From the personal diaries of Cardinal Annibale Lisi
Wednesday 6th of January 1869
Callixtus, bishop, servant of the servants of God, with the approval of the sacred assembly has inaugurated the first session of the Vatican Council. It has taken many months of planning and many long nights of intense discussion with the Pope but everything is finally in place. Bishops from around the civilized world have gathered in St. Peter's Basilica to drag the Church kicking and screaming into modernity. I am concerned about the vast accumulation of privilege in these halls and I fear that many of these prelates will stand against the introduction of fresh air to these musty old halls but I must remember that I have the full authority of the Pope on my side. Though he is of timid character, I have seen his dedication to the cause in his recent reforms and I know that he only needs a subtle push to let his true colors shine through.
The first few sessions of the council will not be particularly interesting since they will deal with the confirmation of matters that have been well established in the past nineteen ecumenical councils and I doubt that there will be any significant objections to the Nicene Creed. The hard part will come in a few months but for now, I must get to know every one of the bishops here assembled and find how we can convince them to see reason. Lord give me strength and inspire your servants to do your will.
Sunday 28th of March 1869
I feel drained today and only wish to take myself to bed, but I must venture on and record the culmination of this month's proceedings. Though the official declaration describes all of the resolutions in detail, it never shows the amount of work that goes into every single word. Despite or maybe because of this colossal effort, I am fully satisfied by the final version of the Dogmatic Constitution of the Catholic Faith.
I will now go through its different sections and jot down any comments I consider important to remember for the duration of the council or even later if some bishops decide to renege on their oaths.
The document begins by repeating the condemnation that the fathers of Trent placed upon the heresies that allow religious questions to be a matter for the judgment of each individual. I remember that quips were thrown around to the effect that since Christ himself designated us as the rock upon which his Church is built, it is fair to admit that we have greater authority than schismatics who consider mythomaniacs and tax-evading charlatans as prophets and theologians.
This levity was followed by a blanket condemnation of the doctrines of pantheism, materialism, and atheism. Here I felt that some of the attendees went a little overboard with their connections (a fact that will become obvious later on) and conflated these heresies with many of the developments of modernity such as the sciences and, though they dared not say so explicitly, the social reforms that Callixtus has promulgated so diligently. I could not let the discussion continue after such an attack and I spent a good while breaking down these accusations and repeating that we cannot abandon ideas that help us do the Lord's work simply because they might be also used by heretics, lest we also declare food and water to be anathema. My retorts knocked the opposing faction off their balance and the Pope echoed my thoughts before providing a gentle encouragement to continue on.
The rest of the week dealt with our declaration of belief in Almighty God in all of His glory, the truth of His supernatural revelation as contained in written books and unwritten traditions passed on by the apostles inspired by Christ or the Holy Spirit. We then ended on the divine gift of faith and the indication that the existence of the Church is a kind of great and perpetual motive of credibility and incontrovertible evidence of her own divine mission by virtue of her propagation, holiness, and goodness, catholic unity and unconquerable stability. At last, here, there was accord among the bishops and cardinals, I always appreciate those days when we can fully agree. I treat these periods as well deserved respites from my trials and an indication that, despite our differences, we all wish for the good of the Church.
As the new week started, we got down to the relationship between faith and reason, a discussion that claimed most of my peace of mind then and later on. An initial majority of the attendees wanted to set in stone that any findings by science that appear to contradict the divine word must be forbidden and kept away from faithful Christians. There I had to step in and wrestle with a coalition of Spaniards and Frenchmen who would not compromise on their idea that since faith is above reason and reason cannot contradict faith then the deviant teachings need to be considered heretical. I argued with them for days on end from dawn until dusk trying every angle I could think of until I finally managed to get my rivals to bend with the concession that reason on its own is never able to penetrate the divine mysteries because they can only be granted by faith. However due to reason's God-given nature, if the disciplines of science find something that appears in contradiction with ecclesiastical teaching, that is a sign that the interpretation of scripture or tradition must be discussed afresh to account for the new insight gained and thereby the older interpretation can be set aside. In fact, so far should the Church be from hindering the development of human arts and studies, that she must strive to assist and promote them in many ways. For she is neither ignorant nor contemptuous of the advantages which derive from this source for human life, rather she acknowledges that those things flow from God, the lord of sciences, and, if they are properly used, lead to God by the help of his grace. I remember many ancient men looking distressed and confused at the new proclamation but I knew I had the key prelates in my hand. When the voting came, Callixtus announced that my amendments had been approved in their entirety.
