The Popes Against the Jews

Edward Cardinal Cassidi, Australian head of the Vatican’s, Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, called in reporters to announce the long-awaited results of his investigation. -It Was March 16, 1998—eleven years after Pope John Paul II had asked the Commission to determine what responsibility, if any, the Church bore for the slaughter of millions of European Jews during World War 2; For the Church, a more explosive subject could hardly be imagined- It had been thirty-five years since Rolf Hochhuth’s play The Deputy raised the charge of papal complicity in the Holocaust, triggering- Catholic outrage worldwide. Yet the suggestion that the Vatican bore responsibility for what had happened to the Jews continued to grate on Catholic sensibilities. And so nervousness mixed with curiosity as the report was finally released to a public sharply divided between those worried- that it might criticize the Church, and those who feared it would not.

Heightening the drama and underlining the significance of the event, the Pope himself wrote an introduction to the report. John Paul II hailed the Commission document—"We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah” —as an important part of Church preparations for the upcoming millenial celebrations.

To properly observe the jubilee, the Pope wrote, the Church’s sons and daughters must purify their hearts by examining responsibility they bore for sins committed in the past. He voiced the hope that by providing an accurate account of past evils, the Commission would help ensure that such horrors as the Holocaust would never be repeated.

The report’s preamble echoed this theme, not only stressing the Pope's commitment to repentance for past sins, but also linking the proper understanding of the past to the building of a brighter future.

At the heart of the problem, as the Vatican commissioners recognized, was the fact that the Holocaust had taken place "in countries of long-standing Christian civilization." Might there be some link, they asked, between the destruction of Europe’s Jews and "the attitudes down the centuries of Christians toward the Jews”?

Those who feared that the report might criticize past popes or past Church actions were soon relieved to learn that the Commission’s answer to this question was a resounding "no.” True, the report admitted, Jews had for centuries been discriminated against and used as scapegoats, and, regrettably, certain misguided interpretations of Christian teachings had on occasion nurtured such behavior. But all this regarded an older history, one largely overcome by the beginning of the 1800s.

In the Commission's view, the nineteenth century was the key period for understanding the roots of the Holocaust and, in particular, the reasons why the Church bore no responsibility for it. It was in that turbulent century that new intellectual and political currents associated with extreme nationalism emerged. Amid the economic and social upheavals of the time, people started to accuse Jews of exercising a disproportionate influence. "There thus began to spread,” the Commission members argued, “an anti-Judaism that was essentially more sociological and political than religious.” This new form of antagonism to the Jews was further shaped by racial theories that first appeared in the latter part of the nineteenth century and reached their terrible apotheosis in the Nazis’ glorification of a superior Aryan race. Far from supporting these racist ideologies, the Vatican commissioners asserted, the Church had always condemned them.

And so, according to the report, a crucial distinction must be made. What arose in the late nineteenth century, and sprouted like a poisonous weed in the twentieth, was "antisemitism, based on theories contrary to the constant teaching of the Church.” This they contrasted with “anti-Judaism,” long-standing attitudes of mistrust and hostility of which “Christians also have been guilty,” but which, in the Vatican report, had nothing to do with the hatred of the Jews that led to the Holocaust.

When I read the news story of the Vatican press conference, and later read the text of the Commission report, I knew that there was something terribly wrong with the history that the Vatican was recounting. It is a history that many wish had happened, but it is not what actually happened. It is the latter story, sometimes dramatic, sometimes hard to believe, often sad, that I try to tell in the pages that follow.

Just how little this history is known was driven home to me by reader reactions to my recent book 'The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara'. The book tells of a six-year-old Jewish boy in Bologna, Italy, who, in 1858, was taken from his family on orders of the local inquisitor. Having ' been secretly baptized by a servant—or so it was claimed—the boy, the inquisitor argued, was now Catholic and could not remain in a Jewish household.

"You mean there was still an Inquisition in 1858?” readers asked. "I thought the Inquisition was back in the 1500s or 1600s." I also kept "hearing—especially from non-Jewish readers—how amazing it was for them to learn that forcing Jews to wear yellow badges and keeping them locked in ghettoes were not inventions of the Nazis in the twentieth century, but a policy that the popes had championed for hundreds of years.

