Gregory XVI

Gregory XVI (in Latin: Gregorius PP. XVI), secular name Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari Pagani Gesa (Belluno, September 18, 1765-Rome, June 1, 1846) was a Camaldolese religious, elected in 254.º Pope of the Catholic Church, between 1831 and 1846.

Biography

Origins

He was baptized Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari Pagani Gesa, but he replaced his names with Mauro when he professed in the Order of Camaldula. He was the son of Giovanni Battista Cappellari and his wife Giulia Pagani Cesa-Pagani, both members of the minor nobility.

Previous studies and activities

When he was eighteen years old, he showed signs of a religious vocation and, after some family opposition, in 1783 he entered the novitiate of the Camaldolese monastery of San Miguel de Murano (near Venice), of the Rule of San Benito, taking the name of Mauro. He soon distinguished himself by his aptitude for theology and linguistics. Three years later he made his solemn vows and in 1787 he was ordained a priest, devoting much of his activity to teaching theology.

He gained great notoriety in 1799 with the publication of a work against the Italian Jansenists entitled Il trionfo della Santa Sede e della Chiesa contro gli assaulti de' novatori, respinti e combattuti colle stesse loro armi (dedicated to Pope Pius VI when he was held captive by the French), a work that was translated into several European languages. Twice episcopal ordination was offered to him, but he refused it. In 1805 he was elected abbot of the Roman monastery of San Gregorio al Celio and in 1807 he was appointed attorney general of his Order, but the occupation of Rome by Napoleonic troops forced him to return to that of San Michele di Murano, near Venice, precisely the Camaldolese monastery where he had professed as a young man.

He returned to Rome in 1814 to, without leaving his abbey, be appointed consultant to the Congregation for Extraordinary Affairs of the Holy See and, two years later, to the Holy Office. In 1818 he was appointed examiner general of theology of the Congregation of Bishops, in 1820 consultor of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide , in 1823 he was elected general of his Order, and in 1826 prefect of that Congregation; From that congregation he successfully negotiated a concordat with William of the Netherlands, which provided a framework of freedom for the Begas Catholics, and with the Ottoman Empire, which favored the Armenian Catholics.

In 1821 he was entrusted with the revision of the Sacred Books of the Oriental Churches. Also in that year he was entrusted with the apostolic visitation to the universities of Perugia, Camerino, Macerata and Fermo.

Cardinalate

In 1825 he was created cardinal in pectore and his appointment was made public the following year, receiving the title of San Calixto. In 1826 he was named prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide . He participated in the 1829 conclave that elected Pope Pius VIII.

Papal election

Gregory XVI, 1834

When Pius VIII died, there was a candidate who had the majority support, to the point that his election was taken for granted and that the conclave would be a pure procedure. It was Giacomo Giustiniani, cardinal of the title of Ss. Pietro e Marcellino and Archbishop-Bishop of Imola. However, Cardinal Juan Francisco Marco y Catalán, deacon of S. Agata alla Suburra, camerlengo and vice-governor of Rome, was in charge of presenting to the assembled cardinals the veto interposed by King Ferdinand VII of Spain against the election of Giustiniani, who had been nuncio in Madrid and to whom that The king imputed serious responsibilities in the revolutionary events that occurred in Spain in the previous decade. This veto made the election very complicated, so fifty days of discussions and thirty-eight votes had to elapse in the conclave for a majority to be formed in favor. by Mauro Cappellari.

He was elected pope on February 2, 1831. Since he was not a bishop (the last of the popes who was not at the time of his election), he had to be immediately consecrated by Cardinal Bartolomeo Pacca, dean of the College cardinal. On the same day he was crowned Supreme Pontiff by Cardinal Giuseppe Albani, Protodeacon of Santa Maria in Via Lata.

Papacy

Sovereign of the Papal States

A few days after beginning his pontificate, on February 4, 1831, an insurrection broke out in Bologna that gave way to a provisional government that, in a short time, rejected the pope's sovereignty over that city and its province. The insurrection spread to other provinces of the Papal States and the Pope had to resort to the help of the Austrian Empire to restore the situation. Austrian troops took Bologna on February 25, the Provisional Government fled to Ancona; on April 5 the Pope was able to say that order had been restored.

