Saturday 21 August 2021
Pope St Pius X
Saint Pius X was born on June 2, 1835, his name being
Giuseppe Sarto. He was
one of 11 children, and though poor, his parents valued education, and Giuseppe
walked 3 miles to school each day. Pius X was a fervent reformer of Church
practices and regulations such as the Canon Law, his most important reform,
which for the first time codified Church law in a central fashion. He was a
pastoral pope, encouraging personal piety and a life-style reflecting Christian
values. Pope Pius X was a Marian Pope and also the only Pope in the 20th century with extensive pastoral
experience at the Parish level and pastoral concerns permeated his papacy. The
Catechism of Pope Pius X is short and direct. His teachings were considered
equally down to earth and practical. He favored the use of modern language in
Catechesis. Frequent communion was a lasting innovation of Pius X, because
before his time, people could only receive communion once a month and, on
special occasions, on Sunday. He was also instrumental in introducing the
custom of First Holy Communion for young children. Like his predecessor, Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) Pius opposed
modernism, a school of thought, which claimed that Catholic dogma itself should
be modernized and blended with 19th Century philosophies. Personally Pius combined within himself a strong sense of
compassion, benevolence, poverty, but also stubbornness, and a certain
stiffness. He wanted to be pastor and was the only Pope in the 20th century who
gave Sunday sermons every week. His
charity was extraordinary, filling the Vatican with refugees from the 1908
Messina quake, long before the Italian government began to act on its own. He
rejected any kind of favors for his family, his brother remained a postal
clerk, his favorite nephew stayed on as village priest, and his three sisters
lived together close to poverty in Rome. He often referred to his own
humble origins, taking up the causes of poor people. “I was born poor, I have lived poor, and I wish to die
poor." Considered a holy person by many, public veneration of Pope Pius X
began soon after his death. He died August 20, 1914 and was canonized in 1954,
after his body was exhumed and displayed under a side-altar where priests can
celebrate Mass, many of which I was lucky to serve as an altar boy in 1966.
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