's action.
Pius IX, the longest reigning pope in Church history (1846-78), was a fierce opponent of modernity and a strident foe of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. He rooted out the liberal wing of the Church and threatened excommunication of any who recognized the legitimacy of the new Italian state that arose in 1861. His role in the taking of Edgardo Mortara, a 6-year-old Jewish child, from his family in 1858 also has stirred resentment against him. In that case, he ruled that a Jewish child who had been secretly baptized by a family servant could not remain with his parents unless they converted. He weathered fierce international protests and took on the role of the child's adoptive father, replacing his own father.
Is the Mortara case indicative of Pius' rule? Or has it overshadowed good works and accomplishments that warrant his beatification?
The argument for his beatification is that Pius IX was a personally pious man, entirely devoted to the Church, and that everything he did was motivated by devotion to what he perceived as the welfare of the Church.
Pius IX and John XXIII would seem to be very different men who sought and cultivated dramatically different relationships with members of other religions. Is it odd that John Paul II has chosen to beatify them at the same time?
It is odd because, while Pius IX stood for opposition to modern times and hostility toward all other religions, John XXIII is known for undoing his work by trying to bring the Church into harmony with such doctrines as the belief in basic human rights and, especially, championing the respect of other religions.
What does the beatification of Pius IX say - if anything - about the future direction of the Catholic Church? Does it signal a return to a more conservative position? A move away from ecumenism?
Observers of the Church - including important voices of the liberal wing of the Church in Europe and America - see John Paul's decision to beatify Pius IX as not only a sop to the conservative wing of the Church, but also an indication of a broader movement toward the right within the Vatican. A number of liberal Catholic magazines have come out against the beatification. Just days after the beatification a major Vatican statement was issued seeming to reject many of the ecumenical principles of the Second Vatican Council.