In the same month of April, representatives of the five powers met in Rome: Austria, Russia, France, Prussia and England. Under the gaze of the pope, but without his participation in the conference, an agreement was reached embodied in a memorandum for "Reform of the Papal States"; (May 21, 1831), many of them, but not all, were accepted by the pope, especially those that reorganized the local government into three levels (legations, provinces, and municipalities) and the judiciary. "However, all these reforms, despite their extent, were far from satisfying the objectives of the revolutionary party. The Austrian troops were withdrawn on July 15, 1831, but in December a large part of the Papal States revolted again", and the submission of the rebels again demanded the intervention of Austrian troops, and as a protest France took and retained Ancona -belonging to the Papal States- in violation of international law.

International relations

On November 29, 1830, an uprising against the Tsar of Russia (Nicholas I) took place in Poland to enforce their faith and freedoms; Once the uprising was crushed, Russia threatened strong repression if the people did not respect the authorities, and sent a formal request to the Pope to call the Poles to obedience. The Pope wrote the encyclical Cum primum in this sense; the Russian government abused it by altering its meaning and increased the persecution of the Poles. Faced with those facts

In his speech at the consistory of July 22, 1842, he denied that he would have wanted to cover with a veil of silence the evils that oppressed Poland and that he had abandoned the cause of the Catholic religion to please the Tsar. All of Europe was moved by reading the pontifical protest.

Castella (1970), p. 283.

During his pontificate, the Holy See broke off diplomatic relations with Spain and Portugal (1835-1840), as well as with Prussia due to mixed marriages and with Russia due to the Tsarist persecution of Ruthenian Catholics.

In 1841 and with the brief Afflictas in Hispania Gregory XVI protested the interference of the government of Madrid in the appointments of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the recent suppression of religious orders; the Spanish authorities were warned of the canonical penalties that their decisions entailed. The fall of Espartero and the accession to the throne of Isabel II (1833) allowed the Holy See's relationship with Spain to resume.

Through the Royal Board of Trustees, the Hispanic Monarchy had mediated and controlled the relations of the Holy See with the Church in Spanish America. With Isabel II on the throne, Spain recognized the American independence and the royal Board of Trustees was left without effect or was reconsidered, so that the Vatican was able to establish direct diplomatic relations between the Spanish-American republics with Mexico in 1836, with Colombia in 1835 or Chile, the April 13, 1840.

Defense of the doctrine and propagation of the faith

The revolutions in France and the Netherlands meant that the pope, from the very beginning of his pontificate, had to face the pressures that, from both sides, asked him to condemn or approve the change; "in August 1831, he issued the Report Sollicitudo Ecclesiarum, in which he reiterated the declarations of the former pontiffs on the independence of the Church and their refusal to become entangled in dynastic politics". In accordance with these principles, he acted when the situation in some countries demanded his intervention, motivated only by the defense of the faith and ecclesiastical discipline.^{[citation required]}

On August 15, 1832, the pope published the encyclical Mirari vos; it was the inaugural encyclical of his pontificate, though liberal disturbances in the Papal States had delayed it by more than a year. In it, he condemned, although he did not expressly name them, the formulas that the newspaper L'Avenir and Lamennais proposed for the realization from the Catholic camp of the republic in France: freedom of the press and the separation of Church and State. About this last approach the pope wrote:

The greatest misfortunes would fall upon religion and nations, if the desires of those seeking the separation of the Church and the State were fulfilled, and the concord between the priesthood and the civil pruning would be broken. It is in fact that supporters of unbridled freedom are trembled at the concord, which was always favorable and so healthy, as well as for religion as for peoples

Encyclical Mirari vos

Although the encyclical implied a clear doctrinal condemnation of political liberalism as an ideology, it was not directed directly and exclusively against it but rather against religious indifferentism, Gallicanism and, therefore, against regalism in any of its forms. But, in general terms, during his ecclesiastical management he showed a conservative spirit. His "traditionalist and exclusive" position against modernity was reflected in the veto imposed during his papacy on the railway and gas lighting in the Papal States.

