March 23,2023

We are celebrating the memorial of Saint Gregory VII.

Due in part to the papacy serving as the pawn of numerous Roman families, the 10th century and the first half of the 11th were dismal eras for the Church. When Pope Leo IX, a reformer, was chosen, things started to alter in 1049. As his advisor and special representative on serious missions, he brought a young monk called Hildebrand to Rome. Gregory VII would eventually be Hildebrand.

At that time, the Church faced three evils: lay investiture, in which monarchs and nobles controlled the selection of Church officials; simony, which involved the buying and selling of sacred positions and objects; and the illegal marriage of clerics. In his roles as a pope’s counselor and ultimately as pope, Hildebrand gave each of these the attention of a reformer.

Gregory’s papal letters emphasize the bishop of Rome’s function as Christ’s vicar and the outward symbol of the Church’s unity. His protracted disagreement with Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV about who should be in charge of choosing bishops and abbots is well-known.

Gregory vehemently rejected any attempt to restrict the Church’s freedom. He endured hardship for it before passing away in exile. Thirty years after his death, the Church finally prevailed in its battle against lay investiture, to which he declared, “I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore, I die in exile.” On May 25, people celebrate Saint Gregory VII’s liturgical feast day.

Source: franciscanmedia.org