Pope Pius XI

Pope Pius XI was born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti on May 31, 1857 in Desio, Italy.  He was the son of Teresa and Francesco Ratti, who owned a silk factory.  His siblings included Edoardo, Fermo, and Carlo.

Achille, as he was called, loved learning and was an avid mountain climber.  He became a priest in 1879 and taught at the Milan Seminary.  Later, he was named the Vice Prefect of the Vatican Library under Pius X.

Pope Benedict XV made him Archbishop of Milan and a Cardinal at the same time in 1921.  When Benedict died, and after the longest conclave of the 20thcentury, Ratti was elected the 259thPope on February 6, 1922.  He took the name Pius XI and the Papal Motto: “Pax Christi in Regno Christi” (The Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ.)  As his first act as pope, he revived the traditional public blessing from the balcony, Urbi et Orbi.    In 1929, the Lateran Treaty was signed establishing Vatican City as an independent state and Pius XI became the First Sovereign of Vatican City.

Pius XI embraced technology and tried to use it to benefit the Church.  He established Vatican Radio, modernized the Vatican Library and founded the Academy of Sciences.

In 1925, Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King as a Day of Consecration to the Sacred Heart.  His encylical, Miserentissimus Redemptor,on May 8, 1928, made the Feast of the Sacred Heart a Day of Reparation.

… assuredly among those things which properly pertain to the worship of the Most Sacred Heart, a special place must be given to that Consecration, whereby we devote ourselves and all things that are ours to the Divine Heart of Jesus, acknowledging that we have received all things from the everlasting love of God.  To consecration … there must be added expiation. We decree and command that every year on the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus … the same expiatory prayer … to our Most Loving Savior, set forth in the same words according to the copy subjoined to this letter shall be solemnly recited so that all our faults may be washed away with tears, and reparation be made for the violated rights of Christ the Supreme King.


Prayer of Reparation 
by Pope Pius XI:

It was also mentioned that some seat styles were more destructive than the others. cialis cipla deeprootsmag.org Can chiropractic care help manage stress? My answer for this question would be http://deeprootsmag.org/2014/10/27/made-criminal-1939/ viagra cheap uk a big YES. Most colleges already have numbers along with literacy order cialis professional applications, but teachers remain for you to their very own gadgets for you to occur on top of interesting training pertaining to other subject locations. These treatments include: Vacuum pump treatment for impotence: A vacuum pump is made of Sildenafil citrate. cialis 5 mg http://deeprootsmag.org/category/departments/sky-above-earth-below/?feedsort=comment_count O sweetest Jesus, whose overflowing charity towards men is most ungratefully repaid by such great forgetfulness, neglect and contempt, see, prostrate before Thy altars, we strive by special honor to make amends for the wicked coldness of men and the contumely with which Thy most Loving Heart is everywhere treated.

At the same time, mindful of the fact that we too have sometimes not been free from unworthiness, and moved therefore with most vehement sorrow, in the first place we implore Thy mercy on us, being prepared by voluntary expiation to make amends for the sins we have ourselves committed, and also for the sins of those who wander far from the way of salvation, whether because, being obstinate in their unbelief, they refuse to follow Thee as their shepherd and leader, or because, spurning the promises of their Baptism, they have cast off the most sweet yoke of Thy law.

We now endeavor to expiate all these lamentable crimes together, and it is also our purpose to make amends for each one of them severally: for the want of modesty in life and dress, for impurities, for so many snares set for the minds of the innocent, for the violation of feast days, for the horrid blasphemies against Thee and Thy saints, for the insults offered to Thy Vicar and to the priestly order, for the neglect of the Sacrament of Divine Love or its profanation by horrible sacrileges, and lastly for the public sins of nations which resist the rights and the teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast instituted. Would that we could wash away these crimes with our own blood!

And now, to make amends for the outrages offered to the Divine honor, we offer to Thee the same satisfaction which Thou didst once offer to Thy Father on the Cross and which Thou dost continually renew on our altars, we offer this conjoined with the expiations of the Virgin Mother and of all the Saints, and of all pious Christians, promising from our heart that so far as in us lies, with the help of Thy grace, we will make amends for our own past sins, and for the sins of others, and for the neglect of Thy boundless love, by firm faith, by a pure way of life, and by a perfect observance of the Gospel law, especially that of charity; we will also strive with all our strength to prevent injuries being offered to Thee, and gather as many as we can to become Thy followers.

Receive, we beseech Thee, O most benign Jesus, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Reparatress, the voluntary homage of this expiation, and vouchsafe, by that great gift of final perseverance, to keep us most faithful until death in our duty and in Thy service, so that at length we may all come to that fatherland, where Thou with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest God for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Another encyclical, Caritate Christi Compelsi, given by Pius XI in 1932, furthered his emphasis on the need for reparation to the Sacred Heart as the remedy for a sick world, calling for prayer and expiation to the Sacred Heart in the present distress of the human race.

Pope Pius XI canonized St. Madeline Sophie Barat, who founded the Society of the Sacred Heart and St. John Eudes, known as the Apostle of the Sacred Heart.  Others he canonized included the Martyrs of North America, St. John Bosco, St. John Mary Vianney, St. Bernadette of Lourdes, St. Therese of Lisieux, and St. Thomas More.  Some of those he beatified included St. Claude de la Colombiere, St. Catherine Laboure, and St. Francis Xavier Cabrini.  Pius also affirmed that Jesus promised St. Margaret Mary Alacoque “that all those who rendered honor to His Heart would be endowed with an abundance of heavenly graces.”

Pope Pius XI suffered two heart attacks on November 25, 1938.  He gave his last major pontifical address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, speaking without a prepared text on the relation between science and the Catholic religion.  Pope Pius XI died at 5:31 A.M. of a third heart attack on February 10, 1939, at the age of 81. His last words to those near him at the time of his death were: “My soul parts from you all in peace.”

-Submitted by Karen Gorski