Conversion of Jews to Catholicism during the Holocaust

Across Europe—in Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Romania, and Slovakia—Pius XII's nuncios saved their staunchest protests for the effects of the various anti-Jewish laws on baptized Jews.

[1] This was followed by two years of diplomatic exchanges, starting with an instruction form Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione to Benedetto Aloisi Masella, the nuncio in Rio de Janeiro to request the visas from President Getúlio Vargas.

[10] Maglione wrote in December 1941 to the bishop whose request had initiated the project that: "as you have certainly been informed [...] many emigrants have departed and—I regret to say—from what I have been told, a good many of them, both by their improper conduct and alleged demands, have not corresponded to the concern which the Holy See has shown in their behalf".

[10] The emphasis of Maglione's letter was not on the failure of a diplomatic effort, but chagrin at the alleged conduct and lack of gratitude of the recipients of the visas.

[2] Morley views the importance of the Brazilian visa project as fourfold: first, in demonstrating the concern of Pius XII "primarily, almost exclusively" with baptized rather than unconverted Jews, and viewing their persecution primarily as an infringement on the rights of the church; second, in exemplifying the reliance on diplomacy, even as "an end in itself"; and third, in showing the reluctance of the pope to disturb the status quo, "even when a staunchly Catholic country reneged on its promise to the Pope"; and finally, the use of prior failure as an "apologia" against later proposals to aid Jews.

[12] Similarly, in 1943 Cardinal Maglione instructed Aloysius Stepinac, the primate of Croatia, to save "as many Jews—mostly converts—as possible during an upcoming Nazi roundup".

[14] One of the main protests of nuncio Valerio Valeri against the Vichy racial legislation was that there was no provision for conversion to Christianity written into the law.

[16]The Vatican's objections to the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were limited to their effects on converts from Judaism, particularly with respect to their right to marry "Aryan" Catholics.

[19] Angelo Rotta, Pius XII's nuncio to Hungary, regarded as Righteous among the Nations, telegraphed Cardinal Secretary of State Maglione to inform him of his actions to save Jews, particularly those who had converted to Catholicism.

[22] According to Roth and Ritner, "apart from converts to Christianity, Cardinal and Primate of Hungary Justinian Seredi had no interest in the fate of the Jews".

[30] Five days after the last protest, Antonescu informed the nuncio of his signing a decree allowing students of any ethnic origin to attend their own religious schools.

[32] Their profession was not to be automatically accepted, but rather a "six-month period of their instruction and preparation, their conduct, interest, and desire to reform their lives according to Catholic principles were to be observed.

[38] The new Slovak government under President Tiso, a Catholic priest, passed anti-Jewish legislation on April 18, 1939, defining any converts baptized after October 30, 1918, as Jews.

[41] Chargé d'affaires Burzio attempted to find an organization, particularly in America, that could aid in the emigration of Jewish Catholics, lest they share in the fate of deportation.

[43] Morley notes that as in other countries, the original Slovak racial laws were protested by the Vatican, not because of any deleterious effects upon the Jews, but because they infringed on the rights of the Church.

[45] Israel Zolli, the Chief Rabbi of Rome, converted to Catholicism after the war and took the baptismal name "Eugenio" in honor of Pius XII.

Following the pattern established in the Mortara case from the 1850s, the Vatican resisted attempts to return Jewish orphans to their relatives for over a decade after the war, especially if they had been baptized.

[48] Abe Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), who had himself been baptized as a child and had undergone a custody battle afterwards, called for an immediate freeze on Pius's beatification process until the relevant Vatican Secret Archives and baptismal records were opened.

[49] Two Italian scholars, Matteo Luigi Napolitano and Andrea Tornielli, confirmed that the memorandum was genuine but asserted that the reporting by the Corriere della Sera was misleading, as the document had originated in the French Catholic Church archives rather than the Vatican archives and strictly concerned itself with children without living blood relatives that were supposed to be handed over to Jewish organisations.

[50] In 2020, after researchers were given access to the previously-sealed archives from the pontificate of Pius XII, the policies documented by the Corriere della Sera were confirmed for the famous case of the Finaly Affair, in which the Vatican secretly directed clerics in France to defy court orders to turn over the children to an aunt after the war.

In 1982, the Church canonized Father Maximilian Kolbe, who in Auschwitz did nobly volunteer to give his life to save another inmate (a non-Jew), but was not in the camp because of his Christianity and did not die for his faith, a condition of his canonization as a martyr, although others can certainly argue that out of his love for Christ he sacrificed his life for another inmate, and this action, inspired by his christianity, in essence is the same as dying because of his faith; and Kolbe was the author of an expressly antisemitic Catholic journal.

Some analysts view Nostra aetate as a "belated response to the Holocaust" and allege that "campaigns to convert Jews are no longer theologically acceptable in the Catholic Church".