Editing Pope Pius IX (section)

==Beatification==
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix = [[Beatification|Blessed]]
|name             = Pius IX
|birth_name       = Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti
|birth_date       = 13 May 1792
|death_date       = 7 February 1878 (aged 85)
|feast_day        = 7 February
|venerated_in     = [[Catholic Church]]
|image            = G.P.A.Healy, Portrait of Pope Pius IX (1871).jpg
|caption          = Portrait by [[George Peter Alexander Healy]], 1871 <small>(oil on canvas, 73.6&nbsp;×&nbsp;43.1&nbsp;cm; 	
Museo Pio IX)</small>
|birth_place      = [[Senigallia]], [[Province of Ancona|Ancona]], [[Marche]], [[Papal States]]
|death_place      = [[Apostolic Palace]], [[Rome]], [[Kingdom of Italy]]
|titles           = [[Pope]]; [[Confessor]]
|attributes       = [[Papal vestments|Papal attire]]<br />[[Papal tiara]]
|patronage        = [[Senigallia]]<br />[[First Vatican Council]]<br />[[Roman Catholic Diocese of Senigallia|Diocese of Senigallia]]
|beatified_date   = 3 September 2000
|beatified_place  = [[Saint Peter's Square]], [[Vatican City]]
|beatified_by     = [[Pope John Paul II]]
}}

[[File:Tomb of Pope Pius IX.jpg|thumb|Tomb of Pius IX at San Lorenzo fuori le Mura]]
The process for his [[beatification]], which in the early stages was strongly opposed by the Italian government, was begun on 11 February 1907, and recommenced three times.{{sfn|Woodward|1996|pp=310–11}} The Italian government had since 1878 strongly opposed beatification of Pius IX. Without Italian opposition, [[Pope John Paul II]] declared Pius IX to be [[Venerable]] on 6 July 1985 (upon confirming his life of [[heroic virtue]]), and beatified him on 3 September 2000 (his annual liturgical commemoration is 7 February, the date of his death). The beatification of Pius IX was controversial, and was criticized by some Jews and Christians because of what was perceived as his authoritarian and reactionary politics; the accusation of abuse of episcopal powers; and [[antisemitism]] (most specifically the case of [[Edgardo Mortara]] but also his reinstituting the Roman ghetto).{{sfn|Milavec|2007|pp=159–160}}