Editing Pope Pius IX (section)

==Early life and ministry==
[[File:Senigallia Casa ove Pio IX fu allattato.jpg|left|thumb|170x170px|The birthplace house of Pius IX in Senigallia]]
Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti was born on 13 May 1792 in [[Senigallia]]. He was the ninth child born into the noble family of Girolamo dei Conti Mastai-Ferretti (1750–1833), grandnephew of [[:it:Pietro Girolamo Guglielmi|Pietro Girolamo Guglielmi]], and wife Caterina Antonia Maddalena Solazzei di Fano (1764–1842).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Giovanni Maria Battista Mastai Ferretti, aka Pope Pius IX |url=https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/KZ3Z-BQL |access-date=3 January 2023 |website=www.familysearch.org}}</ref> He was baptized on the day of his birth with the names Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro. He was educated at the [[Piarist]] College in [[Volterra]] and in Rome. An unreliable account published many years later suggests that the young Count Mastai was engaged to the daughter of the Protestant [[Church of Ireland]] Bishop of Kilmore, [[William Foster (bishop)|William Foster]].<ref>See the account of [[Edward Craven Hawtrey]], recorded by [[Augustus Hare]] in [https://archive.org/details/thestoryofmylife01hare ''The Story of My Life''], Volume I (Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1896), pp. 593–599.</ref> If there was ever any such engagement, it did not proceed.

[[File:Pius ix first mass.jpg|thumb|170px|left|Illustration showing Mastai-Ferretti at his first Holy Mass in 1819]]
In 1814, as a theology student in his hometown of Sinigaglia, he met [[Pope Pius VII]], who had returned from French captivity. In 1815, he entered the Papal [[Noble Guard]] but was soon dismissed after an epileptic seizure.<ref name="van">{{cite magazine |last=Van Biema |first=David |date=27 August 2000 |title=Not So Saintly? |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,53415,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010124000500/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,53415,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 January 2001 |magazine=Time |location=New York |access-date=3 March 2018}}</ref> He threw himself on the mercy of Pius VII, who elevated him and supported his continued theological studies.

[[File:Kath. Illustratie 1869-1870 nr 25 p.126 De priester Masaí Ferretti, thans Pius IX, in Tata Giovanni.jpg|left|thumb|198x198px|Fr. Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti teaching to orphans]]
Mastai-Ferretti was ordained a priest on 10 April 1819. The Pope had originally insisted that another priest should assist Mastai-Ferretti during Holy Mass, but rescinded the stipulation after the seizures became less frequent.{{sfn|Schmidlin|1922–1939|p=8}} He initially worked as the rector of the Tata Giovanni Institute in Rome.

Shortly before his death, Pius VII – following Chilean leader [[Bernardo O'Higgins]]' wish to have the Pope reorganize the Catholic Church of the new republic – named him [[Auditor (ecclesiastical)|auditor]] to assist the [[Apostolic Nuncio|apostolic nuncio]], Monsignore Giovanni Muzi, in the first mission to post-revolutionary South America.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.viajeros.net/escritos/escritos-6.html |title=El Papado y la Iglesia naciente en América Latina (1808–1825) |publisher=Viajeros.net |access-date=23 June 2013 |language=es}}</ref> The mission had the objective to map out the role of the [[Catholic Church in Chile]] and its relationship with the state, but when it finally arrived in [[Santiago]] in March 1824, O'Higgins had been overthrown and replaced by General [[Ramón Freire]], who was less well-disposed toward the Church and had already taken hostile measures such as the seizure of Church property. Having ended in failure, the mission returned to Europe.<ref>Yves Chiron, ''Pie IX. Face à la modernité'', Éditions Clovis, 2016 (2nd ed.),  pp. 63–71.</ref> Nevertheless, Mastai-Ferretti had been the first future pope ever to have been in the Americas. Upon his return to Rome, the successor of Pius VII, [[Pope Leo XII]], appointed him head of the hospital of [[San Michele a Ripa]] in Rome (1825–1827) and [[canon (priest)|canon]] of [[Santa Maria in Via Lata]].

Leo XII appointed the 35-year-old Mastai-Ferretti [[Archbishop of Spoleto]] in 1827.{{sfn|Schmidlin|1922–1939|p=8}} In 1831, the [[Revolutions of 1830|abortive revolution]] that had begun in [[Duchy of Parma and Piacenza|Parma]] and [[Duchy of Modena and Reggio|Modena]] spread to [[Spoleto]]; the Archbishop obtained a general pardon after it was suppressed, gaining him a reputation for being liberal. During an earthquake, he made a reputation as an efficient organizer of relief and great charity.{{sfn|Schmidlin|1922–1939|p=8}} The following year he was moved to the more prestigious [[Diocese of Imola]], was made a [[cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinal]] ''in pectore'' in 1839, and in 1840 was publicly announced as [[Cardinal-Priest|cardinal-priest]] of [[Santi Marcellino e Pietro al Laterano]]. As in Spoleto, his episcopal priorities were the formation of priests through improved education and charities. He became known for visiting prisoners in jail and for programs for street children.{{sfn|Schmidlin|1922–1939|p=10}} Cardinal Mastai-Ferretti was considered a liberal during his episcopate in Spoleto and Imola because he supported administrative changes in the [[Papal States]] and sympathized with the nationalist movement in Italy.