Anyone with devotion to Christ the King will be very familiar with Pope Pius XI. He was one of the greatest Pontiffs of recent history and occupied the Throne of St Peter at a crucial time for the Church. His greatest goals were to bring Christ to all people and make Christ the most important thing in the lives of all Christians. He was a native of Desio, Italy born on May 31, 1857 to a silk factory manager. His birth name was Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti. After joining the Church he served in many areas, particularly in educational vocations, and during his rise from priest to cardinal served as Archbishop of Milan, Italy. He was elected Pope on February 6, 1922 and took the name Pius XI, carrying on the tradition of St Pius X.
Pius was 64-years-old at the time of his coronation, which surprised many people who met him for the first time. He had the youthful energy and zeal of someone much younger. He set to work immediately on his overrall goal to spread and strengthen Christianity throughout the world. He made the Church seem less archaic by advancing the sciences, education and artwork. He was also a great patron of foreign missions, bringing forth great advances in China, Japan, India and Indochina. He also caused quite a stir by appointing local native clergy to lead these new parishes. For the first time minorities were playing a major part in the establishment of new Churches and missions.
Pius XI also encouraged reconciliation with the Eastern Orthodox Churches and opposed the Protestant ecumenical movement in his goal of Christian unity. He promoted clergy-laity partnerships and emphasized the need for Christ in all aspects of our lives. This also led to the creation of the Feast Day of Christ the King, which he put forward in his encyclical Quas Primas on December 11, 1925. In this wonderful document he spoke of the empire of Christ over all the world and how much suffering and hardship is caused when people deny the authority and Divine Royalty of Christ over the entire world. He was always firm that loyalty to God should come before all other loyalties in the hearts of mankind.
This was especially important since, after a long series of negotiations with Mussolini, the Italian dictator, Pope Pius XI at last accomplished his goal of peace with the Italian State by signing the Lateran Treaty of February 11, 1929 in which the Holy See recognized the Kingdom of Italy and their ownership of former Papal territories, in return for which the Vatican was given the status of an independent neutral country. Pius XI also recognized communism as the greatest long-term threat to the world, but also wrote an encyclical condemning Fascism for its "pagan worship of the state". In 1937 he denounced Nazism as anti-Christian and ordered his letter ("With Burning Sorrow") to be read in every Catholic Church. He made it clear that it was not possible to be a Nazi as well as a Catholic.
Naturally relations with the Italian State declined, especially after Italy began adopting Nazi practices and racial policies. In America, the Church in Mexico came under attack in a series of brutal persecutions in which the Mexican government tried to wipe out Christianity from its very cradle in the New World. The Pope called their actions "Diocletian" in relation to the severe oppression of Christians at the hands of the 3rd Century Emperor Diocletian of Rome. Just before World War II in Europe, Pope Pius XI died after reigning for 17 years. Upon hearing the news Mussolini said, "At last that stubborn old man is dead". I'm sure His Holiness would have taken it as a compliment. |
