An umbrella Jewish group dealing with Jewish-Catholic relations has bluntly told the Vatican that Pius IX doesn’t deserve to be a saint. Pius IX, a 19th-century pope who became infamous for ordering ...

I recently wrote about what I perceive as the overblown rhetoric in the debate over the mandate that health care plans cover contraception. The bishops complained that the conscience exception for ...

On Feb. 7, the Catholic Church remembers Blessed Pius IX, “Pius Nono,” the 255th pope. His pontificate is the second longest in history — a total of 31 years, seven months, and 22 days (June 16, ...

The Vatican meets Chanel No. 5. In a San Rafael kitchen, a 69-year-old doctor says he has re-created the custom cologne worn in the 19th century by Pope Pius IX, the longest-reigning pope aside from ...

In the wake of the Enlightenment and not long after the French had declared their Republic on the edge of a guillotine, Pope Pius IX and his mercurial personality brushed Italian skies with hope, ...

A private Milwaukee high school canceled classes Monday after threatening graffiti was found on the school's front entrance. When school administrators and the school's security staff arrived at Pius ...

Kertzer, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Pope Pius XI (The Pope and Mussolini), expertly captures the tension of a deeply devout population, loyal to their church but receptive to the ...

Dec. 8, 2020, marks the 150th anniversary of Blessed Pius IX proclaiming St. Joseph as “Patron of the Universal Church.” The timing was providential, for several reasons. The date also celebrated the ...

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online ...

I am, frankly, shocked to read an essay defending the Vatican’s 1858 kidnapping of the Jewish child Edgardo Mortara from his parents — but here it is, in First Things, from the pen of Father Romanus ...

When, on Sept. 20, 1870, Italian troops finally broke through Rome’s walls and claimed the city as part of the new Italian state, Pius proclaimed himself a “prisoner of the Vatican.” Denouncing the ...