For a total of about 10 hours today and yesterday I've been working on a history paper about Pope Pius IX's controversial writing, The Syllabus of Errors, in which he condemns 80 propositions of contemporary thought. The fact that he did this is not in and of itself completely appalling, it seems reasonable that he would want to defend the institution that he is leading, but what IS crazy is that the publishing of this document completely contradicts his previous stances regarding the liberal movement in Italy. When the previous pope died, Pius IX was one of the liberal candidates for the papacy, and once he was elected, he set in motion what was thought to be the process of modernization of the states under the power of the pope. The Italians loved him, and even dreamed of creating an Italian federation presided over by him. But then we have 1848, Mazzini, a revolution, and war being declared with Austria, which was being lead by an extremely devout Catholic dynasty...so the Pope stayed true to his doctrine and denonced the war, fled Rome, and came back two years later a staunch conservative, ready to condemn all aspects of liberalism, enlightenment, etc. in order to gain the admiration of the intransigents of the Catholic church.
Anyway, long story short, Pius IX had no real backbone, and I hope the Catholic church never decides to make him a saint.
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