Instaurare omnia in Christo

To Restore All Things in Christ

“Born poor and humble of heart, undaunted champion of the Catholic faith, zealous to restore all things in Christ, crowned a holy life with a holy death.” These words which were engraved on the early tomb of St. Pius X describe his mission from God. Canonized a Saint in 1954, a couple of years before the founding of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in 1956, it is supremely fitting that he was taken as the patron of our Diocese. His life, throughout childhood into adulthood, shined with the love of God and holiness of life. He took seriously the formation of the clergy, many of whom of his time were becoming lax and subscribing to dangerous errors of thinking. 

Following his election as the Vicar of Christ on earth on August 9, 1903 he announced the aim of his Pontificate, simply “Instaurare omnia in Christo” - to restore all things in Christ. His patronage is one that we should be grateful for, because his confession of the faith is one that is needed now, perhaps more than ever before. Our world, our families, our lives, all need to be restored in Christ. This was the only program of the late Pontiff and now Saint Pius X.

He was well aware that even within the Church there would be push back to his goal. He wrote at the outset of his time as pope, “Some will certainly be found who, measuring Divine things by human standards, will seek to discover secret aims of Ours, distorting them to an earthly scope and to partisan designs.”  He continues, “The interests of God shall be Our interest, and for these We are resolved to spend all Our strength and Our very life. Hence, should anyone ask Us for a symbol as the expression of Our will, We will give this and no other: ‘To renew all things in Christ.’” (E Supremi, 4) 

As Catholics striving for faithfulness, our sole aim should be attentiveness to the interests of God and spending ourselves in order to bring about restoration in Christ. Pius X was a man that desired to share the knowledge and love of God with all he could, even during times of turmoil in the world and the Church. He is favored as one who reformed seminaries and clergy, broadened the reception of Holy Communion among the laity, especially amongst children, reformed the liturgy, and handed on the faith to the next generation. 

Pius X spent a great part of his life fighting and warning the Church against the heresy of modernism. These modernists who “exercise all their ingenuity in an effort to weaken the force and falsify the character of tradition, so as to rob it of all its weight and authority.” (PDG 42) They sought to “destroy as far as they can the pious traditions of the people, and bring into disrespect certain relics highly venerable from their antiquity.” (PDG 43)

These errors of modernism are still alive and well in our day and age, even within the Church. Pius X’s teachings leave us with the firm hope that even “as the Modernist tempest rages ever more fiercely around us, we ourselves are called to be ever more firmly rooted in Christianity’s collective memory—that is, in the Church’s living tradition—for the present and future good of both the Church and civic society.” (Maiorum Traditio, Fr. Joseph Carola, 16) 

As we celebrate our glorious patron today, may the Holy Spirit be our guide as we set out anew, with poor and humble hearts, to be champions of the Catholic Faith, zealous to restore all things in Christ! 

Patron of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau and Saint of God, Pius X, pray for us!