This Calvary of a month ended with the announcement of the anathemas and thankfully it resulted principally in a summary of the previous week's battles. It was proclaimed that he should be anathema who says that nothing exists besides matter, that God cannot be known with certainty by the light of human reason, that divine revelation cannot be made credible by external signs, that all miracles are impossible and that divine revelation contains no true mysteries. And finally, we come to this morning when the cold day did nothing to restrict my sweating at the thought that the chapters on faith and reason could be discussed once again. A terrible knot took up residence in my throat while Callixtus read the anathemas to be placed and while the votes were counted. But no great opposition came, every one of us exhausted by the past conflicts accepted that further discussion would be divisive and futile. Thus he is anathema who says that human studies should not guide and inform the interpretation of divine revelation and that it is not possible that the dogmas propounded by the Church might be amended by the advancement of knowledge.
The Lord tests all our faiths in these circumstances but I have emerged from this trial stronger and more determined than ever to save the Church. My work is not yet done but I feel that an important foundation has been set for this great reform. But now, it is with tired eyes and aching back that I happily welcome this night's respite.
Sunday 16th of May 1869
It is not often that one manages to define a dogma in their lifetime but that is what we have done this day. The First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ has been finalized and consigned to history but I am not as pleased as I once was.
This was the first time where I really had serious disagreements with Callixtus. I hoped to have the bishops officially enshrine papal infallibility once and for all but the Pope opposed me on this. He did not do so in public during the council but preferred to take me aside for a private meeting far from anyone that could hear. He told me that he did not believe that he was infallible even when speaking ex-cathedra nor especially in his personal life. He claimed that his election had been a fluke and that, if that could happen to him, how many more popes could be elected that have no business wielding their authority. I stood without thoughts and stared at him then, I did not speak until he called out my name and asked me what I thought. I offered some feeble sentences about how he is the right man for the position but I know now that I don't really believe that. All I had before me was an anxious man hoping for some guidance and I wanted to make him infallible. I proposed that we take a seat and talk about the situation person to person and Callixtus' face beamed the greatest relief that I have ever seen, like a diseased man who has discovered that he will not die of his ailment. We discussed the question for several hours and I understood the entirety of his feeling on the matter: it is important that the Pope's authority not be questioned while he lives but, as our declarations in the last month indicate, there will always be room for improvement on what one generation or Pope considers as dogma. I agreed that the principle was coherent with our previous declarations and suggested that it could be affirmed that a Pope's statements ex-cathedra are infallible during the Pope's lifetime but may be overturned by another successor of Peter if he is able to garner the support of enough bishops as in an ecumenical council. This still did not sit easily with Callixtus but I saw that he had been utterly drained and would not argue the question further.
And so the next day, I suggested to the assembly that the sitting Pope be considered infallible when speaking ex-cathedra but a successor may amend previous declarations after taking the counsel of the bishops manifesting the tradition of the churches. Here there was little opposition by the prelates, who I can tell are already tired of this long sojourn and mainly wish to return to their posts away from Rome. This meant that the proposal was fully accepted and the Constitution was ready by the end of the week with the clauses on the Primacy of Peter and the Pontiff, and the problematic issue of infallibility.
I said that I am not as satisfied as I once was and I fear this will continue for the last leg of the council. I thought I was crafting these changes together with the Pope and his silence was a form of assent to my changes but now I fear that I may have pushed him too far. He crumpled so thoroughly during our conversation that I feared he would break down at any moment and I cannot help but be weighed down by guilt for my actions, though I believe I am in the right. I must make sure to keep a closer eye on him from now on, for both the Church's sake and mine.
