ABSTRACT

O'Connell's policies and other Americanist views were deemed dangerous by traditionalists and during the summer and autumn of 1898 the Vatican investigated Americanism. When the American bishops, assembled in their annual meeting, voted not to publish the condemnation, they were told that Leo wanted the decree promulgated. While an under-secretary in the secretariat of state, guided by Cardinal Merry del Val in 1909 Benigni founded the Sodality of St Pius V to implement the condemnations of Pius X against modernism. While relations between the Vatican and the republics of Portugal and France deteriorated, there was an improvement in its relations with the kingdom of Italy. Sarto, animated by a profound love of his patria, had refused to name the Francophile, anti-Italian Rampolla as his secretary of state. Those who knew the patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Sarto, before he assumed the papacy, were aware of his determination to seek more amicable relations with Italy.