NY Times Review by Garry Wills on September 23 2001

The Jews -- eternal insolent children, obstinate, dirty, thieves, liars, ignoramuses, pests and the scourge of those near and far . . . managed to lay their hands on . . . all public wealth . . . and virtually alone they took control not only of all the money . . . but of the law itself in those countries where they have been allowed to hold public offices . . . [yet they complain] at the first shout by anyone who dares raise his voice against this barbarian invasion by an enemy race, hostile to Christianity and to society in general.''

Those words appeared in 1880 in Civilta Cattolica, the journal Pope Pius IX had ordered the Jesuits to publish in Rome as the informal organ of the Vatican -- every article was cleared before publication by the papal secretariat of state. The words were written by a founding editor of the paper, Giuseppe Oreglia, S.J., who was responsible for three dozen more articles in this vein during the 1880's. The articles were typical of Civilta Cattolica, and Civilta Cattolica was typical of Roman Catholic periodicals all over Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

David Kertzer, a professor of history at Brown University, has undertaken the sickening task of compiling a sampler of such material issuing from church-sponsored newspapers. He earlier wrote ''The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara,'' which told how Pius IX took a 6-year-old boy away from his Jewish parents because the Inquisition had decided that the boy had been secretly baptized by a Christian servant working in the Mortara household. ''The Popes Against the Jews'' is even more disheartening than ''The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara,'' besides being a more formidable scholarly achievement, since it traces, over a stretch of two centuries, the Vatican's endorsement of things like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or the guilt of Alfred Dreyfus or the charge that Jews regularly commit ritual murders of Christian children. Pope John Paul II's document on the Holocaust, ''We Remember,'' said that the Catholic church in the past objected to Jews only on theological grounds, not racial ones. Kertzer easily destroys this falsehood. To quote again Oreglia's article, cleared by the Vatican secretariat of state:

''Oh how wrong and deluded are those who think Judaism is just a religion, like Catholicism, Paganism, Protestantism, and not in fact a race, a people, and a nation! . . . For the Jews are not only Jews because of their religion . . . they are Jews also and especially because of their race.''

Kertzer has done a staggeringly thorough job of tracing Catholic statements on the Jews, and in using the Vatican archives to show what support was given to the people making these statements. From this he argues that the debate over what Pius XII might have done during the Holocaust is a distraction from a more important question -- what did the Catholic church do to help bring on the Holocaust in the first place? It did a great deal. The anti-Semitic campaign against Alfred Dreyfus, the French military officer convicted of treason in 1894 on forged documents, was largely driven by a fanatical band of Catholics denouncing Dreyfus for his perfidious Jewishness. The Assumptionist Fathers made this a special mission of their daily newspaper, La Croix. Owen Chadwick, the author of the excellent ''History of the Popes: 1830-1914'' (1998), says of this campaign that it ''was the most powerful and extreme journalism ever conducted by an otherworldly religious order during the history of Christendom.'' Pope Leo XIII, though he criticized the paper for other reasons, never objected to this rabid effort. He said in 1899, ''I love La Croix.'' And no wonder. His own official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, had also prejudged Dreyfus's guilt. Later, it defended anti-Semitic mobs resisting a reversal of his rigged conviction: ''The Jewish race, the deicide people, wandering throughout the world, brings with it everywhere the pestiferous breath of treason.'' Kertzer brings the story down to the late 1930's, when Pius XI's attempt at writing an encyclical condemning Nazi antisemitism was sabotaged by the superior general of the Jesuits (a Polish aristocrat) and the editor of Civilta Cattolica. For that matter Pius XI himself, who served as a papal diplomat in Poland during World War I, dismissed reports of pogroms there as inventions of Jewish propaganda. He wrote to the Vatican secretary of state: ''One of the most evil and strongest influences that is felt here, perhaps the strongest and the most evil, is that of the Jews.''

