Rorate Caeli

Poor Saint Pius X - Second-Class Papal Saint

[Update: changed, at last, on June 25, 2014]

The Vatican website, founded in 1995, has since its beginning decided to place the names and acts only of the Popes from the 20th century onwards (Leo XIII being the last of the 19th, first of the 20th century), supposedly for practical reasons.

In the website, Pius X was always identified simply as Pius X. Despite the fact that he was the only canonized in the list until this year, no mention of his declared sainthood was made in his main page. For almost 20 years, it was considered unnecessary to do so. That is the case until today: not even the title of the page includes his name, much less his canonized condition (we are using the Italian version for reference purposes, since it always is the most up-to-date language in the Holy See website). 



Following the joint canonization of John XXIII and John Paul II, however, no effort was saved to immediately alter their pages:

San Giovanni XXIII - S. Ioannes PP. XXIII:



San Giovanni Paolo II - S. Ioannes Paulus PP. II:


Oversight? No, not a nearly two-decade oversight, but rather a deliberate choice to highlight the canonized status of the two recent Popes, a status that they never felt the need to highlight regarding Saint Pius X. It is a very usual practice not to mention a canonized pope as "Saint" at all times (we ourselves call the great pope Pius X or even Pope Sarto at times*) -- but similar situations call for a uniform treatment, either forgo the title for all, or apply it to all.

Second-Class Relics are quite well-known. Now we also have Second-Class Papal Saints...

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* The centennial seal in the sidebar is not by us, but by the diocese of his birth, the Diocese of Treviso.