God’s Diplomat

We, as a people of God, are so blessed. Our dear God knows what we need, when we need it, and who can do the job. He knows when we are in crisis, or about to be attacked fiercely, and then he gives us the right person to handle the situation. Pope Pius IX was beloved by all Christendom, and he was truly a Saint. That has been proven true by his being raised to the level of Blessed in the Process for Canonization by another Saintly Pope, John Paul II.

But that is not to say he was loved by the whole world, especially not by the political powers of the world. There are even those who did not appear grief-stricken when he passed to his heavenly reward. Remember, he was the Pope who had the Papal States taken away from him, and exiled himself in the Vatican for the rest of his life. Until the end of his life, he did battle with Italy, Germany, France, and all those countries that were bound and determined to take away all Papal power in Europe.

So the Lord had his work cut out for him to find a man who would not only carry on the legacy left by Pope Pius IX, but could also calm the political storm which was left behind in the wake of the Pope’s battle to maintain the Patrimony of Peter, also known as the Papal States. Realizing he was not able to handle all of the niceties of his office, due to the tensions he was constantly under, Pius IX had handed over most of the diplomatic chores of his Papacy to Cardinal Atonelli, but he died in 1877, and Pope Pius IX died the following winter. It is fair to say that the Vatican was in a diplomatic shambles after the death of Pope Pius IX.

So who was the Lord going to choose to put in the hot seat of the Papacy? He chose a very strong, but very peace-loving Cardinal from Perugia, Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci, to be known for all time as Pope Leo XIII, God’s diplomat.