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Pius X and the Jews: A Reappraisal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Andrew M. Canepa
Andrew M. Canepa
Affiliation:
Mr.Canepa is assistant manager of the Italian Cemetary and Mausoleum in Colma, California.
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Abstract

In standard Jewish reference works the figure of Pope Pius X has either been sorely neglected or has received a decidedly negative press. For the concise New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia, Pius X simply does not exist. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia mentions rather cryptically that the pope was “better disposed” towards the Jews than had been his immediate predecessors. On the other hand, the monumental Encyclopaedia Judaica characterizes Pius as “disdainful of Judaism and the Jewish people.” Catholic biographies of this pontiff, essentially hagiographic, provide little or no insight into his relations with the Jews or his position on the Jewish question. However, as we shall attempt to argue, Giuseppe Sarto (1835–1914), who was elected pope in 1903 and canonized in 1954, maintained warm personal relationships with individual Jews throughout his ecclesiastical career, held a positive view of the Jewish character, defended the Jewish people against defamation and violence, and was instrumental in halting a twenty-year-old antisemitic campaign that had previously been waged in Italy by the clerical party.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 61 , Issue 3 , September 1992 , pp. 362 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1992

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