'46 instruction says baptized Jewish youths needed Catholic education

Published: 2005-01-03

ROME (CNS) -- A 1946 instruction, apparently approved by Pope Pius XII, said Jewish children who had been baptized to save them from the Nazis were to be entrusted only to families or institutions that would guarantee their continuing education in the faith. The French-language instruction was found recently in Catholic Church archives in France, and an Italian translation was published Dec. 28 by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The translation accompanied an article by Alberto Melloni, a noted church historian, whose Bologna, Italy-based Institute for Religious Sciences is in the process of publishing the diaries of Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, the Vatican ambassador to France after the war, who became Pope John XXIII. The instruction was dated Oct. 20, 1946, and ends with a statement that "this decision of the Congregation of the Holy Office (the predecessor of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) was approved by the Holy Father," Pope Pius XII.

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