Editing Pope Pius IX (section)

==Plans to leave Rome==
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|image1 = Pio IX affacciato dal treno papale.jpg 
|caption1 = Pius IX in a papal train, 1862. He was the first pope to be photographed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://aleteia.org/2019/01/09/the-first-pope-to-be-photographed-was-not-afraid-of-new-technology/|title=The first pope to be photographed was not afraid of new technology|date=9 January 2019 |publisher=Aleteia|access-date=19 August 2022}}</ref>   
|image2 = Inauguration railway bridge san paolo 1863.jpg
|caption2 = Pius IX in the inauguration of the "[[Ponte dell'Industria]]" railway bridge, September 1863
|image3 = Benedizione di Pio IX alle Truppe Pontificie.jpg
|caption3 = Blessing of the Pontifical Troops, 1870 
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Several times during his pontificate, Pius IX considered moving from Rome. On 24 November 1848, facing a rebellion by Italian nationalists, he fled to [[Gaeta]] in the [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]], returning in 1850. On 26 July 1862, when [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]] and his volunteers marching in Rome were stopped at [[Battle of Aspromonte|Aspromonte]], Pius IX asked the British envoy [[Odo Russell, 1st Baron Ampthill|Odo Russell]] if he would be granted political asylum in England after the Italian troops had marched in. Russell assured him of asylum if the need arose, but said that he was sure that the Pope's fears were unfounded.{{sfn|Ridley|1976|p=535}} In 1870, after the [[Capture of Rome]] and the suspension of the [[First Vatican Council]], [[Otto von Bismarck]] confided that Pius IX had asked whether Prussia could grant him asylum. Bismarck did not object, adding "it would be very useful to us to be recognised by Catholics as what we really are, that is to say, the sole power now existing that is capable of protecting the head of their Church. ... But the King ([[William I, German Emperor|Wilhelm I]]) will not consent. He is terribly afraid. He thinks all Prussia would be perverted and he himself would be obliged to become a Catholic. I told him, however, that if the Pope begged for asylum he could not refuse it."{{sfn|Busch|1898a|p=220}}