The Mortara affair and the courage of Pope Pius IX

In the 1850's the Jewish Mortara family in the Papal States illegally hired a Christian servant. While in their employ, this servant had the care of one year old Edgardo Mortara. It was thought that the child would not survive, so she baptized him in secret. Years later she informed the authorities, and after a diligent investigation, the Inquisition seized the then six year old in accordance with law. Now the Mortaras were quite obstinate, and refused to settle the matter by agreeing to allow Edgardo's Catholic education, and thus solve the issue as had been done in similar cases in the past. Moreover, in addition to being agreeable to this the Pope (who by now was personally supervising the case, as Edgardo had been brought to Rome, for fear his parents might kidnap him and flee the country of he was left in his home town) was also otherwise abundant in his toleration of the Mortara's antics, even declining to prosecute when Edgardo's father attempted to kidnap the child but was stopped when guards heard the Edgardo yelling for help (he did not wish to be forced to become apostate). Now, even though the Pope was immeasurably kind and tolerant to them, they went around and raised international ruckus, causing a great many countries to diplomatically intervene against Edgardo, and even providing impetus for Italian invasion, which thankfully arrived to late to have a pretext for abducting Edgardo. It is a rather amazing act of grave that despite parental opposition and impressionable age, Mortara nevertheless persevered in the faith. But what this reflection is mainly on, is how courageous Bl. Pius IX was, that even facing the scorn of the world and the loss of his sovereignty, he still would not do wrong by even one person. Let us pray that we would have similar courage if we were pressed to do wrong.