Pope Pius IX and the United States

Pius IX supported Diocesan synods and regular meetings, and granted all wishes of the American bishops regarding enlargements of their rights and privileges. In 1849, from his exile in Gaeta, he politely turned down an invitation to visit the U.S. He wrote, "...nothing could afford us more pleasure, nothing could be more grateful to our hearts than to enjoy the presence and conversation of yourself and the venerable brethren ... but in the existing times and circumstances, it would be impossible for us to comply with your invitation, as your wisdom will easily understand".^[5]

The enormous growth of the Catholic Church in the U.S. and the genuine admiration in the early years for his liberal pontificate resulted in the United States establishing diplomatic relations with the Papal States on 7 April 1848. This lasted until 1867, when domestic pressures forced a closing of relations.^[6] The Vatican never had an ambassador in Washington, because the U.S. government refused to accept a Catholic priest as papal nuncio.^[7]

Pius IX pushed for an American College in Rome for future American priests and promised his personal financial support. A small college was founded in 1859 under Rev John McCloskey; it was greatly expanded under Pius XII in 1956.

During the American Civil War, Catholics oriented themselves to John Hughes (the Archbishop of New York) in the Union and to Jean-Marie Odin (the Archbishop of New Orleans) in the Confederate States.^[6] Abraham Lincoln asked Pope Pius IX to elevate Hughes into the College of Cardinals,^[8] but Pius declined to do so. A decade later, Pius did elevate John McCloskey, Hughes's successor, to the College of Cardinals.

Historian Don H. Doyle writes, "During the American Civil War, the pope ... urged American bishops to call for peace at a time when peace meant separation, and privately he expressed strong sympathies with the South. The Confederacy sent envoys to enlist Pio Nono [Pius IX] in their cause and came away boasting the most powerful pontiff in Europe had recognized the Confederacy. The pope said nothing to refute such claims...."^[9] Specifically, Confederate diplomat Ambrose Dudley Mann met with the pope in December 1863 and received a letter addressed to the "Honorable President of the Confederate States of America." This was simple courtesy, though it had no legal effect. The Confederacy used it in propaganda to claim papal support. For example, Robert E. Lee called the pope "the only sovereign... in Europe who recognized our poor Confederacy".^[10] In fact, no diplomatic relations or recognitions were extended in either direction. In his dispatch to Richmond, Mann claimed a great diplomatic achievement for himself; he believed the letter was "a positive recognition of our Government". Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin told Mann it was "a mere inferential recognition, unconnected with political action or the regular establishment of diplomatic relations" and thus did not assign it the weight of formal recognition.^[11][12]

After the end of the war, Pope Pius IX sent an inscribed photograph of himself to the imprisoned former president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis.^[13][a]

• Franzen, August (1991). Kleine Kirchengeschichte [Little church history] (in German) (2 ed.). Freiburg, Germany: Herder. ISBN 3451085771.
• Franzen, August; Bäumer, Remigius (1988). Papstgeschichte (in German). Freiburg, Germany: Herder. ISBN 9783451085789.

•  ———  (1934). Papstgeschichte (in German). Vol. 2. Munich: Köstel-Pusztet.
• Shea, John Gilmary (1877). The Life of Pope Pius IX. New York: n.p.