None of the modern Piuses comes off well. Pius X favored a high official in his secretariat of state, Monsignor Umberto Benigni, who became one of the two principal distributors of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Italy. Pius also refused to intervene in the 20th century's most famous trial of a Jew on the ritual murder charge, a trial conducted in Kiev in 1913. After a Catholic priest testified to the court that such murders were an established fact of history, British Jews asked the Catholic Duke of Norfolk to request from the pope a denial of the libel. Pius X's secretary of state would not deny the myth, or send information about false uses of it directly to the presiding judge. As Kertzer notes, ''by not taking this step, the pope allowed the Catholic press, including that part of it viewed inside and outside the church as communicating the pope's true sentiments, to continue to tar the Jews with the ritual murder charge.'' This is the pope canonized by Pius XII in 1954.

Pius IX's record was far worse, even apart from his kidnapping of the Mortara child. In 1867, he canonized Peter Arbues, a 15th-century inquisitor famed for forcible conversion of Jews, and said in the canonization document, ''The divine wisdom has arranged that in these sad days, when Jews help the enemies of the church with their books and money, this decree of sanctity has been brought to fulfillment.'' (Kertzer somehow misses the story of this St. Peter -- it can be read in Chadwick's ''History of the Popes.'') Pius IX not only gave the Cross of Commander of the Papal Order to a man famous for a book endorsing the myth of Jewish ritual murders, but established the feast of a boy ''martyr'' who was supposedly the victim of such a rite. In 1871, addressing a group of Catholic women, Pius said that Jews ''had been children in the House of God,'' but ''owing to their obstinacy and their failure to believe, they have become dogs'' (emphasis in the original.). ''We have today in Rome unfortunately too many of these dogs, and we hear them barking in all the streets, and going around molesting people everywhere.'' This is the pope beatified by John Paul II in 2000.

Kertzer lays out this revolting record with admirable calm, not giving way to the indignation that most readers must feel. A Catholic will especially wonder why John Paul II was so determined to beatify Pius IX. Determined he certainly was. The board of experts established to examine Pius IX's credentials did not include the man who knows most about him, Giacomo Martina, S.J., the author of the definitive three-volume life of him. Why was this? Probably because, when Kenneth Woodward of Newsweek asked Martina if, after decades of studying the man, he thought Pius IX a saint, Martina answered ''No, I do not.'' Owen Chadwick said that there was only one pope who would have canonized Peter Arbues -- Pius IX. I am afraid, in the same way, that there was only one pope who would have beatified Pius IX -- John Paul II.

Garry Wills is the author of ''A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government'' and ''Papal Sin.'

PARTIAL LIST OF PAPAL BULLS AND OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS ON THE JEWISH QUESTION

From Zionism-israel

Following is a partial list of Papal Bulls and other relevant documents regarding the Jewish question, illustrating both the partial protection offered the Jews at different times and the institutionalization of Anti-Semitism.

Where protection was offered, it was often done in a condescending manner, asserting the Christian duty to have mercy on the Jews even though they were collectively guilty of killing Jesus (or in modern times, "forgiving" the Jews for killing Jesus) or was simply rescinding previous decrees. Catholic persecution of Jews - and protection - began in the Middle Ages, but the persecution continued and was intensified well after the Middle Ages, notably in the Inquisition and in the formation and regulation of ghettos, which began in the 1500s, well after the end of the Middle Ages. The Papal bulls and encyclicals that advanced and supported anti-Semitism included the following sorts of decrees:

 Special badges or dress for Jews

 Special taxes for Jews

 Forcing Jews to remit debt of Christians

 Banning, confiscating or burning Jewish law books and other writings.

 Encouraging or forcing conversion of Jews

 Expelling Jews from Papal territories or forcing Jews to live in ghettos.

 Inquisition for backsliding converted Jews,

Many believed and hoped that Catholic persecution of Jews had ended in the period of Pope John XXIII. Recent Bulls and Encyclicals of Pope Benedict XVI that reinstate anti-Semitic prayers and Catholic societies do not augur well.

Pius V was perhaps the worst of the anti-Semitic Popes. He was nonetheless canonized and the canonization was not rescinded.

