The Strange Case of Edgardo Mortara's Emergency Baptism

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 imminent death by anyone, manor woman, even a non-Christian, and is considered a valid baptism, as long as it is done in the manner in which the Catholic Church baptizes. Originally intended as a relief for Catholic families suffering high infant mortality rates, it had not been intended to be used for Jewish families. This rule allowed anyone to perform emergency baptism so the infant would not die unbaptized. Its use in the case of very ill Jewish children was accepted by the Christian population.

After Edgardo was baptized, which was attested to by the servant girl who had performed it, Edgardo was a Catholic in accordance with Catholic law. According to canon law, which was the law of the Papal States, non-Christians could not raise a Christian child, even if the child was their own.

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Edgardo Mortara