powers, Louis Veuillot, a layman, and a convert (from Protestantism) himself. Veuillot would eventually devote hundreds of pages to the Mortara case and, indeed, would himself soon get to meet the famous boy in Rome.
In 1858, the paper carried what purported to be an eyewitness account of Momolo’s first visit to the Catechumens:
The first impression we have of this man seeing his son was most vivid. He momentarily lost the use of his reason altogether. But in a few moments he clutched the boy in his arms, he covered him with kisses,with caresses, and with tears, telling him of his desire, and that of his mother, to see him back in his own house, telling him that the whole family was, because of him, suffering the most painful desolation. By the end, such was the power of paternal love and pain that tears began to run down the boy’s cheeks. 7
In another Catholic account, someone asked the boy why he spoke so little when his father visited him. Edgardo replied that it was because whenever he tried to speak, his voice trembled and he began to cry, since he could see the doleful effect his words had on his father. The child saw the love his parents and siblings had for him, “but the desire to be a Christian won out over it.”
One day, this same correspondent recounted, Scazzocchio accompanied Momolo to the Catechumens and, as they were leaving, leaned over to give Edgardo a kiss. Filled with revulsion by this unwanted attempt at intimacy, six-year-old Edgardo, with Scazzocchio already through the door, said: “If that man comes with my father again and wants to kiss me, I’ll take out an image of the Madonna and tell him to kiss it instead!” 8
In these narratives, whenever Momolo visited him in the Catechumens, Edgardo could think of nothing except how much he wished his father would convert. One of the most prominent Church-linked papers in Italy at the time, L’armonia della religione colla civiltà, published a story titled “News of the Young Christian Mortara.” It described how Edgardo had gone off to the Catechumens “with extraordinary happiness.” The boy’s transformation was miraculous. He had entered the Catechumens with a single idea already “stamped on his forehead, and even more in his heart—the great benefit for him of being Christian, the singular grace that he had received through Baptism and, by contrast, the immense misfortune for his parents of being and wanting to remain Jews.”
In this version of the redemption story, when Edgardo heard that he was about to see his father for the first time, he was delighted, because “he hoped to be able to convert his father and make him Christian just the same as he.” But when the meeting took place and Edgardo discovered that despite his fervent pleadings his father remained obstinately attached to his religion, the boy broke into terrible sobbing.
L’armonia carried a report from an eyewitness at the Catechumens claiming that the little boy’s miraculous transformation was continuing at breathtaking speed. “Within a few days he had learned the catechism to perfection, and he makes the fullest and most exact professions of faith. He always insists on telling the Rector and others he speaks with that the Jews have no altars, no Madonna, no Pope, and he wants everyone to know that theJews are not Christians. He declares that he wants to convert them, and he feels God’s grace speaking eloquently through him.”
The boy was a prodigy: “The Pope wanted to see him, and was enchanted by him. The child blesses the servant who baptized him, and who thus opened the door to the Catholic Church to him.” When someone asked him if he knew who Jesus Christ was, his face turned red with shame—the shame of his ancestors—as he replied, “Jesus Christ is the Savior of mankind, whom the Jews crucified.” The Catholic paper concluded by asking facetiously, “And they would like a boy so full of faith to be sent back into the Ghetto?”
In 1858, the paper carried what purported to be an eyewitness account of Momolo’s first visit to the Catechumens:
The first impression we have of this man seeing his son was most vivid. He momentarily lost the use of his reason altogether. But in a few moments he clutched the boy in his arms, he covered him with kisses,with caresses, and with tears, telling him of his desire, and that of his mother, to see him back in his own house, telling him that the whole family was, because of him, suffering the most painful desolation. By the end, such was the power of paternal love and pain that tears began to run down the boy’s cheeks. 7
In another Catholic account, someone asked the boy why he spoke so little when his father visited him. Edgardo replied that it was because whenever he tried to speak, his voice trembled and he began to cry, since he could see the doleful effect his words had on his father. The child saw the love his parents and siblings had for him, “but the desire to be a Christian won out over it.”
One day, this same correspondent recounted, Scazzocchio accompanied Momolo to the Catechumens and, as they were leaving, leaned over to give Edgardo a kiss. Filled with revulsion by this unwanted attempt at intimacy, six-year-old Edgardo, with Scazzocchio already through the door, said: “If that man comes with my father again and wants to kiss me, I’ll take out an image of the Madonna and tell him to kiss it instead!” 8
In these narratives, whenever Momolo visited him in the Catechumens, Edgardo could think of nothing except how much he wished his father would convert. One of the most prominent Church-linked papers in Italy at the time, L’armonia della religione colla civiltà, published a story titled “News of the Young Christian Mortara.” It described how Edgardo had gone off to the Catechumens “with extraordinary happiness.” The boy’s transformation was miraculous. He had entered the Catechumens with a single idea already “stamped on his forehead, and even more in his heart—the great benefit for him of being Christian, the singular grace that he had received through Baptism and, by contrast, the immense misfortune for his parents of being and wanting to remain Jews.”
In this version of the redemption story, when Edgardo heard that he was about to see his father for the first time, he was delighted, because “he hoped to be able to convert his father and make him Christian just the same as he.” But when the meeting took place and Edgardo discovered that despite his fervent pleadings his father remained obstinately attached to his religion, the boy broke into terrible sobbing.
L’armonia carried a report from an eyewitness at the Catechumens claiming that the little boy’s miraculous transformation was continuing at breathtaking speed. “Within a few days he had learned the catechism to perfection, and he makes the fullest and most exact professions of faith. He always insists on telling the Rector and others he speaks with that the Jews have no altars, no Madonna, no Pope, and he wants everyone to know that theJews are not Christians. He declares that he wants to convert them, and he feels God’s grace speaking eloquently through him.”
The boy was a prodigy: “The Pope wanted to see him, and was enchanted by him. The child blesses the servant who baptized him, and who thus opened the door to the Catholic Church to him.” When someone asked him if he knew who Jesus Christ was, his face turned red with shame—the shame of his ancestors—as he replied, “Jesus Christ is the Savior of mankind, whom the Jews crucified.” The Catholic paper concluded by asking facetiously, “And they would like a boy so full of faith to be sent back into the Ghetto?”
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