A geopolitical history of the cataclysmic events that shaped the First Vatican Council and the Dogma of Papal Infallibly.

On September 8th, the Italian king’s messenger arrived in Rome to deliver the last plea of Victor Emanuel III. Reading the letter, Pius slammed the document on the table and unleashed his famous temper. He raged at the Italian diplomat, calling his countrymen a set of vipers, whited sepulchers, and wanting in faith. Then he made a strange divination:

I am no prophet, nor son of a prophet, but I tell you, you will never enter Rome!

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The French response to calls for aid was even more severe, with its foreign minister writing:

You know our opinion. . . The temporal power has been a scourge to the world, it is prostrate, we will not resurrect it...

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For show transcripts and sources, please visit gatesofhellpod.com.

A geopolitical history of the cataclysmic events that shaped the First Vatican Council and the Dogma of Papal Infallibly.

Many bishops were just simply skeptical of anything Pius IX was up to, from Bishop Freppel of Anger, France:

The Council is being held either too soon or too late. Too late, because we are at the end of the pontificate of a tired and discouraged old man who views everything through the misfortunes he has suffered. For him, everything that takes place in the modern world is, and must by necessity be, an 'abomination’. It is too soon, because it is clear that the situation in Europe is not yet settled.

A great many of the minority bishops had packed up and left Rome by this point that Pius and Manning knew there really wasn’t anyone else left to constitute a significant opposition anyway. They had gone home humiliated and dejected. 

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For show transcripts and sources, please visit gatesofhellpod.com.

A geopolitical history of the cataclysmic events that shaped the First Vatican Council and the Dogma of Papal Infallibly.

An Ultramontane Church instantly became a cause for the papacy. Pius threw his weight in on the issue, choosing sides where previous popes declined to get involved. Gueranger, doing the bidding of Pius, went for the low hanging fruit first, he attacked the hymns of the French liturgy were written in the 17th and 18th centuries that lacked the weight of tradition behind them, otherwise known as Mozart masses. His reasoning was that Mozart was a mason, Bach was a protestant.

Gueranger’s liturgical crusade thankfully revived one the most timeless and beautiful traditions the Roman Catholics have – Gregorian chant, which at this time nearly extinct. Gueranger literally wrote the teaching manuals for its practice. He also convinced priests in French diocese to write to the Congregation on the Rites, prompting them to clarify questions regarding the Gallican liturgy. One such petition was:

Q. May, however, the priests of this diocese continue with a clear conscience to use this liturgy, which is sanctified by age and custom?

R. Negative.

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For show transcripts and sources, please visit gatesofhellpod.com.

A geopolitical history of the cataclysmic events that shaped the First Vatican Council and the Dogma of Papal Infallibly.

This new pope, Pius IX, immediately displayed the qualities the power brokers of Europe, both lay and ecclesiastic, had hoped for. He was young and affable, conciliatory and responsive to modern sensibilities. He was popular among the local Italian citizenry, spoke to their interests and gained a reputation for being an Italian patriot. He demonstrated a willingness to implement parliamentary reforms in the Papal government. He was a welcomed liberal. Some Italians thought he would be the man who unifies Italy. In a way, he would be.
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A special commission was set up under Monsignor Bulldog to directly oversee crimes against the Catholic religion. The number of arrests exploded. The French again protested. Pius IX responded that it still wasn’t enough:

Crimes remain unpunished. The men who have acted most openly against me walk freely through the streets of Rome.

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For show transcripts and sources, please visit gatesofhellpod.com.

A geopolitical history of the cataclysmic events that shaped the First Vatican Council and the Dogma of Papal Infallibly.

After Gregory XVI died, the aristocracy of Europe convened to pressure the college of cardinals to ensure the next pope is an inexperienced liberal, someone who can be told what to do, that the fate of European monarchies hung in the balance. Another backward troglodyte would surely invoke revolution. This message was primarily delivered and enforced by Prince Metternich of Austria. For Metternich, Giovanni Maria, who was now a cardinal, was the ideal candidate. He was well liked by both clergy and laity. He wasn’t a monk, like Gregory. They did not want that again. He was a bishop of a small town and had no experience with the intrigues and politics of the Roman curia. The conservatives found him favorable as well, as they saw him as manageable. 

To answer the question, why we are examining a church council, is Papal Infallibility – declared a dogma of the faith during the first Vatican council. What might surprise you, and what certainly surprised me, was how controversial this dogma was – and always had been. In fact, many of the world’s most prominent theologians, almost all of the Catholic princes, and at least 25% of the Church bishops felt the Gates of Hell had either prevailed or come dangerously close at Vatican I. It also – and there’s no getting around this – changed the trajectory of the Church Hierarchy in ways that no one ever expected, and in ways we take for granted today. This appears to be mostly forgotten history, and the perfect type of subject for this podcast.

