Cardinal Bertone pays tribute to Blessed Pius IX, refers to Irish abuse scandal

February 19, 2010

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone paid tribute to Blessed Pius IX during a recent Mass commemorating the tenth anniversary of his beatification. The Pontiff reigned from 1846 to 1878.

Recalling Pope Pius’s ardent love for the poor and devotion to the Holy Eucharist, Cardinal Bertone noted that the future Pope shunned a career in the Curia so that he could serve as a pastor. Cardinal Bertone note that Pope Pius convened the First Vatican Council and issued the 1854 bull that defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Cardinal Bertone noted the continuing relevance Nemo Certe Ignorat, Blessed Pius’s 1852 encyclical to the Irish hierarchy on clerical discipline. The cardinal quoted the following passage:

Each one of you knows very well how eager the Church is, especially in these hard times, to have suitable servants, who come only from well-trained clerics. Therefore devote all your care, thoughts, and diligent study to this, that the young clergy, even from their earliest years, are trained in all piety, virtue, and ecclesiastical spirit, and that they are carefully taught literature and the more serious disciplines, especially the sacred ones …

 

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Further information:

• Celebrazione Eucaristica in occasione del 10° anniversario di beatificazione del Beato Pio IX (Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le mura, 7 febbraio 2010)
• Bl. Pius IX, Nemo Certe Ignorat