Pope Pius X: Defender of Tradition and Opponent of Modernism
Pope Pius X (1903-1914)
Background
Known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine and promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox theology, Pius X defended the Catholic faith against popular 19th-century attitudes and views such as indifferentism and relativism, which his predecessors had warned against. He followed the example of Leo XIII by promoting Thomas Aquinas and Thomism as the principal philosophical method to be taught in Catholic institutions. Pius X vehemently opposed modernism, which claimed that Roman Catholic dogma should be modernized and blended with nineteenth-century philosophies. He viewed modernism as an import of secular errors affecting three areas of Roman Catholic belief: theology, philosophy, and dogma. Considered a holy person by many, public veneration of Pope Pius X began soon after his death. Numerous petitions resulted in an early process of beatification, which started in the 1920s and resulted in his canonization on 29 May 1954.
Vehementer Nos
Vehementer Nos is a papal encyclical promulgated by Pope Pius X on February 11, 1906. Occasioned by the French law of 1905 providing for the separation of church and state, it denounced the proposition that the state should be separated from the Church as “a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error”.
Notre Charge Apostolique
Notre Charge Apostolique (Our Apostolic Mandate) was a papal encyclical promulgated by Pope Pius X on August 15, 1910. The Pope took issue with what he viewed as the socialist leanings of the Catholic ‘Le Sillon’ movement of Marc Sangnier. He said that Sillonists wanted to completely level social differences and to create a “One World Church” by joining “unbelievers”. The Pope emphasized that a Catholic view of social justice meant considering the needs of both the powerful and poor. The Sillonists, he said, did not accept that authority comes from God down to the authorized leaders and from there to the people.
Pascendi Dominici Gregis
Pascendi Dominici Gregis (“Feeding the Lord’s Flock”) was a Papal encyclical letter promulgated by Pope Pius X on 8 September 1907. The pope condemned Modernism and a whole range of other principles described as “evolutionary”, which allowed change to Roman Catholic dogma. Pius X instituted commissions to cleanse the clergy of theologians promoting Modernism and some of its (liturgical) consequences. Traditionalist Catholics point to this document as evidence that pre-Vatican II popes were highly concerned about enemies of Christendom infiltrating the human element of the Catholic Church. The encyclical’s ghost writer was Joseph Lemius, procurator general of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. It enjoined a compulsory Anti-Modernist oath introduced on 1 September 1910, whereby all Catholic bishops, priests, and teachers were forced to come to clear terms with what they believed; this oath remained in force until it was abolished by Pope Paul VI in 1967. When the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under the authority of Pope John Paul II, mandated the use of a new Oath of Fidelity in 1989, some theologians labelled it as a new kind of anti-modernist oath.