Edgardo Mortara (August 27, 1851 – March 11, 1940) was a Jewish boy who became the center of an international controversy when he was seized from his Jewish parents by the Papal States authorities and taken to be raised as a Catholic. The Mortara case was the catalyst for far-reaching political changes, and its repercussions are still being felt within the Catholic Church and in relations between the Church and some Jewish organizations. Mortara was raised as a Catholic and remained one for the remainder of his life. Mortara is a town in the region of Lombardy, Italy. ... is the 239th day of the year (240th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1851 (MDCCCLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 70th day of the year (71st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Languages Historical Jewish languages Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, others Liturgical languages: Hebrew and Aramaic Predominant spoken languages: The vernacular language of the home nation in the Diaspora, significantly including English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian Religions Judaism Related ethnic groups Arabs and other Semitic groups For the Jewish religion, see Judaism. ... Coat of arms Map of the Papal States; the reddish area was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1860, the rest (grey) in 1870. ...

The Mortara case

On the evening of 23 June 1858, in Bologna, then part of the Papal States, police arrived at the home of a Jewish couple, Salomone ("Momolo") and Marianna Padovani Mortara, to seize one of their eight children, six-year-old Edgardo, and transport him to Rome to be raised by the Catholic Church. is the 174th day of the year (175th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1858 (MDCCCLVIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... For the food product, see Bologna sausage. ... Coat of arms Map of the Papal States; the reddish area was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1860, the rest (grey) in 1870. ... For other uses, see Rome (disambiguation). ...

The police had orders from Inquisition authorities in Rome, authorized by Pope Pius IX.^[1] Church officials had been told that a 14-year-old^[2] Catholic servant girl of the Mortaras, Anna Morisi, had baptized Edgardo while he was ill because she feared that he would otherwise die and go to Hell. Under the law of the Papal States, Edgardo's baptism, even if illegal under canon law, was valid and made him a Christian. Under the canon law, Jews could not raise a Christian child, even their own. In 1912, in his relation in favour of the beatification of Pope Pius IX, Edgardo himself noted that the laws of the Papal States did not allow Catholics to work in the homes of Jewish families.^[3] That law was widely disregarded due to the ability of Catholic servants to work on the Shabbat^[4]. The Roman Inquisition began in 1542 when Pope Paul III established the Holy Office as the final court of appeal in trials of heresy and served as an important part of the Counter-Reformation. ... For other uses, see Rome (disambiguation). ... Pope Pius IX (May 13, 1792 – February 7, 1878), born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, reigned as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from his election in June 16, 1846, until his death more than 31 years later in 1878. ... This article is about the Christian religious act of Baptism. ... This article is about the theological or philosophical afterlife. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      Canon law is the term used for... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Pope Pius IX (May 13, 1792 – February 7, 1878), born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, reigned as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from his election in June 16, 1846, until his death more than 31 years later in 1878. ... Coat of arms Map of the Papal States; the reddish area was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1860, the rest (grey) in 1870. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... For other uses, see Sabbath. ...

Edgardo was taken to a house for Catholic converts (a "House of Catechumens"^[5]) in Rome, maintained by taxes levied on Jews. His parents were not allowed to see him for several weeks, and then not alone. Pius IX took a personal interest in the case, and all appeals to the Church were rebuffed. Church authorities told the Mortaras that they could have Edgardo back if they abandoned their faith and converted to Catholicism, but they refused. In ecclesiology, a catechumen (from Latin catechumenus, Greek κατηχουμενος, instructed) is one receiving instruction in the principles of the Christian religion with a view to baptism. ...

The incident soon received extensive publicity both in Italy and internationally. In the Kingdom of Piedmont, the largest independent state in Italy and the centre of the liberal nationalist movement for Italian unification, both the government and the press used the case to reinforce their claims that the Papal States were ruled by medieval obscurantists and should be liberated from Papal rule. Piedmont is a region of northwestern Italy. ... Italian Unification (Italian: il Risorgimento, or The Resurgence) was the political and social movement that unified different states of the Italian peninsula into the single nation of Italy. ... Coat of arms Map of the Papal States; the reddish area was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1860, the rest (grey) in 1870. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... Obscurantism in its current usage can imply one of two separate concepts, sometimes distinguished by capitalization: // The older sense of the term Obscurantism refers to a class of philosophies that favor limits on the extension and dissemination of scientific knowledge, believing it to be the enemy of faith. ...

Protests were lodged by both Jewish organizations and prominent political and intellectual figures in Britain, the United States, Germany, Austria, and France. Soon the governments of these countries added to calls for Edgardo to be returned to his parents. The French Emperor Napoleon III, whose troops garrisoned Rome to protect the Pope against the Italian anti-clerical unificationists, also protested. Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (April 20, 1808 - January 9, 1873) was the son of King Louis Bonaparte and Queen Hortense de Beauharnais; both monarchs of the French puppet state, the Kingdom of Holland. ... For other uses, see Rome (disambiguation). ...

