Editing Pope Pius IX (section)

===Jews===
{{Main|Pope Pius IX and Judaism}}
The Papal States were a [[theocracy]] in which the Catholic Church and its members had far more rights than other religions. Pius IX's religious policies became increasingly reactionary over time. At the beginning of his pontificate, together with other liberal measures, Pius opened up the [[Roman Ghetto|Jewish ghetto in Rome]], freeing Jews to reside elsewhere. In 1850, after French troops defeated the revolutionary [[Roman Republic (1849)|Roman Republic]] and returned him from exile, the Pope reversed the Republic's religious freedom laws and issued a series of anti-liberal measures, including re-instituting the Jewish ghetto.{{sfn|Pougeois|1877c|p=258}}

In a highly publicized [[Mortara case|case]] from 1858, the police of the Papal States seized a 6-year-old Jewish boy, [[Edgardo Mortara]], from his parents. A Christian servant girl unrelated to the family claimed she had informally [[baptism|baptized]] him during an illness six years prior, fearing he would die. This had made the child legally a Christian convert, and Papal law forbade Christians from being raised by Jews, even their own parents. The incident provoked widespread outrage amongst liberals, both Catholic and non-Catholic, and contributed to the growing anti-papal sentiment in Europe. The boy was raised in the [[papal household]], and was eventually ordained a priest at age 21.{{sfn|Kertzer|1998}}