Books: “The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara” by David Kertzer

Church and state should never mix. But what if the church is the state? For an illustration of that, let us hearken back to 1850’s Bologna— and the story of a boy who happened to be Jewish.

In “The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara,” David Kertzer unveils the true story of the 6-year-old child of a middle-class Jewish family, who it was rumored had been baptized by the family’s Christian servant girl. The girl claimed she was acting to save the boy’s life, but Edgardo’s illness was never substantiated. Upon hearing of the baptism—an event which itself was unsubstantiated—the local clergy swooped in, removed the boy from his family, and took him to Rome, where he was placed in the personal custody of Pope Pius XI, a doddering old anti-Semite.

The book details the ugly 15-year battle Edgardo’s parents fought to retrieve their son. But the fight went beyond the family. It involved the ambassadors of several European nations. the kings of Sardinia and the Two Sicilies, and Jews from around the world. Unfortunately, Italy’s Jews, who constituted a minuscule portion of the population, had to watch their step in an overwhelmingly Catholic country, lest the clergy turn the local population against them.

The battle for Edgardo could be seen as a warmup for the Dreyfus affair 30 years later—which similarly pitted left/liberal/Jewish/anticlerical groups against the powerful Catholic Church.

This is a fascinating tale not heretofore much explored by historians, and written suspensefully by Kertzer, whose current book, “The Pope of War” explores the connection between Pope Pius XII, Hitler, and Mussolini. “Edgardo” demonstrates that the so-called “God-fearing” types are often the ones to be feared most of all.