 In 1864, Pope Pius IX appointed the vicar general of Geneva, Gaspard Mermillod, as an auxiliary bishop.In 1873, Pius IX detached the Genevese territory from the diocese, made it an apostolic vicariate, and appointed Mermillod as vicar apostolic.By this action, Geneva was again severed from the Diocese of Lausanne and Freiburg, contrary to the wishes of the civil authorities, and, it was asserted, the wishes of a majority of the Catholic population.