The year was 1858. A young woman in Bologna confessed to her parish priest that six years earlier she had worked illegally as a maid for a Jewish family named Mortara. While serving in the household, the one-year-old son of the Mortaras fell ill. The pious teenage girl, thinking that the Jewish boy might die without baptism, took it upon herself to secretly baptize him. Later, the boy recovered. Upon hearing this story from the woman in the confessional, her parish priest insisted that he had to inform the church authorities.
 

After considering all aspects of the case, the clerical authorities concluded that little Mortara was effectively a Christian by virtue of his baptism. They further concluded that his parents, being Jews, were entirely unfit to foster his Christian identity. Accordingly, the police, acting under clerical orders, seized the seven-year-old Edgardo from his home and sequestered him in the Vatican. He was placed under the care of a group of nuns. In due course, Pope Pius IX took a fond interest in the boy. In fact, he won him over with presents and gradually gained a place in his heart such that Edgardo began addressing him as "uncle." With time, Edgardo even became a priest, and Pius IX assigned to him the special mission of reaching out to "the fallen race of Jews" so that they too, like him, might come "to know the grace and mercy of Christ."
 

The pleas of the parents for the return of their son fell on deaf ears.
 

I was born a Catholic. I have lived as a Catholic. I will die a Catholic. But not a day passes when I do not hate the depravity of Pius IX. How the Vatican managed to declare this "Embarrassment" as an official Catholic "Saint" baffles me.