Pope Pius VIII

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Pope Pius VIII (Italian: Pio VIII; born Francesco Saverio Maria Felice Castiglioni; 20 November 1761 – 30 November 1830) was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 31 March 1829 to his death in November 1830. His brief papacy witnessed the Catholic Emancipation in the United Kingdom in 1829, which he welcomed, and the July Revolution in France in 1830, which he accepted with reluctance. He is often remembered for his writings on marriages between Catholics and Protestants: in the 1830 brief Litteris altero abhinc, he declared that a marriage could only be properly blessed if proper provisions had been made to ensure the bringing up of children in the Catholic faith. His death less than two years after his election to the papacy led to speculation of possible murder. His pontificate was the shortest in the 19th century.

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