Posted on 02/02/2009 6:39:40 PM PST by rogernz
THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: One of the most overlooked facts of the American Civil War Era is the sympathy the South gained from Europe's most influential monarch - the pope of Rome.
Pope Pius IX never actually signed any kind of alliance or 'statement of support' with the Confederate States of America, but to those who understand the nuance of papal protocol, what he did do was quite astonishing. He acknowledged President Jefferson Davis as the "Honorable President of the Confederate States of America."
From this we can glean three things about Pope Pius IX...
1. He considered Jefferson Davis worthy of the customary title "Honorable."
2. He acknowledged him as president of a nation.
3. In doing so, he officially recognized the Confederate States of America as a sovereign entity, separate from the United States of America.
In the letter in which this recognition was made, he sent an autographed picture of himself, along with a miniature crown of thorns, woven by the pope's own fingers. The crown is currently on display at the Confederate Museum in New Orleans. Upon viewing the crown, one can't imagine how the pope could have woven it without pricking his hands and finders several times. The gesture was an act of supreme sympathy, for you see President Davis was awaiting trial in a Union prison at the time this crown was made.
There are many possible reasons why this pontiff would be sympathetic to the CSA and her president, but the most likely one was that Pope Pius IX recognized in the culture and ideology of the South a mindset opposed to the advance of liberal modernism. You see it was Pius IX who composed the famous "Syllabus of Errors," which condemned the modernist philosophies of liberalism, humanism, secularism and marxism. It is speculated that Pius IX saw in the Confederacy a political movement steeped in European Christian tradition, and therefore a potential ally against liberal modernism on the North American continent. Alas, the Confederacy was defeated, and President Davis was captured. As the 'Deconstruction' of the South commenced, and Davis awaited his trial, it is understandable why the pope would be sympathetic.
Pope Pius IX was a revered figure in the post war South. General Robert E. Lee kept a portrait of him in his house, and referred to him as the South's only true friend during her time of need. Both Davis and Lee were Episcopalians, a denomination which had many things in common with Catholicism before the 20th century influence of modernism of course. Davis was frequently visited by Southern Catholic nuns during his imprisonment, who delivered messages for him and prayed for his release. He eventually was released, having never stood trial, on the grounds that he committed no real crime. It is believed the majority of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court at that time acknowledged the right of secession.
Southern Americans of today should take comfort knowing that the old Confederacy did have a European friend, and it just happened to be one of the most respected people in the world - not only a head of state, but also the leader of the world's largest Christian religion. The day will come when Pope Pius IX will be canonized as a Saint. He has already been beatified, which puts him well on his way. When that day comes, Southerners will have a special bragging right, not enjoyed by many nations even today. They will not only be able to boast of his sympathies during and after the great War, but they will also have in their collective possession a relic of the man - the crown of thorns woven by his own hands.
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I don't think there was anything legit about the the secession,LOL, the ordinances of secession were passed by the legislatures of the eleven states. They were legit.
not constitutionally,Except that it was taught in the schools, including at West Point, as part and parcel of the Constitution. The reason Jeff Davis was never tried is the courts of that time would have acquitted him.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.This was the view of the Founding Fathers.
and not in the political dirty tricks resorted to when all else failed.Like Lincoln ARRESTING the entire government of Maryland to keep the government from acting?
It proved its illegitimacy when it failed to sustain itself in the trial by fire.How medievel, might makes right. Sad.
LOL. And here I thought that the Pope was infallibleSo much for thinking. Try research and get facts instead. Empty of facts, thinking is of little value.
Lord John Acton, one of the most liberal Catholics in Europe was sympathetic to the Confederacy, as was much of the aristocracy of England and Europe. The sympathy was not because of any sympathy for slavery but because Lincoln was trying to hold the country together by force of arms and often in violation of the law of nations. When in 1830, the Belgians seceded from the kingdom of the Netherlands, the matter was settled by international diplomatic negotiation. A treaty was signed with Prussia as one of the signators and England another, guaranting the borders of Belgium. Ironically, in 1914, the German invasion of Belgium was one reason why England went to war with Germany. One reason why Europe did not take more effectice action against the United States, by say recognizing the Confederacy, was that Bismarck, the German chancellor, was forcibly uniting the German states under Prussian rule by a plocy of “blood and Iron,” which is what Lincolns was doing in America. In the South, the Civil War was long called the War for Southern Independence, and whatever moral standing Lincoln acquired for ending slavery, he lost by his policy of agression. One has to see things not as we know them but in the light of the situation in the 1860s. Liberal opinion was divided, and ironically, so was “conservative.” Bismarck disliked Lincoln for his radical notions of democracy.
“Popes have usually considered the U.S. a kind of backwater.”
And this perception is not entirely gone even today. Perhaps not by a truly brilliant and insightful man like Benedict, but many in the old guard Curia.
The treatment of slaves varied from place to place. In the upper south, especially in Virginia, many slaves were in pretty goos shape, because their masters hired them out. Plus there were many free blacks. All and all their status was not much worse than it would be under segregation. Futher South, of course, things were not good, and to be sold South was something that Virginia slaves dreaded. It was no accident that the Confederacy was first formed by the southern tier or that States Rights was the motive that brought the upper South into the Confederacy. Probably if Lincoln had not decided to resupply Ft. Sumter instead of letting it go, Virginia might have stayed in the Union. But Davis made the real mistake by ordering the attack. Without that attack, Lincoln would not have had an army at his diposal, for it was the Northern response to that attack and to Virginia’s decision to secede
thereby endangering the capital, that brought a northern army into the field. And for all the deprecation of McClellen for his ultimate failure, it also brought him to the head of the Army of the Potomoc, which soon became a cohensive fighting force under his skillful command.
Seeing as slavery existed for the vast majority of human history and was merely accepted as a fact of life, I greatly doubt that there is much guilt involved.
Everyone in the know knows that John W. Booth was a Martian.
Opus Dei being a part of Lincoln’s assassination would be difficult since it wasn’t founded until the 1930-40s by Jose Escriva in Spain. What other anti-Catholic nonsense is floating out there?
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