In addition to the actual regulations depriving Jews of livelihood or home or forcing conversions, the Bulls often were prefaced with language of racist incitement that indicated the attitude of the Catholic Church to Jews.

The Bull Cum Nimis Absurdum ("How completely absurd") of Paul IV, 1555, which created the ghetto of Rome, began with these words:

As it is completely absurd and improper in the utmost that the Jews, who through their own fault were condemned by God to eternal servitude,

The Bull Hebraeorum gens ("The Jewish Race") 1569, of Saint Pius V, which expelled Jews from some of the Papal states, began with these words:

"The Jewish people fell from the heights because of their faithlessness and condemned their Redeemer to a shameful death. Their godlessness has assumed such forms that, for the salvation of our own people, it becomes necessary to prevent their disease. Besides usury, through which Jews everywhere have sucked dry the property of impoverished Christians, they are accomplices of thieves and robbers; and the most damaging aspect of the matter is that they allure the unsuspecting through magical incantations, superstition, and witchcraft to the Synagogue of Satan and boast of being able to predict the future. We have carefully investigated how this revolting sect abuses the name of Christ and how harmful they are to those whose life is threatened by their deceit. On account of these and other serious matters, and because of the gravity of their crimes which increase day to day more and more, We order that, within 90 days, all Jews in our entire earthly realm of justice -- in all towns, districts, and places -- must depart these regions."

The above is quoted in modern anti-Semitic works, including Catholic publications and the Stormfront Website.

To the modern reader, the Papal bulls seem to present a conflicting picture. Sometimes privileges were revoked and sometimes extended. Often the same Pope would order protection of the Jews from bodily harm but enact discriminatory laws of various kinds. Thus, the church would encourage hatred of Jews, but then it would discourage violence against Jews. For Catholic theology there was no contradiction. The role of the Jews was to serve as an example of the wages of sin to Christians. Therefore, the Jews must be tortured and ridiculed, but never killed.

The documents listed below are Papal Bulls unless otherwise noted. The Bulls get their titles from the initial words, generally the first three words, of the text of the document, which are known as the incipit. Note that there may be several Bulls with the same title by different Popes, and on entirely different subjects.

Explanation of terms:

"Jus Gasaga" - a corruption of "Jus Chazaka" - the law of the right of tenancy of Jews, usually in ghetto homes.

Catechumen - a person being taught the Catechism, a new convert. The Bulls called for a special tax on Jews, to be used to support the catechumens. The house of Catechumens in Rome was used as an instrument for forced conversion, and its victims included the chief Rabbi of Rome.

Neophyte - a new convert.

The sources generally do not distinguish between Bulls, encyclicals and other documents of more limited circulation.

PAPAL BULLS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS RELATING TO JEWS

Gregory I Sicut judaeis non 598 A letter, supplemented by others, provided limited protection of Jews.

"Just as no freedom may be granted to the Jews in their communities to exceed the limits legally set for them, so they should in no way suffer through a violation of their rights"

The letter contained the phrase "Sicut Judaeis" - and thus to the Jews. Gregory forbade Jews to have Christian slaves, and encouraged conversions. The measures of protection along with limitations and persecution, and even the wording of Sicut iudaeis were repeated in subsequent bulls and letters of various popes. It became the model for treatment of Jews.

Calixtus II Sicut Judaeis c. 1120 Probably the first formal version of Sicut Judaies. Reiterates protection of the Jews in the wake of the persecutions of the first Crusade.

Innocent III Post miserabile Aug. 1198 Addressed to prelates of Europe and dealt with the need for another Crusade. Suspended payment of interest and principal to Jewish lenders for crusaders. Since many did not return, the debt was effectively cancelled.

Innocent III Etsi non displiceat 1205 Addressed to King of France. Accuses Jews of usury, blasphemy, arrogance, employing Christian slaves and murder. Urges king to put an end to the "evils."

Honorius III Sicut judaeis non debet esse licentia Nov. 7, 1217 Forbids forced baptism of Jews or molestation.

Honorius III In general consilio 1218 To archbishop of Toledo, requires enforcement of 4th Lateran Council decisions that Jews must wear special clothing and pay tithes to the local churches.

