52nd Issue: Edgardo Mortara and Maria Hertogh
Hello! I hope you are dealing with social distancing, self isolation, or quarantine as best as you can! I am doing alright myself so I hope you are the same. If you are sick, I hope you feel better soon and if you are healthy I hope you stay that way.
Today I’m going to talk about two interesting and controversial cases involving adoption and religion in the past in different countries. First I will talk about the Mortara case, which was extremely popular news in Europe and North America in the middle of the nineteenth century. Edgardo Levi Mortara was born to a Jewish family in Bologna, Italy, and was looked after by a nanny named Nina Morisi. Nina was Catholic and from a nearby village. She was illiterate, and became pregnant. Instead of firing her, the Mortaras paid for her to go to a midwife’s home, deliver the child, send it to an orphanage as unwed mothers were required to do, and then returned to work.
In 1857, rumors began to spread that a secret baptism had taken place to one of the Jewish children by a Catholic servant, which made the child Catholic in the eyes of the church. Christian children could not be raised by non-Christians, so if this was true, the child had to be taken away from their parents. Catholics were not supposed to baptize children without their parents’ consent, but if it already happened, well. As you might guess, the child in question here is Edgardo, and the baptizer was Anna Morisi. Anna was interrogated by the bishop, and she confessed that when she was taking care of Edgardo, he became very sick and she thought he might die so she conducted an emergency baptism. She said she had kept that a secret from Edgardo’s family. The Catholic Church then decided to take Edgardo from his home. The military police from the church came to Edgardo’s family’s house the next year and announced that they had been betrayed. Edgardo’s mother screamed and cried, saying that they would have to kill her before taking her son. The police marshal said that he was just following orders, and said that he "would have a thousand times preferred to be exposed to much more serious dangers in performing my duties than to have to witness such a painful scene".
Edgardo’s dad got his relatives together and they concluded that they had to appeal to the bishop. Edgardo’s uncle, a prominent member of Bologna’s Jewish community went to the church and told the bishop his feelings. The bishop said that this was just what had to be done and wouldn’t tell them why he thought Edgardo had been baptized. He did agree to let the family have one last day with Edgardo.
The family tried to appeal to others but eventually decided to send Edgardo’s siblings away as well as his mother. Edgardo’s dad went to make one last plea and the bishop told him that he should not worry and Edgardo would be well cared for. Edgardo was removed from his father’s arms that night and the police who were there actually cried at the scene. Edgardo’s father fainted in the street.
Edgardo’s family immediately began trying to appeal and rally to get support from Jewish communities abroad. Edgardo’s case began to gain attention in the press and the media, and the church that would normally ignore such things began to pay attention when the newspapers started reporting on the case. The Cardinal met with Edgardo’s father and agreed that he could visit his son on a regular basis to smooth things over. Edgardo’s family quickly found out who had supposedly baptized their son, and they went to confront her. She told them about the baptism and was crying about the pain she had caused. Edgardo’s dad said that his son just wanted to come home to his family. The church said that Edgardo was Christian and was upset that the rest of his family would not also convert.
Edgardo’s mother’s health was not well. She was physically and mentally sick with grief. The church said that Edgardo was a prodigy, and was learning religious doctrine at astonishing speed. Edgardo’s dad came to Rome with his wife looking for Edgardo, but the rector where he was staying took Edgardo to Alatri, his hometown sixty miles away. Edgardo’s parents went to Alatri, and through a door of the church saw a priest saying mass with Edgardo as an assistant. Before his parents could go in and see him, they were arrested and sent back to Rome. However, they were later released, and his parents visited him a few times. According to his parents, Edgardo was intimidated and was scared. They said he ran into his mother’s arms and said he would always be Jewish. According to the church, Edgardo was horrified by his mother telling him to return to be Jewish again, and wanted his parents to convert to Christianity.
Edgardo’s case became a media sensation all around the world, and Jews as well as Protestant Christians in the United States wanted to know all about it. There was a lot of anti-Catholic sentiment, and the New York Times published more than twenty articles about the case in just one month in 1858.
