Full text with the words of the Pontiff:
Dear Don Lucio,
I am glad that his study on Pius X is finally seeing the light after so many years of research. You know that I love Pius X very much and that I have always loved him. When he was in Buenos Aires, on his feast day, August 21, he used to gather the catechists of the archdiocese. My thoughts and memories go back to that date, because it was an encounter that I longed for and sought. I liked spending time with those who do everything possible to instruct children and adults in the truths of the faith, and Pius X has always been known as the Pope of catechesis. And not only that. A docile and strong Pope. A humble and clear Pope. A Pope who made the entire Church understands that without the Eucharist and without the assimilation of revealed truths, personal faith weakens and dies.
I also love Pius X for another reason. Because, as a Jesuit, we owe Pius X was also a Pope who cried in the face of the world war, of which he was considered the first victim, begging the powerful to lay down their arms. How close I feel to this tragic moment in today’s world…
The author, Monsignor Lucio Bonora,with his book «Tribute to Pius X Contemporary Portraits»
Pius A Pope who was a monument to pastoral care, as Saint John XXIII called him, when he granted Venice the right to venerate his mortal remains in Saint Mark’s in the spring of 1959.
I therefore enjoy this new study on Pius X that you have written with seriousness and passion. I see that it is a singular and specific study, because it aims to make known, in 80 medallions, the contemporary pictorial or sculptural portraits of the person of Pius X, what humble or famous artists have drawn of a loved and desired Pope during his life, and later invoked as a saint, even before his beatification, by simple people, by the faithful, by priests, by parishes, by students of Catholic schools around the world with many religious dedicated to them, but also by intellectuals and statesmen. How many paintings and images of Pius from priest to pope.
With deep joy, I granted the beautiful Churches of Treviso, Padua and Venice the pilgrimage of the relics of Saint Pius to past periods of history nor monopolized by particular groups, but belongs to the Church of today, to the people of the Church, that is, to the baptized of all ages, who want to be faithful to the Gospel and their Pastors, and who They see in the saints true models of life and their sincere companions on the path after Jesus and the Gospel, drawing inspiration from the examples and choices of their lives. Long live Saint Pius X and may he live deeply in the heart of the Church today!
