In the Roman Church’s traditional calendar, on September 3 (Novus Ordo, August 21), we celebrate the feast of St Pope Pius X, who reigned from 1903 until August 1914, the very eve of World War I. He was a great teacher and warrior for the truth. Would that his efforts to stamp out modernism had been longer-lasting.
I recently drilled into Pius’s excellent encyclical Acerbo nimis of 1905, on the importance of sound catechesis and how poor, or good, doctrinal teaching affects not only the state of the Church but also wider society.