Honorius III Ad nostram Noveritis audientiam April 29, 1221 Jews are obliged to carry a distinctive badge and forbidden to hold public office.

Gregory IX Sufficere debuerat perfidioe judoerum perfidia March 5, 1233 Jews forbidden to employ Christian servants.

Gregory IX Etsi Judeorum 1233 To prelates of France, urged prevention of physical violence against Jews.

Gregory IX Si vera sunt 1239 To kings and prelates of Spain and France - orders seizure of Talmud and other Jewish books and examination for blasphemy against Jesus. These books were regularly burned or censored.

Innocent IV Impia judoerum perfidia May 9, 1244 French King ordered to burn the Talmud. Jews forbidden to employ Christian nurses.

Innocent IV Lachrymabilem Judaeorum 1247 To German prelates; orders an end to persecution of Jews and declares that the blood libel accusation is false.

Clement IV Turbato corde July 26, 1267 Christians forbidden to embrace Judaism

Gregory X Turbato corde March 1, 1274 (Identical to previous.)

Nicolas III Vineam Sorec Aug. 4, 1278 Addressed to orders of friars - Preaching to the Jews is encouraged and friars are to be specially trained for this purpose. Also known as Vineam Soreth.

Nicolas IV Turbato corde Sept. 5, 1288 Christians who embrace Judaism

John XXII Ex Parte Vestra Aug. 12, 1317 Relapse of converts.

John XXII Cum sit absurdum June 19, 1320 Converted Jews need not be despoiled.

Clement VI Quamvis Perfidiam September 26, 1348 Tries in vain to dispel the superstition that Jews are responsible for Black Death by poisoning the wells

Urban V Sicuti judaeis non debet June 7, 1365 Forbidden to molest Jews or to force them to baptism.

Benedict XIII
(Anti-Pope) Etsi doctoribus gentium 1415 A collection of anti-Jewish church legislation that served as an inspiration to other Popes.

Martin V Sedes apostolica June 3, 1425 Jews obliged to wear distinctive badge.

Eugene IV Dudum ad nostram audientiam Aug. 4, 1442 Forbade Jews to live with Christians or fill public functions, etc.

Calixtus III Si ad reprimendos May 28, 1456 Confirmed the preceding Bull of Eugene IV forbidding Jews to live with Christians.

Sixtus IV Numquam dubitavimus 1482 To Ferdinand of Aragon, to appoint inquisitors to extirpate heresy and investigate backsliding of Jewish converts to Christianity. The Spanish Inquisition and expulsion of the Jews from Spain followed.

Paul III Cupientes judaeos March 21, 1542 Privileges in favor of neophytes (a new convert to a religion).

Paul III Illius, qui pro dominici Feb. 19, 1543 Establishment of a monastery for catechumens and neophytes.

Jules III Pastoris aeternivices Aug. 31, 1554 Tax in favor of neophytes

Paul IV Cum Nimis Absurdum July 14, 1555 Jews forbidden to live in common with Christians, to practice any industry, etc.

Paul IV Dudum postquam March 23, 1556 Tax in favor of neophytes

Pius IV Cum inter ceteras Jan. 26, 1562 Bull relative to monastery of catechumens.

Pius IV Dudum e felicis recordationis Feb. 27, 1562 Bull confirming that of Paul IV.

Pius V Romanus Pontifex April 19, 1566 Bull confirming that of Paul IV

Pius V Sacrosanctae catholicae ecclesiae Nov. 29, 1566 Bull relating to convent of neophytes

Pius V Cum nos nuper Jan. 19, 1567 Jews are forbidden to own real estate

Pius V Hebraeorum gens Feb. 26, 1569 Accuses Jews of many evils including magic. Orders expulsion of Jews from Church States except Rome and Ancona.

Gregory XIII Vices ejus nos Sept. 1, 1577 Obligatory preaching of Christian sermons to Jews;. Creation of college of neophytes.

Gregory XIII Antiqua judaeorum improbitas July 1, 1581 Against blasphemers.

