Editing Pope Pius IX (section)

===Mexico===
[[File:Obelisco Jamay.jpg|thumb|Obelisk in honor of Pope Pius IX in [[Jamay]], Jalisco, Mexico]]
In response to the upheavals faced by the Papal States during the 1848 revolutions, the [[Second Federal Republic of Mexico|Mexican government]] offered Pope Pius IX asylum, which the pope responded to by considering the creation of a Mexican cardinal and granting an award to President [[José Joaquín de Herrera]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Bancroft|first=Hubert Howe|date=1879|title=History of Mexico volume V: 1824-1861|pages=591}}</ref> With French Emperor [[Napoleon III]]'s [[Second French intervention in Mexico|military intervention in Mexico]] and establishment of the [[Second Mexican Empire]] under [[Maximilian I of Mexico|Maximilian I]] in 1864, the church sought relief from a friendly government after the anti-clerical actions of [[Benito Juárez]], who had suspended payment on foreign debt and seized ecclesial property.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1861-1865/french-intervention | title=Milestones: 1861–1865 - Office of the Historian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Scholastic|first=Grolier Online|date=December 2018|title=Mexico: History|url=http://www.scholastic.com/browse/subarticle.jsp?id=1106|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181202155146/http://www.scholastic.com/browse/subarticle.jsp?id=1106|archive-date=2 December 2018|access-date=|website=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-09-22-mn-998-story.html |title = After 125 Years, Vatican, Mexico Restore Ties|website = [[Los Angeles Times]]|date = 22 September 1992}}</ref>

Pius blessed Maximilian and his wife [[Charlotte of Belgium]] before they set off for Mexico to begin their reign.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.casaimperial.org/emperador.htm |title=casa imperial de Mexico |publisher=Casaimperial.org |access-date=23 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130717124757/http://www.casaimperial.org/emperador.htm |archive-date=17 July 2013 }}</ref> But the friction between the Vatican and Mexico would continue with the new emperor when Maximilian insisted on freedom of religion, which Pius opposed. Relations with the Vatican would only be resumed when Maximilian sent the recently converted American Catholic priest Father Agustin Fischer to Rome as his envoy.{{citation needed|date=January 2010}}

Contrary to Fischer's reports back to Maximilian, the negotiations did not go well and the Vatican would not budge.{{sfn|O'Connor|1971}} Maximilian sent his wife Charlotte to Europe to plead with Napoleon III against the withdrawal of French troops from Mexico. After unsuccessful meetings with Napoleon III, Charlotte travelled to Rome to plead with Pius in 1866. As the days passed, Charlotte's mental state deteriorated.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Carlota|first=consort of Maximilian|title=Guide to the Charlotte and Maximilian Collection, 1846-1927 MS 356|url=https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/ricewrc/00116/rice-00116.html|access-date=18 May 2021|website=legacy.lib.utexas.edu|language=en}}</ref> She sought refuge with the pope, and she would eat and drink only what was prepared for him, fearful that everything else might be poisoned. The pope, though alarmed, accommodated her, and even agreed to let her stay in the Vatican one night after she voiced anxiety about her safety. She and her assistant were the first women to stay the night inside the Vatican.{{sfn|Michael|2002}}