CHAPTER 1

Pope Pius IX and the founding of an American seminaryin Rome

"You should set up, here in this venerable City ofOurs, your own College for clerics from your ownnation. For you, in your wisdom, are well aware whatgreat advantages would accrue to your dioceses fromsuch an institution."

—Blessed Pope Pius IX, 1855

Cardinal Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti took the name of PiusIX upon his election as Pope on June 16, 1846. Until his death in1878, he guided the Catholic Church during one of the most turbulentperiods of European history. Among his many accomplishmentswas the founding of the Pontifical North American College, whichopened in 1859.

The idea for a national seminary to train Americans in Romefirst came from Archbishop Gaetano Bedini following his visit to theUnited States in 1853. The Catholic Church in America impressedthe Vatican visitor—at least he considered the laity impressive. Hisreport about some of the clergy was less than complimentary. He wasshocked at the enormous diocesan and parochial debts, and what hetermed "too much selfishness and too great a spirit of independence"among the priests. The debts were the natural result of the poverty ofAmerican Catholics, the majority having been European immigrantswho arrived in the United States impoverished. The poor qualityof some priests was caused by much the same reason: most werethemselves penniless immigrants, sometimes poorly educated, anda few came to America seeking to escape their stern bishops or thelaw. A better crop of priests was required to serve the growingChurch in America, and Bedini knew how to provide them. TheArchbishop made two recommendations upon his return to Rome:that diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the United Statesbe established; and that an American seminary be founded in theEternal City.

The establishment of a seminary for Americans was mentionedby the Pope himself, soon after Bedini's return. On New Year's Day,1855, he wrote John Hughes, Archbishop of New York:

In order that you may be able to provide more easilyfor the needs of your dioceses, and have diligent andindustrious laborers to assist you in cultivating thevineyard of the Lord, We strongly desire ... that aftermutual consultation and collaboration [among theAmerican bishops], you should set up, here in thisvenerable City of Ours, your own College for clericsfrom your own nation. For you, in your wisdom, arewell aware what great advantages would accrue toyour dioceses from such an institution.

On July 19, 1858, the Church's missionary authority, theCongregation de Propaganda Fide, while discussing the decisionsof the Ninth Provincial Council of Baltimore, considered Bedini'sproposal for an American seminary, writing in its report:

One of the greatest works of Catholic wisdom of thesuccessors of Saint Peter is the foundation in Rome ofmany Pontifical colleges which were built here andstill prosper in goodly number with the most nobleend of welcoming young men from diverse nationsmore or less infected with error, and here instructingthem in true doctrine, forming in them all virtues,then sending them as priests to their countries towork all their lives to preserve Catholics in the faithand to lead back those in error to the ways of truthand justice.

Another reason for the establishment of an American Collegein Rome was the concern Propaganda had about the unity of theAmerican bishops among themselves and with the Holy See. Anational college in Rome could provide one more link between theSuccessor of Saint Peter in Rome and the successors of the apostlesin the United States.

The Pope, however, had greater concerns about the well-being ofthe Universal Church, and greater confidence in the Americans thandid either Bedini or the Propaganda officials. He saw the UnitedStates of America as a land of great promise, in which the ancientCatholic Church could flourish. And it was the Church in Americathat the Pope was betting on for the future of the Universal Church.The Church in Europe had been under attack for centuries, andnearly destroyed by various kings, governments and revolutions.It was to America, whose first President, George Washington, wasone of Pius' heroes, in which the Church could find her sea legsonce again and preach the Gospel freely, even as she was beingattacked throughout Europe. In America, the land of immigrants,a standardized Roman training of her priests would prove usefulin forming a unified Catholic Church to meet the challenges of thefuture.

Pius expressed his hopes for the Church in America during hisinaugural visit to the North American College on January 29, 1860,housed in the former Visitation convent on the Via dell'Umiltà,located around the corner from the Trevi Fountain, and down thestreet from the former papal palace on the Quirinal Hill (today thepalace of the President of the Republic of Italy). It was the feastof Saint Francis de Sales, founder of the Visitation Sisters. Whilea seminarian, the future Pope had frequently visited the Umiltàconvent and served Mass for the Sisters; as a young priest, he oftencame to the old convent on that feast day to offer Mass for theSisters, and did so again on July 2, 1846, soon after his election asPope. And, it was in this chapel that he had made public the decreeof heroic sanctity of Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque, the Visitationsister visionary of the Sacred Heart, a few weeks later on August23rd. He returned to that former convent, now the new AmericanCollege, as an old friend.

He told the newly assembled first class of twelve Americanstudents that the political violence, and the possible loss of the PapalStates did not weigh terribly upon his mind. He continued:

What afflicts Us and frightens Us far more is theperversion of ideas: this horrible evil of falsifyingeverything. Vice, in fact, is taken for virtue; and virtuefor vice. Yet while they lavish acclaim and praiseupon the most wicked men and...