Pius IX was unmoved by these appeals, which mostly came from non-Catholics, and were thus considered without moral force for him^{[citation needed]}. When a delegation of prominent Jews saw him in 1859, he told them, "I couldn't care less what the world thinks."^{[citation needed]} At another meeting, he brought Edgardo with him to show that the boy was happy in his care. In 1865 he said: "I had the right and the duty to do what I did for this boy, and if I had to, I would do it again."^{[citation needed]} In a speech in 1871 he called the Jews of Rome "dogs" and said: "of these dogs, there are too many of them at present in Rome, and we hear them howling in the streets, and they are disturbing us in all places." ^{[6] [7]}

The Mortara case served to harden the already prevalent opinion among liberals and nationalists in both Italy and abroad that the rule of the Pope over a large area of central Italy was an anachronism and an affront to human rights in an "enlightened" age of liberalism and rationalism. It helped persuade opinion in both Britain and France to allow Piedmont to go to war with the Papal States in 1859 and annex most of the Pope's territories, effectively leaving him with only the city of Rome in the end. When the French garrison was withdrawn in 1870, Rome too was annexed by the new, unified, liberal Kingdom of Italy. Look up Anachronism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Age of Enlightenment (French: ; Italian: ; German: ; Spanish: ; Swedish: ; Polish: ; Portuguese: ) was an eighteenth-century movement in Western philosophy. ... Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ... In epistemology and in its broadest sense, rationalism is any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification (Lacey 286). ... Anthem Marcia Reale dOrdinanza (Royal March of Ordinance)¹ The Kingdom of Italy at the height of its power in 1940. ...

In 1859, after Bologna had been annexed to Piedmont, the Mortara parents made another effort to recover their son, but he had been taken to Rome. In 1870, when Rome was captured from the Pope, they tried again, but Edgardo was then 19 and therefore legally an adult, and had declared his firm intention of remaining a Catholic. In that year, he moved his residence to France. The following year, his father died. In France, he entered the Augustinian order, being ordained a priest at the age of 23, and adopted the spiritual name Pius. He is also known as Pio Maria. Fr. Edgardo Mortara was sent as a missionary to cities such as Munich, Mainz and Breslau to preach to the Jews there, however in most cases with little effect^{[citation needed]}. He became fluent in a variety of languages. The breach of Porta Pia, on the right, in a contemporary photograph. ... Detail of St. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Catholic deacon... This article is about religious workers. ... For other uses, see Missionary (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Munich (disambiguation). ... Mainz is a city in Germany and the capital of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. ... Motto: Miasto spotkaÅ„ (the meeting place) Coordinates: , Country Poland Voivodeship Lower Silesian Powiat city county Gmina WrocÅ‚aw Established 10th century City Rights 1262 Government  - Mayor RafaÅ‚ Dutkiewicz Area  - City 292. ... Languages Historical Jewish languages Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, others Liturgical languages: Hebrew and Aramaic Predominant spoken languages: The vernacular language of the home nation in the Diaspora, significantly including English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian Religions Judaism Related ethnic groups Arabs and other Semitic groups For the Jewish religion, see Judaism. ...

Edgardo Mortara stands on our right; his mother is seated.

In 1912, in his written statement in favor of the beatification of Pius IX, Mortara recalled his own feelings about the abduction: "Eight days later, my parents presented themselves to the Institute of Neophytes to initiate the complex procedures to get me back in the family. As they had complete freedom to see me and talk with me, they remained in Rome for a month, coming every day to visit me. Needless to say, they tried every means to get me back — caresses, tears, pleas and promises. Despite all this, I never showed the slightest desire to return to my family, a fact which I do not understand myself, except by looking at the power of supernatural grace."^[3] This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

During a public-speaking engagement in Italy he reestablished communications with his mother and siblings. In 1895, he attended his mother's funeral. His nieces and nephews, as adults, sadly recalled the frequent visits from the priest. It is not clear whether they knew him as a relative or "family friend." For other uses, see Mother (disambiguation). ... This article is about the domestic group. ... This article is about religious workers. ...

In 1897, he preached in St. Patrick's Cathedral New York, but the Bishop of New York told the Vatican that he opposed Mortara's efforts to evangelise the Jews on the grounds that such efforts embarrassed the Church in the view of the United States government.^{[citation needed]} Mortara died in 1940 in Belgium, after spending some years in a monastery. This article is about the state. ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article concerns the buildings occupied by monastics. ...

Pius IX and the Jews

At Pius IX's accession in 1846, Jews in Rome were required to live in a ghetto, a separated quarter of the city. At first Pius showed some liberalising tendencies towards the Jews. In particular, he relaxed laws requiring them to live in specified neighborhoods and repealed laws requiring them to attend meetings where priests encouraged their religious conversion. But after the attempted republican liberal revolution in Rome in 1848, Pius changed his mind: like most conservatives at this time, he associated the Jews with radicalism and revolution. Jews continued to be taxed to pay for schools for ethnic Jewish converts to Catholicism. Their testimony against Christians was still not admitted in courts of law. The Roman Ghetto was located in the area surrounded by todays Via del Portico dOttavia, Lungotevere dei Cenci, Via del Progresso and Via di Santa Maria del Pianto close to the Tiber and the Theatre of Marcellus, in Rome, Italy. ... Military flag of the Roman Republic. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... For other uses, see Revolution (disambiguation). ... A trial at the Old Bailey in London as drawn by Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin for Ackermanns Microcosm of London (1808-11). ...

