Pius X had an extremely sensitive heart: he was easily moved and effusive. But these outpourings of his heart never left him with his hands tied, as the saying goes.
He was inexorable when it came to preventing the least possibility of fatal ambiguity. Whether coming from declared external enemies or from the internal unwary and wayward; he never tired of calling out to souls and hearts, both ‘in season and out of season’ – in the expression of the Apostle – to be faithful to the Word revealed by Christ.
On those occasions he was seized with an apostolic vigour and an ‘energy that no one was able to resist’, and there was no concern that could daunt him. He was the Pope of the supernatural, who drew his strength not from human, but from divine powers: an indomitable Pope who, on one of the first days of his pontificate, to someone who asked him what his policy would be, replied without hesitation, lifting his eyes and pointing to a small crucifix that he had before him: ‘There is my policy’. […]
Before making any important decision, Pius X would reflect at length in light of the Faith and with the aid of prayer; he would consult the most eminent Cardinals and the most upright and sagacious prelates, but without allowing himself to be dominated by any of them, because he knew that the responsibility for his actions rested on his own shoulders.
DAL-GAL, Girolamo. Pius X. The Saintly Pope.
Madrid: Palabra, 1985, p.271-272
