State religion
Economic development, however, was only a part of Garcia Moreno's plan for the new Ecuador; he above all sought to remake the nation into a shining example of a Catholic State. Garcia Moreno, while abroad, had witnessed the violence and chaos, as well as the uprooting of the Church's spiritual authority, which revolutionary liberalism brought in the Revolutions of 1848, As a result, he became further committed to Catholic principles. The new constitution Garcia Moreno drafted in 1861 increased presidential power to allow for this, and his 1862 concordat with the Church gave it more power over Ecuador it has ever had before or since. Catholicism, in a new 1869 constitution, was made the State religion as well as the only legal faith. Garcia Moreno further strengthened the Church's interests that same year by signing into effect legislation which outlawed secret societies such as the Freemasons, which those on the receiving end saw as a personal attack.