With the temporal power of the pope crushed, how did his spiritual influence rise?
The pope was by no means occupied only with temporal problems concerning the Papal States. It was Pope Pius IX who, at the urging of bishops and laity the world over, defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 1854. In the Marian Era he ushered in, the important role of God’s Mother in the life of the Church would become even more evidence during the next hundred years. Catholic devotion to Mary would be greatly increased.6 It was Pope Pius IX who in 1864 issued the Syllabus, a list of errors which consisted of eighty condemned propositions and was published with his encyclical Quanta Cura. “Liberalists” were leading the world astray and confusing many Catholics’ understanding of the true faith by presenting false teachings. The pope wanted Catholics to know clearly the difference between true faith and errors.7 In 1869 the bishops of the world assembled in the Basilica of St. Peter’s and the Vatican Council, which the pope had long planned, began. There were 698 bis