Audio Source: https://tabletopaudio.com/

For show transcripts and sources, please visit gatesofhellpod.com.

For show transcripts and sources, please visit gatesofhellpod.com.

A story of the persecution and survival of the Polish Church during communist rule.

Jaruzelski too recognized the winds of change and embraced Gorbachev’s policies of perestroika and glasnost: progress and transparency. Jaruzelski desperately needed an off ramp from where he had taken Poland. After the kidnapping and murder of Father Jerzy, his regime was completely delegitimized, and only sustained itself by tanks and guns. So, he suddenly eased censorship, and allowed for new associations for artists and intellectuals. Hundreds of new churches were suddenly approved and began construction. Catholic activists were then invited to work with the regime to create an advisory council to the Council of State. 

Despite these efforts, the self-sustaining momentum of the communist regime in Poland had finally run out. The economy spiraled – and now, there was no one left to blame. Prices skyrocketed. Store shelves were empty. Foreign debt was off the charts. The communist party began to fracture between hardliners, reformers, and those who wanted to pretend to be reformers. 

Solidarity still existed underground, supported by the Vatican and America, and wielded massive influence – best estimates say solidarity connected around 200,000 Poles who actively engaged in coordinated political resistance. 

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For show transcripts and sources, please visit gatesofhellpod.com.

A story of the persecution and survival of the Polish Church during communist rule.

On the dark night of December 12th, as most Poles were preparing for the coming Christmas season, Operation Azalea commenced. Phone lines in Poland were suddenly cut. Radio and television stations were swarmed and commandeered by military police who came out of nowhere. At exactly midnight, military reserves loyal to Jaruzelski combined with Soviet forces began Operation Fir. The homes of Solidarity leaders were invaded. The targets were arrested in the dark of night and shuttled off to unknown detention facilities. Lech Walesa, their primary target, was among them. Over 100,000 soldiers, 1800 tanks, 2000 armored vehicles, along with thousands of military cars, trucks and helicopters doing the bidding of Soviet puppet Jaruzelski flooded Warsaw and other major cities. The Polish people awoke that morning to find their beloved country under complete military lockdown.

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For show transcripts and sources, please visit gatesofhellpod.com.

A story of the persecution and survival of the Polish Church during communist rule.

The head of the KGB in Moscow, Yuri Andropov, telephoned the KGB office in Warsaw and demanded to know how they could possibly let this happen. They responded that Mr. Andropov should direct his questions to Rome, not Warsaw. When Polish communist politician Stanislaw Kania read the news that Wojtyla had been elected pope, he uttered under his breath: Holy Mother of God. In his shock it seems Comrade Kania had forgotten he was officially an atheist.

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For show transcripts and sources, please visit gatesofhellpod.com.

A story of the persecution and survival of the Polish Church during communist rule.

And so, it was these two men, Wyszynski and Gomulka who would represent the front lines of a new yet long forecasted confrontation: Communism VS Roman Catholicism. Prior to occupying Poland, the Soviets had a relatively easy time of taking over state churches. The Orthodox disciplines of the east were already highly nationalistic with few, if any, external allegiances. The Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, was highly centralized and historically resistant to nationalistic flavors of the faith – this can be traced back to the investiture contest a thousand years ago with Pope Gregry VII. For Russian communism, the attempted conversion of Poland to atheism would be new territory.

Audio Source: https://tabletopaudio.com/

For show transcripts and sources, please visit gatesofhellpod.com.

A story of the persecution and survival of the Polish Church during communist rule.

The story of this Christ-nation begins over a thousand years ago with the conversion of this agrarian people and ends in the offices of the most powerful people in the world. The pope, representing a Vatican at peak world-wide influence, and the president of the United States, at peak geopolitical consequence, when at any moment the world might well end in nuclear war – the central, significant, centrifugal, geopolitical, spiritual focus of all these energies lay withing the meager borders and daily struggles of this eastern European nation that sought, century after century to simply be itself. To exist according to its designs. To be free. To be Catholic. To be Poland. 

In researching Polish history, I decided to focus on the Soviet era for a couple reasons. It still exists in living memory and therefore can be a tangible, easy-to-grasp, and somewhat relatable story, despite its over thousand-year dance with its faith. For guides through these five decades, we have at hand a cast of characters that ranges from local hardline communists and atheist to the common priest, and all the way up to the pope himself. But first, before we can discuss what Poland was from the end of World War II to the fall of the Soviet Union, we must understand how it got there, for before it earned the reputation as the lynchpin of the Soviet Union, it was known as the Bulwark of Christendom.

Audio Source: https://tabletopaudio.com/

For show transcripts and sources, please visit gatesofhellpod.com.