Monday 7th of June 1869
The council has finally been closed and allows me to take a deep breath and rest for the first time in half a year. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Heresy and Orthodoxy of Modernity was a comparably sedate affair which mainly involved one long conversation with Callixtus.
The issues on the table were colonialism, socialism, and the key issue of the unification of Italy. As last time Libero, or well...it doesn't matter, was in quite the sorry state but he was constantly diligent and helpful with the discussion. I remembered my previous experience and tried to allow for a pause each time we concluded an element but he insisted that we hammer everything out that very day.
We began with the theme of socialism as it is the one that we most agree on. Simply put, we accept the general principle that a state, and the Church by extension, should endeavor to provide their subjects with the means to ensure a good life for all. The only element of this philosophy that we abhor, however, are the errors that Marx made with regards to religion and collectivization. Religion is not so much the opiate of the masses but rather a restorative spring of water that serves to alleviate the suffering of those who need solace most and as such, Christ deserves a place at the center of civil life. As for property, we deem it unreasonable to not allow for a man to work hard and improve the lot of his family for, if God himself judges us based on our merits or failings, we should apply the same principle on Earth and allow earthly rewards for those who work hardest for them.
We then came to the issue of the colonies that the Great Powers have begun to set up to tame the uncivilized regions of the world. I must confess that I had not given the issue much thought before that day but it seems that Libero had spent many a sleepless night in thought about the practice and the Papal States' involvement in the same. He told me that bringing the light of Christianity and civilization to people so backward and unconscious of their sins should be considered as a moral imperative equivalent to that of saving the souls of the sinners who live among us every day. He shuddered at the thought of entire hordes of people who live their whole lives without the knowledge that they are damned and, at best, can hope to wallow in limbo until judgment day; a terrible loss that can only be rectified by the gift of God's light into their lives thus allowing them true control of their destinies. But the shadow of history caused Callixtus to fear that unscrupulous people might take advantage of the newly baptized innocents and curse them in this life though they may be saved in the next. He asked me to set into words some declaration to be included in the Council's documents that could be equivalent to "Sublimis Deus" for the savages that still exist in the world and anxiously await our arrival. I asked him whether it is his desire that the Church involve itself in these potential new colonies and he committed to a long pause. The Church yes, he said, but not the Papal States. Our realm is far too weak at the moment to fund such a project and there are urgent issues at home to be considered.
The issues surrounding home were those that started up more of an argument between us. I was keen on a formal declaration of the Pope's influence over Italy and a call for the Italian people to join together under the authority of a single religious and temporal leader. Callixtus disapproved of that idea. He regretted the necessity of the Papal States expanding beyond its traditional borders and saw Urban's expedition as the first step in a chain that may lead to the destruction of the Papacy or, worse, its corruption. Though unification seems inevitable at this point, he saw it rather as a constriction of communities that, in most cases, have been separate from each other for over a thousand years and have little in common beyond a basic language. I disagreed almost in anger with this fatalist view of the situation and pointed to the case of Germany where the Prussians are constructing a grand state with a multitude of different peoples who nonetheless hold a common identity. These Germans are now at the center of the European stage, feared and admired by the entire continent; a similar process could happen to Italy and the Papal States but with the guarantee of a force for justice always stable at the top. The Pope laughed when I said that. Had Alexander VI been a force for justice? Had Urban IX? Is Callixtus IV? If Italy is to be united then it should be only seen as a political affair borne out of defense, not a religious dogma that taints the faith by its use as a shallow tool of ambition. It must be acceptable for every Italian to defend their homes if they do not wish for new rulers as any sane man would do. I tried to oppose this point but, for the first time, I can remember, the Pope silenced me and said that his mind was made up. The official document now contains a nebulous clause stating that the Pope welcomes the right of all Italians to be governed by a just ruler whoever they may be. The "just" was my addition and nobody much thought about it. Who knows? A more ambitious Pope may come up with a suitable definition for justice.
And so ends the Vatican Council, a drawn-out affair that leaves me both more cynical and more hopeful. I no longer know what Callixtus' ambitions truly are both for Italy and for the Church and I fear that he is hiding something from me. I will have to pay even closer attention in the future.
