On 23 June 1858, in Bologna in the Papal States, police arrived at the home of a Jewish couple, Salomone and Marianna Padovani Mortara, to take one of their eight children, six-year-old Edgardo, and transport him to Rome to be raised as a ward of the state. The police had orders from Holy Office to take him, authorized by Pope Pius IX as Edgardo had been secretly baptized Catholic as an infant.
Under Catholic doctrine, "emergency" baptism may be administered to a person in danger of...
The Strange Case of Edgardo Mortara's Emergency Baptism
Under Catholic doctrine, "emergency" baptism may be administered to a person in danger of...
The Strange Case of Edgardo Mortara's Emergency Baptism