Pope Saint Pius X

Rating:
Summary: Review of Yves Chiron's biography POPE SAINT PIUS X
Review: This book is for people who either know a lot about Pius X or about 19th-20th Century Catholic church history. If you are looking for a general overview of this saint's life, it is not for you.
I have read many books about St. Pius X, so I wanted to read this, even though at times I found it extremely dry. It is a work by a scholar for a scholar. Pius X is a much maligned pope, especailly by historians of the 1960's to the 1970's, non-Christians most of them, secular thinkers who consider the Roman church a political rather than a religious institution. Gimme a break.

Mr Charon certianly suceeds in giving poor Pius X a break, showing this pope's actions in the light of one who put God first in his life. Pius was not a reactionary, but a reformer of the church. For one thing, from the time Pius was a curate, all the way till he was pope, he strongly emphasized religious education for adults. And acted on it. No confusion about the Real Presence vs. symbolism when HE was around. Mr. Charon gives many more examples of Pius's emphasis of the Church promoting the Christian religion rather than some political nonsense.

I agree strongly with the belief that "a person,s work cannot be properly evaluated till at least 100 years after his death." People who wrote in the '60's and 70's were all gaga with Vatican II, and blind to history before 1962. As historians, I really can't figure where they were coming from. Mr. Chiron shows us how people living in the 19th century are perfectly natural to act in 19th century ways.

Note: One cute mistake in this book was a photographic one. Those who who laid out the photographs got mixed up. instead of publishing a photo of Joseph Sarto (later Pius X) as Patriarch of Venice (1902) they published Angelo Roncalli, who was Patriarch of Venice in 1953. Roncalli later became John XXIII.
Aloysha Sipp