The Congress of Vienna had assigned the Catholic Rhineland provinces to Prussia, the Berlin government tried to get Catholic priests to participate in the celebration of mixed marriages, whose rites and conditions had been determined by the Count of Bunsen, who aspired to a Prussian national church. Gregory XVI, following the criteria set by Pius VIII, firmly rejected that possibility; and protested against the imprisonment of two bishops faithful to the pope. The Prussian government sought the support of some dissident Catholics, followers of Georg Hermes, a professor of Dogmatics in Bonn who had tried from Kantianism to a synthesis of philosophy and dogma; although Hermes died in 1831, within the Church, his doctrines were condemned by the pope, with the brief Dum acerbisimas ., replaced the Catholic of Cologne, did not reach its goal.

This pope, who had been Prefect of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide, paid special attention to the work of the missions, he was highly critical of slavery, which continued to be practiced in many countries, especially in America; Whenever he could, he took advantage of the more or less benevolent attitude of the American governments to spread the Church in those countries, resulting in one of the most responsible for Catholic progress in America. He founded the Holy Childhood Work, through which he was able to collect funds from the most modest pockets.

The Roman Curia and the city of Rome

At the beginning of his pontificate, Gregory XVI appointed Tommaso Bernetii as pro-Secretary of State, whom he appointed as Secretary of State a few months later. In 1836 he was relieved of his post by Luigi Lambruschini, who was Secretary of State until 1845.

In his fifteen years of pontificate Gregory XVI created 75 cardinals, of which 29 were in pectore. However, six names of the latter were never revealed. Bearing in mind that 45 cardinals participated in the conclave that elected him, the number of his appointments is considerable. Thus, at his death there were 69 cardinals, although in the conclave that elected his successor, Pius IX, only 54 participated.

The world of arts owes him the restoration of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, destroyed by fire in 1830, and the creation of the Etruscan, Egyptian, and Christian Museum. In 1839, Gregory XVI promoted the acquisition, for the Calcografia Camerale, from numerous engraved plates by the famous Piranesi that were preserved (and continued to be printed) in the Firmin-Didot workshop in Paris. The Calcografia, along with said matrices, subsists in Rome under the tutelage of the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica.

Detail of the tomb of Gregory XVI, in the Basilica of Saint Peter

Death

At the beginning of the year 1846, the Pope had a premonition of his near end and wrote in his will:

We, Gregory XVI, unworthy heir to the Chair of Saint Peter, bearing in mind the hour of our death and the call of the divine court..., entrust our poor soul to Our Lord Jesus Christ... We entrust the same divine Redeemer the Church, her beloved Bride, in the many tribulations and persecutions that assault her

Citado den Catella (1970), p. 298.

On May 20, 1846, the pope felt ill; On May 16, he developed erysipelas on his face. At first the attack was not thought to be serious, but on May 31 his forces suddenly failed and the end was seen to be near. He died early on June 1, with only two attendants near him; His last words, when reminded of the great works of his pontificate, were humbly, "I want to die as a monk, not as a Sovereign."

He is entombed in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, in a mausoleum, which was paid for by the cardinals that had been created by him. The work, carried out by the sculptor Luigi Amici, began in 1848 and was completed in 1857. It is located at the beginning of the ambulatory, the image of the Pope rests on a base with a bas-relief that represents the institution of the Missions by the Pontiff.. Two figural allegorical figures, on the sides of the base represent wisdom and prudence. The mausoleum is located above the door that gives access to the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.

The prophecies of St. Malachy refer to this pope as De balnes Etruriæ (Of the Baths of Etruria) a citation that apparently refers to his being a member of the Camaldolese Order founded in a place called Balneum (="baths") and then Balni (same meaning), in Etruria.

Pontifical documents of Gregory XVI