He was the key cleric in President Porfirio Díaz's policy of conciliation with the Roman Catholic Church, which kept the anticlerical articles of the liberal Constitution of 1857 in place but suspended their implementation.

Originally Thomas Gillow was a jeweler, but he became a successful agricultural businessman, managing his wife's estates, and keenly interested in improving farming methods in Mexico.

[3] He inherited the Chautla Hacienda located in the rich valley of Puebla and on his return to Mexico devoted more of his attention to his family estate than to ecclesiastical matters.

At this hacienda, he built modern infrastructure, including the first hydroelectric plant in Latin America, as well as telegraph and telephone lines, imported the latest agricultural machinery, and gained railroad concessions.

Symbolically it was powerful, demonstrating the liberal Díaz's respect for the Church and the easing of the position of a prominent conservative cleric.

[8] Gillow's post as archbishop in Díaz's home state had a number of benefits, due to his political and ecclesiastic connections.