28 Facts About Pope Pius X

1. Pope Pius X was more conciliatory toward the Italian government, relaxing the church's strictures on participation by Roman Catholics in political life.

2. The Pope Pius X avoided long ceremonies, canonizations and consistories and displayed hesitancy in personnel matters.

3. Pope Pius X warned the Allies of the planned German invasion of the Low Countries in 1940.

4. Pope Pius X laid down seven conditions under which a Catholic might vote for political candidates.

5. Pope Pius X had uneasy relations with Germany, Austria, and the United States for the same reasons.

6. Pope Pius X was born in Italy to parents that had immigrated to Italy after the Prussian occupation.

7. In November 1913, Pope Pius X declared tango dancing as immoral and off-limits to Catholics.

8. Pope Pius X sought to update the education of priests, seminaries and their curricula were reformed.

9. On 8 July 1914, Pope Pius X approved the request of Cardinal James Gibbons to invoke the patronage of the Immaculate Conception for the construction site of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.

10. Pope Pius X was very popular among American Catholics, partly due to his poor background, which made him appear to them as an ordinary person who was on the papal throne.

11. Pope Pius X opposed trade unions that were not exclusively Catholic.

12. Pope Pius X suspended the Opera dei Congressi, which coordinated the work of Catholic associations in Italy, as well as condemning Le Sillon, a French social movement that tried to reconcile the church with liberal political views.

13. Pope Pius X established regional seminaries, and promulgated a new plan of seminary study.

14. On 19 March 1904, Pope Pius X named a commission of cardinals to draft a universal set of laws.

15. Pope Pius X encouraged the formation and efforts of Sodalitium Pianum, an anti-Modernist network of informants, which was seen negatively by many people due to its accusations of heresy against people on the flimsiest evidence.

16. Pope Pius X arrived on foot wearing a cope and mitre at the end of the procession of prelates "almost hidden behind the double line of Palatine Guards through which he passed".

17. Pope Pius X sought to modify papal ceremonies to underscore their religious significance by eliminating occasions for applause.

18. The Pope Pius X announced a return to earlier musical styles, championed by Lorenzo Perosi.

19. Pope Pius X had a physical body like every other man: and as savior of the human family, he had a spiritual and mystical body, the Church.

20. Pope Pius X carried candy in his pockets for the street urchins in Mantua and Venice, and taught catechism to them.

21. Pope Pius X developed a reputation as being very friendly with children.

22. Pope Pius X was well known for cutting down on papal ceremonies.

23. Pope Pius X was appointed to the honorary position of assistant at the pontifical throne on 19 June 1891.

24. Pope Pius X became popular with the people when he worked to assist the sick during the cholera plague that swept into northern Italy in the early 1870s.

25. Pope Pius X was beatified in 1951 and was canonized as a Catholic saint on 29 May 1954.

26. Pope Pius X rejected any kind of favours for his family, to which his close relatives chose to remain in poverty living near Rome.

27. Pope Pius X advanced the Liturgical Movement as the only Pope to favor the use of the vernacular language in teaching catechesis, he encouraged the frequent reception of holy communion, and he lowered the age for First Communion, which became a lasting innovation of his papacy.

28. Pope Pius X directed the production of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the first comprehensive and systemic work of its kind.