The idea that the pope could be infallible might have remained a heresy had it not been for Pope Pius IX and his Vatican I Council, called by Pius and which met in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome 93 times between December 8, 1869, and September 1, 1870. How did he manage to get papal infallibility declared an official dogma? Catholic theologian Hans Küng, critical of this dogma, argues for four principle reasons: "Pius IX had a sense of divine mission which he carried to extremes; he engaged in double dealing; he was mentally disturbed; and he misused his office." Küng goes on to say:
- So repressive were the agenda and official procedures; so one-sided and partisan were the selection of main theological experts and the composition of both the conciliar commissions and the conciliar presidium; so numerous were the means of pressure (moral, psychological, church-political, newspaper campaigns, threatened withdrawal of financial support, harassment by the police) to which the bishops of the anti-Infallibilist minority and the Infallibilist majority were exposed; so varied were the forms of manipulation applied, at the pope's behest, to advance the definition before, during, and after the Council that...as painful and embarrassing as it may be to admit, this Council resembled a well-organized and manipulated totalitarian party congress rather than a free gathering of Christian people.
Hans Küng served as a parish priest in Lucerne, Switzerland, before becoming assistant in dogmatic theology at the University of Münster, West Germany. He was official theologian for the 2nd Vatican Council. As far as Küng is concerned, the freedom of the First Vatican Council was so severely compromised that the infallibility doctrine it devised cannot be regarded as an authentic or authoritative Catholic teaching. For writing such things, he was in 1979 forbidden from teaching theology in the name of the Catholic Church.
Pope Pius IX
Ultramontanism is not Pius IX's only claim to fame — a number of important changes were made during his tenure. For example, in 1854 he declared the dogma of Immaculate Conception. According to this dogma, Mary was protected from all sin — even original sin — because she had been chosen to become the mother of Jesus. This was the first time in the history of the Catholic Church that a Pope had taken it upon himself to proclaim a doctrine or dogma without first consulting a council.
Regarded by many as having inaugurated the modern Catholic Church, Pius IX is also noted for his vitriolic reaction against many basic trends in modernity. Of particular note was his creation of the Syllabus of Errors which listed 80 ideas that Catholics were forbidden to accept. Among the list were such nasty things like rationalism, communism, liberalism, freedom of speech, freedom of worship/religion, national churches without papal authority, recognition of religions other than Catholicism, democracy, marriage as a civil institution, and secular schools run by the state. The Syllabus also specifically rejected the idea that the papacy and, by extension, the Roman Catholic Church, could even be reconciled with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization.
Pius IX had little chance to enjoy his infallibility. The Franco-Prussian war started on the day after the vote. Because of this, France withdrew troops protecting the Vatican from the Kingdom of Sardinia and as soon as the French moved out, Sardinian troops moved in. On September 20, 1870, all of Rome except the Vatican itself was annexed and Pius became a "prisoner of the Vatican." Perhaps that was a fitting end for a pope who worked so hard to make psychological and intellectual prisoners of the millions of Catholics who looked to him for guidance.