Gregory XIII Sancta Mater Ecclesiae Sept. 1, 1584 Obligatory preaching of Christian sermons to Jews;100 men and 50 women must be sent every Saturday to listen to conversion sermons delivered in a church near the ghetto.

Sixtus V Christiana pietas Oct. 22, 1586 Privileges granted to Jews by relief of former edicts. These were reversed. by Clement VIII.

Clement VIII Cum saepe accidere Feb. 28, 1592 Jews of Avignon forbidden to sell new goods.

Clement VIII Caeca et obdurata Feb. 25, 1593 Confirmation of the Bull of Paul III. Jews forbidden to dwell outside of Rome, Ancona, and Avignon.

Clement VIII Cum Haebraeorum malitia Feb. 28, 1593 It is forbidden to read the Talmud.

Paul V Apostolicae servitutis July 31, 1610 Regulars (of monks) obliged to learn Hebrew.

Paul V Exponi nobis nuper fecistis Aug. 7, 1610 Bull concerning the dowries of Jewish women.

Urban VIII Sedes apostolica April 22, 1625 Concerning heretical Portuguese Jews.

Urban VIII Injuncti nobis Aug. 20, 1626 Privileges granted to the monastery of catechumens

Urban VIII Cum sicut acceptimus Oct. 18, 1635 Obligation to feed poor Jews imprisoned for debt.

Urban VIII Cum allias piae March 17, 1636 Synagogues of the Duchies of Ferarri and Urban, to pay a tax of 10 ecus.

Alexander VII Verbi aeterni Dec. 1, 1657 Bull relating to rights of neophytes regarding jus gasaga.(rights of tenancy in the ghetto)

Alexander VII Ad ea per quae Nov. 15, 1658 Jus Gasaga (rights of tenancy in the ghetto)

Alexander VII Ad apostolicae dignitatis May 23, 1662 Concordat between the college of neophytes and German college.

Alexander VII Illius, qui illuminat March 6, 1663 Privileges favoring the fraternities of neophytes.

Alexander VIII Animarum saluti March 30, 1690 Bull relating to the neophytes in Indies.

Innocent XII Ad radicitus submovendum Aug. 31, 1692 Abolition of special jurisdiction

Clement XI Propagandae per unicersum March 11, 1704 Confirmation and extension of Paul III regarding neophytes.

Clement XI Essendoci stato rappresentato Jan. 21, 1705 Powers of Vicar of Rome in jurisdiction of catechumens and neophytes

Clement XI Salvatoris nostri vices Jan. 2, 1712 Transfer to "Pii Operai" the work of the catechumens.

Innocent XIII Ex injuncto nobis Jan. 18, 1724 Prohibits sale of new objects.

Benedict XIII Nuper, pro parte dilectorum Jan. 8, 1726 Establishment of dowries for young girl neophytes.

Benedict XIII Emanavit nuper Feb. 14, 1727 Necessary conditions for imposing baptism on a Jew.

Benedict XIII Alias emanarunt March 21, 1729 Forbidding the sale of new goods.

Benedict XIV Postremomens Feb. 28, 1747 The baptism of Jews

Benedict XIV Apostolici Ministerii munus Sept. 16, 1747 Right of repudiation of neophytes.

Benedict XIV Singulari Nobis consoldtioni Feb. 9, 1749 Marriages between Jews and Christians.

Benedict XIV Elapso proxime Anno Feb. 20, 1751 Concerning Jewish heretics.

Benedict XIV Probe te meminisse Dec. 15, 1751 Baptism of Jewish children

Benedict XIV Beatus Andreas Feb. 22, 1755 Martyrdom of a child by Jews. A blood libel concerning the murder of the child Andreas Oxner or Anderl von Rinn (Andreas of Rinn ) by Jews that supposedly took place in 1462 in Rinn near Innsbruck. Confirms the blood libel as factual. The Bull reviews the cases of ritual murder by Jews, which it explicitly upholds as a fact, and establishes the beatifcation but not the canonization of Andreas of Rinn and Simon of Trent
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ANTISEMITISM
IT DIDN’T JUST START WITH HITLER

THE

INCREDIBLE

STORY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE

ITALY
The home of the Pope and the Roman Inquisition

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