The Mortara case has attracted new attention in recent years because of the campaign to secure canonisation for Blessed Pius IX, a campaign driven by Pope John Paul II and other Catholic faithful. Jewish groups and others, led by several descendants of the Mortara family, protested the Vatican's beatification of Pius in 2000. In 1997 David Kertzer published The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, which brought the case back into public attention. The story became the subject of a play, Edgardo Mine by Alfred Uhry. This article is about the process of declaring saints. ... Blessed may refer to: The state of having received a blessing. ... Coat of Arms of Pope John Paul II. The Letter M is for Mary, the mother of Jesus, to whom he held strong devotion Pope John Paul II (Latin: , Italian: Giovanni Paolo II, Polish: Jan PaweÅ‚ II) born   []; 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005) reigned as the 264th Pope of... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... David I. Kertzer is Paul Dupee, Jr. ... Alfred Fox Uhry (born December 3, 1936) is an American playwright best known for the play and screenplay of Driving Miss Daisy. ...

In Italy, Jewish leaders and some Catholic scholars have warned that the canonization of Pius IX will undermine the goodwill engendered by recent Vatican attempts to atone for Christian Europe's history of anti-Semitism. B'nai B'rith, a prominent Jewish group based in the United States, has also protested against the campaign to canonise Pius. The Mortara case is thus once again a live issue in Jewish-Catholic relations. Bnai Brith Membership Certificate, 1876. ...

Some senior Catholics continue to defend Pius's actions in the Mortara case. Monsignor Carlo Liberati, the church official who advanced Pius IX's beatification, said Pius should not be judged by the Mortara case: "In the process of beatification, this wasn't considered a problem because it was a habit of the times" to take baptised Jews and raise them as Catholics. "We can't look at the Church with the eyes of the year 2000, with all of the religious liberty that we have now," Liberati said. Freedom of religion is a modern legal concept of being free as a matter of right, while freedom of worship is based upon the free expression of that right. ...

Liberati also said: "The servant girl wanted to give the grace of God to the child. She wanted him to go to heaven… [and] at the time, the spiritual paternity was more important than civil paternity." In Christianity, divine grace refers to the sovereign favor of God for humankind, as manifest in the blessings bestowed upon all —irrespective of actions (deeds), earned worth, or proven goodness. ...

Jesuit Father Giacomo Martina, a professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, wrote in a book about Pius's life, "In perspective, the Mortara story demonstrates the profound zeal of Pius IX [and] his firmness in carrying out what he perceived to be his duty at the cost of losing personal popularity." He also said the beatified pope regarded his critics as "unbelievers… [operating] a war machine against the church." The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order. ... Pontifical Gregorian University (Italian: Pontificia Università Gregoriana) is a pontifical university located in Rome, Italy. ...

In 1912 Mortara testified in writing that he thought Pius IX should be canonized: "I am firmly convinced, not only by the deposition I have given, but by the entire life of my august protector and father, that the Servant of God [Pius IX] is a saint. I have the almost instinctive conviction that one day he will be raised to the glory of the altars. For me it will be an intimate joy for my entire life and a great comfort in the hour of my death to have cooperated to the limits of my strength toward the success of this cause. I pray to God by the intercession of his Servant to have mercy on me and forgive my sins, and make me rejoice in his presence in Paradise."^[3] Servant of God is the title given to a person of the Roman Catholic Church upon whom a pope has opened a cause of sainthood. ... Saints redirects here. ...

Elena Mortara, a great-great-granddaughter of one of Edgardo's sisters, and a professor of literature in Rome, continues to campaign for an apology from the Vatican for Edgardo's abduction and against the canonisation of Pius IX. She has said she is "appalled at the idea that the Catholic Church wants to make a saint out of a Pope who perpetuated such an act of unacceptable intolerance and abuse of power." She explained that she "feels historically obliged in the name of my generation to ask [the Church] if this is the example you want to give."

References

May 2007 is the fifth month of that year. ... Zenit News Agency is an international news agency. ...

Further reading

• David I. Kertzer's The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (ISBN 0-679-76817-3). December 1998 Random House, paperback June 1999 Vintage Books.

• The story was adapted by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry into the play Edgardo Mine based on David Kertzer's book.

David I. Kertzer is Paul Dupee, Jr. ... Alfred Fox Uhry (born December 3, 1936) is an American playwright best known for the play and screenplay of Driving Miss Daisy. ...

External links

• An account of the American reaction to the Mortara case, emphasizing the anti-Catholicism of the American response.
• Secret Files of the Inquisition Episode 4 Concerns Edgardo Mortara and his relationship with the end of the papal states, the unification of Italy, and the end of the Italian Inquisition.