Pope Pius IX giving His Benediction to Catholic Military Defenders of the Papal Territory
“The place for me, as a minister of peace, might not be so much in the midst of arms and artillery pieces.
“But I am the minister of God, and one must remember that this God who calls himself the God of Peace is also the God of Armies.
“And one must always fight against evil.”
( Pius IX, blessing the Roman artillery, from Jean Guenel, La derniere guerre du pape [Presses universitaires de Rennes, 1998], pp. 120-121.)
