Pope Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto aka Pius X
(4.08.1903 – 20.08.1914)
Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was elected Pope on August 4, 1903.
He took the name “Pius” (Pious) and the motto “Omnia instaurare in Christo” (Renew everything in Christ).
In order to realize the motto of his pontificate, Pope Pius X encouraged the faithful to great Eucharistic devotion and frequent reception of Holy Communion.
He strongly condemned modernism, describing it as “the synthesis of all heresies.”
He expressed this in the decree of “Lamentabili”, the encyclical “Pascendi Dominici Gregis” and Motu proprio “Sacrorum antistitum”. From September 1, 1910, all candidates for the clergy had to submit The Oath against modernism.
In all his actions, he felt somewhat isolated. He did not find adequate support in achieving his goals related to the pontificate. He put it in words:
De gentibus non est vir mecum (From nations there is no man with me) – Iz 63, 3.
He always remembered the poorest, distributing charity and generously lefted little or nothing to material things for himself. He often used to say:
I was poor, I lived in poverty, and I want to die in poverty.
The end of his life was marked by great sadness because of the terrible attacks on the Catholic Church and the outbreak of I World War. He said:
I would happily give my life to spare terrible suffering for my poor children.
In 1954, he was canonized by the last Pope Pius XII.
Motu Proprio “Tra le sollecitudini” – On sacred Music
Sacred music must be holy, and must, therefore, exclude all profanity not only in itself, but in the manner in which it is presented by those who execute it. (…) The language proper to the Roman Church is Latin. Hence it is forbidden to sing anything whatever in the vernacular in solemn liturgical functions, much more to sing in the vernacular the variable or common parts of the Mass and Office. (…) On the same principle it follows that singers in church have a real liturgical office, and that therefore women, being incapable of exercising such office, cannot be admitted to form part of the choir.
Encyclical “Pascendi dominici gregis” – On the Doctrines of the Modernists
But since the Modernists (as they are commonly and rightly called) employ a very clever artifice, namely, to present their doctrines without order and systematic arrangement into one whole, scattered and disjointed one from another, so as to appear to be in doubt and uncertainty, while they are in reality firm and steadfast, it will be of advantage, Venerable Brethren, to bring their teachings together here into one group, and to point out the connexion between them, and thus to pass to an examination of the sources of the errors, and to prescribe remedies for averting the evil.
The Oath against modernism
I firmly embrace and accept each and every definition that has been set forth and declared by the unerring teaching authority of the Church.
(…)
I sincerely hold that the doctrine of faith was handed down to us from the apostles through the orthodox Fathers in exactly the same meaning and always in the same purport.
Encyclical “Humani generis” – On mistakes contrary to the Catholic faith
Unfortunately these advocates of novelty easily pass from despising scholastic theology to the neglect of and even contempt for the Teaching Authority of the Church itself, which gives such authoritative approval to scholastic theology. This Teaching Authority is represented by them as a hindrance to progress and an obstacle in the way of science. (…)
It is not surprising that novelties of this kind have already borne their deadly fruit in almost all branches of theology. It is now doubted that human reason, without divine revelation and the help of divine grace, can, by arguments drawn from the created universe, prove the existence of a personal God; it is denied that the world had a beginning; it is argued that the creation of the world is necessary, since it proceeds from the necessary liberality of divine love; it is denied that God has eternal and infallible foreknowledge of the free actions of men …
Encyclical “Iucunda sane” – On Saint Gregory the Great
He who through vainglory raises his neck against God Almighty and against the statutes of the Fathers, shall not bend my neck to him, not even with the cutting of swords, as I trust in the same God Almighty.
I am ready to die rather than permit that the Church degenerate in my days. And you know well my ways, that I am longsuffering; but when I decide not to bear any longer, I face danger with a joyful soul.