The Pope was determined to keep Edgardo, and began to see him as a son. They spent time together, played, and looked after him. Edgardo was confirmed in a private chapel in 1859, and was being educated at a basilica in Rome. Edgardo’s father went to Paris and London to rally more support, and meanwhile his uncle asked the new director-general of police to look into the matter. Feletti, who had given the order to remove Edgardo initially, was arrested in 1860. When he was questioned, he just said that he had taken a sacred oath and could not discuss these affairs. In his trial, Feletti said that Edgardo always wanted to remain a Christian and was studying in Rome. His father said that Edgardo had been frightened and wanted to return home.
The law said that the seizure of Edgardo had been illegal, because there was no way to prove that the nanny had actually baptized him. Feletti was released because he acted under the instructions of someone higher than him. The Pope refused to give Edgardo up. He was nine years old by now and accompanied the Pope to important meetings sometimes. When he was 13, he added the Pope’s name to his own, and wrote to his family trying to convert them to Catholicism. His parents wrote back to say that they loved him still, but he was not the same son that they had known.
Edgardo was ordained as a priest at the age of twenty-one, and was provided for financially by the Pope. He travelled around Europe, preaching, and wove in his own childhood story into his sermons. Edgardo’s father died in 1871, when in prison due to the murder of a servant girl who had been pushed out of their window. In 1878, when the Pope died, Edgardo’s mother went to visit him and had an emotional reunion, and then Edgardo began trying to reestablish connections with his family, which worked in some cases and not so much in others. Edgardo’s mother died in 1890, and Edgardo kept preaching. He died at the age of 88 in the year 1940.
Another similar case of religion is a little more recent. Maria Hertogh was a Dutch Catholic girl living in Indonesia, which at the time was the Dutch East Indies. She was born in 1937, and was baptized in the Catholic Church. When World War II broke out, Maria’s father was captured and Maria’s mother was left alone with her mother, Louise, to raise six children. Maria’s mother allowed her to stay with a woman called Aminah for a few days. However, when Maria’s mother went to go get her daughter, she was stopped by a Japanese sentry and taken to an internment camp. Maria’s mother requested that her children were sent to her in the camp, and they were, but Maria was not. Maria’s mother asked her mother to go check on Maria, and Animah said that she would bring Maria to the camp herself. That didn’t happen. After Maria’s mom was released, she couldn’t find Aminah or Maria anywhere.
Aminah renamed Maria when she got her, to Nadra binte Ma’arof. Aminah worked for the Japanese military police as an interpreter until the war ended. In 1947, during the Indonesian National Revolution, Maria was in danger because she was white, so Aminah moved to Malaya. Maria became like any other girl of her age, immersed in Malay culture and practising Islam.
Maria’s parents ended up going back to the Netherlands though they asked the authorities to keep trying to look for their child. The local police and others finally traced Maria and Aminah in 1949. In 1950 the Dutch Consulate offered to pay Aminah five hundred dollars for her expenses and travel to Singapore. She did travel but she refused to let go of Maria. The police took Maria away and put her in a group home, though she said she wanted to stay with Aminah. The court however said that her parents had custody.
Today I’m going to talk about two interesting and controversial cases involving adoption and religion in the past in different countries. First I will talk about the Mortara case, which was extremely popular news in Europe and North America in the middle of the nineteenth century. Edgardo Levi Mortara was born to a Jewish family in Bologna, Italy, and was looked after by a nanny named Nina Morisi. Nina was Catholic and from a nearby village. She was illiterate, and became pregnant. Instead of firing her, the Mortaras paid for her to go to a midwife’s home, deliver the child, send it to an orphanage as unwed mothers were required to do, and then returned to work.
