PIUS XI  (1857–1939), Pope from 1922. Achille Ambrogio Damiano Ratti was ordained priest in 1879, taught dogmatics at the Grand Seminary at Milan from 1883 to 1888, and in 1888 was elected to the College of Doctors at the Ambrosian Library, of which he became prefect in 1907. While he was at Milan he applied himself to editing the Ambrosian Missal and other texts. In 1912 he was made vice-prefect of the Vatican Library. At the end of the war of 1914–18 he became Apostolic Visitor to Poland, in 1919 Nuncio and Titular Abp. of Lepanto, in 1921 Cardinal and Abp. of Milan, and in 1922 he was elected Pope.

    He made ‘the restoration of all things in Christ’, symbolized in the institution of the Feast of Christ the King (1925), the chief object of his pontificate. His great encyclicals were directed to the same end: ‘Divini illius magistri’ (1929) deals with education; ‘Casti connubii’ (1930), which condemned contraception, sought to restore a proper respect for married life; while the best known, ‘Quadragesimo Anno’ (1931), is concerned with social problems. The most important political event of his reign was the Lateran Treaty (1929; q.v.). The spiritual life of the Church was fostered by the celebration of the Jubilee in 1925 which became the occasion of many canonizations (incl. that of St Teresa of Lisieux and St Peter Canisius), by his support of the apostolate of the laity in the *Catholic Action movement, and by several encyclicals recommending increased religious devotion. The last years of the Pope were overshadowed by the development of events in Europe, esp. the persecution of the Church in Germany (encyclical: ‘Mit brennender Sorge’) and the spread of atheism and neo-paganism.

His official acts are pr. in the AAS for the years of his pontificate. Eng. tr. of selected encyclicals to date, with introd., by J. H. Ryan (St Louis and London, 1927). A collection of his Scritti storici was pub., Florence [c.1932], with introd. by P. Bellezza, ‘L’opera scientifica e letteraria di Achille Ratti’, pp. vii–xlii; six of these essays were tr. into Eng. by E. Bulloch as Essays in History written between the Years 1896–1912 (London [1934]). Discorsi, ed. D. Bertetto (3 vols., 1960–1). P. Hughes, Pope Pius the Eleventh (1937). C. Colombo and others (eds.), Pio XI nel trentesimo della morte (1939–1969) (Milan, 1969); P. Levillain (ed.), Achille Ratti, Pape Pie XI (Collection de l’École française de Rome, 223; 1996). M. Agostino in P. Levillain (ed.), The Papacy: An Encyclopedia, 2 (2002), pp. 1199–210, s.v.; G. Schwaiger and others in NCE (2nd edn.), 11 (2003), pp. 392–6, s.v. See also works cited under lateran treaty.

Adapted from an article in The Oxford Concise Dictionary of the Christian Church. ed. E.A. Livingstone, (Oxford, 1996).

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