In 1857, rumors began to spread that a secret baptism had taken place to one of the Jewish children by a Catholic servant, which made the child Catholic in the eyes of the church. Christian children could not be raised by non-Christians, so if this was true, the child had to be taken away from their parents. Catholics were not supposed to baptize children without their parents’ consent, but if it already happened, well. As you might guess, the child in question here is Edgardo, and the baptizer was Anna Morisi. Anna was interrogated by the bishop, and she confessed that when she was taking care of Edgardo, he became very sick and she thought he might die so she conducted an emergency baptism. She said she had kept that a secret from Edgardo’s family. The Catholic Church then decided to take Edgardo from his home. The military police from the church came to Edgardo’s family’s house the next year and announced that they had been betrayed. Edgardo’s mother screamed and cried, saying that they would have to kill her before taking her son. The police marshal said that he was just following orders, and said that he "would have a thousand times preferred to be exposed to much more serious dangers in performing my duties than to have to witness such a painful scene".
Edgardo’s dad got his relatives together and they concluded that they had to appeal to the bishop. Edgardo’s uncle, a prominent member of Bologna’s Jewish community went to the church and told the bishop his feelings. The bishop said that this was just what had to be done and wouldn’t tell them why he thought Edgardo had been baptized. He did agree to let the family have one last day with Edgardo.
The family tried to appeal to others but eventually decided to send Edgardo’s siblings away as well as his mother. Edgardo’s dad went to make one last plea and the bishop told him that he should not worry and Edgardo would be well cared for. Edgardo was removed from his father’s arms that night and the police who were there actually cried at the scene. Edgardo’s father fainted in the street.
Edgardo’s family immediately began trying to appeal and rally to get support from Jewish communities abroad. Edgardo’s case began to gain attention in the press and the media, and the church that would normally ignore such things began to pay attention when the newspapers started reporting on the case. The Cardinal met with Edgardo’s father and agreed that he could visit his son on a regular basis to smooth things over. Edgardo’s family quickly found out who had supposedly baptized their son, and they went to confront her. She told them about the baptism and was crying about the pain she had caused. Edgardo’s dad said that his son just wanted to come home to his family. The church said that Edgardo was Christian and was upset that the rest of his family would not also convert.
Edgardo’s mother’s health was not well. She was physically and mentally sick with grief. The church said that Edgardo was a prodigy, and was learning religious doctrine at astonishing speed. Edgardo’s dad came to Rome with his wife looking for Edgardo, but the rector where he was staying took Edgardo to Alatri, his hometown sixty miles away. Edgardo’s parents went to Alatri, and through a door of the church saw a priest saying mass with Edgardo as an assistant. Before his parents could go in and see him, they were arrested and sent back to Rome. However, they were later released, and his parents visited him a few times. According to his parents, Edgardo was intimidated and was scared. They said he ran into his mother’s arms and said he would always be Jewish. According to the church, Edgardo was horrified by his mother telling him to return to be Jewish again, and wanted his parents to convert to Christianity.
Edgardo’s case became a media sensation all around the world, and Jews as well as Protestant Christians in the United States wanted to know all about it. There was a lot of anti-Catholic sentiment, and the New York Times published more than twenty articles about the case in just one month in 1858.
The Pope was determined to keep Edgardo, and began to see him as a son. They spent time together, played, and looked after him. Edgardo was confirmed in a private chapel in 1859, and was being educated at a basilica in Rome. Edgardo’s father went to Paris and London to rally more support, and meanwhile his uncle asked the new director-general of police to look into the matter. Feletti, who had given the order to remove Edgardo initially, was arrested in 1860. When he was questioned, he just said that he had taken a sacred oath and could not discuss these affairs. In his trial, Feletti said that Edgardo always wanted to remain a Christian and was studying in Rome. His father said that Edgardo had been frightened and wanted to return home.
The law said that the seizure of Edgardo had been illegal, because there was no way to prove that the nanny had actually baptized him. Feletti was released because he acted under the instructions of someone higher than him. The Pope refused to give Edgardo up. He was nine years old by now and accompanied the Pope to important meetings sometimes. When he was 13, he added the Pope’s name to his own, and wrote to his family trying to convert them to Catholicism. His parents wrote back to say that they loved him still, but he was not the same son that they had known.
Edgardo was ordained as a priest at the age of twenty-one, and was provided for financially by the Pope. He travelled around Europe, preaching, and wove in his own childhood story into his sermons. Edgardo’s father died in 1871, when in prison due to the murder of a servant girl who had been pushed out of their window. In 1878, when the Pope died, Edgardo’s mother went to visit him and had an emotional reunion, and then Edgardo began trying to reestablish connections with his family, which worked in some cases and not so much in others. Edgardo’s mother died in 1890, and Edgardo kept preaching. He died at the age of 88 in the year 1940.
Another similar case of religion is a little more recent. Maria Hertogh was a Dutch Catholic girl living in Indonesia, which at the time was the Dutch East Indies. She was born in 1937, and was baptized in the Catholic Church. When World War II broke out, Maria’s father was captured and Maria’s mother was left alone with her mother, Louise, to raise six children. Maria’s mother allowed her to stay with a woman called Aminah for a few days. However, when Maria’s mother went to go get her daughter, she was stopped by a Japanese sentry and taken to an internment camp. Maria’s mother requested that her children were sent to her in the camp, and they were, but Maria was not. Maria’s mother asked her mother to go check on Maria, and Animah said that she would bring Maria to the camp herself. That didn’t happen. After Maria’s mom was released, she couldn’t find Aminah or Maria anywhere.
Aminah renamed Maria when she got her, to Nadra binte Ma’arof. Aminah worked for the Japanese military police as an interpreter until the war ended. In 1947, during the Indonesian National Revolution, Maria was in danger because she was white, so Aminah moved to Malaya. Maria became like any other girl of her age, immersed in Malay culture and practising Islam.
Maria’s parents ended up going back to the Netherlands though they asked the authorities to keep trying to look for their child. The local police and others finally traced Maria and Aminah in 1949. In 1950 the Dutch Consulate offered to pay Aminah five hundred dollars for her expenses and travel to Singapore. She did travel but she refused to let go of Maria. The police took Maria away and put her in a group home, though she said she wanted to stay with Aminah. The court however said that her parents had custody.
On the way out of court, Maria and Aminah made a scene, yelling in Malay that they would rather die than be separated. A crowd gathered, and it became quite a commotion, but eventually Maria was taken back to the group home. As Aminah appealed, Maria stayed there, but then the courts ruled that Aminah could keep Maria due to some technical detail about Maria’s biological father.
Maria was married in 1950 to a man named Mansoor, which was possibly a way for Aminah to prevent Maria’s parents from taking her, but that didn’t really work. Maria’s parents, one day after the marriage, requested that Maria be returned by August or else legal action would be taken. In November, the hearing began. By this time Maria’s case became national news, and even global news. Muslim organizations began giving their support and sending money from different countries.
When the hearing began, Maria’s mother came to Singapore to attend. The marriage was deemed invalid because Maria was too young, and since Maria was so young, her father had the right to control her religion, and he said she was a Christian. Maria was ordered to go to her parents and no longer live with Aminah. When the police came to take Maria away, she cried, and Aminah fainted. Maria was taken away by a car, while the streets were filled with several hundred people held back by police. She was taken to a convent, where her mother stayed with her.
Local newspapers printed pictures of Maria doing various Christian things, which enraged the local Muslim population. They thought of Maria as one of their own and were very offended. The ruling was appealed, but the court threw it out. Riots immediately erupted all across town. Riots continued for three days as the mob attacked Europeans. They burned cars and the police were ineffective. Riots spread to remote parts of the island, and after they were over, curfew was enacted for two weeks. Eighteen people were killed, and 173 were injured. Over 700 people were detained by police, of which 500 were released and the other 200 went to jail. Maria was moved to an offshore island, and the next day she and her mother flew to the Netherlands.
Adjusting to her new life was hard for Maria. Her mother was the only person in her family who spoke Malay. But eventually she learned a new language, and began attending local school as well as Mass with her family. In 1956, Maria married a local man named Johan, and she had ten children. She argued with her mom a lot though, and still missed her homeland. In letters she said she really wanted to visit Aminah, but she could not afford to, and Aminah died in 1976. Later that year, Maria was tried in court for plotting to murder her husband, where she recruited several people to kill him, but they got cold feet and police arrested them before anything could be done. Maria was acquitted, but did get divorce. She died in 2009 at the age of 72.
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