‘Kidnapped’: the true story of a child stolen by the pope

Kidnapped

Directed by Mario Bellocchio (IBC Movie, 2024)

In the eyes of a child, Catholicism can be bizarre, a point driven home to me recently when, mid-Mass, my 7-year-old announced, “You drink blood? Ew! Gross!” And while my child has the benefit of a loving parent to fumble an explanation of the consecration, in Kidnapped, the bewildering strangeness of the church is paired with the terrifying destruction of a child’s family.

In 19th-century Bologna, Jewish child Edgardo Mortara was secretly baptized by his family’s Christian housekeeper. When this is discovered by the Roman Inquisition, which is still in force in Bologna, the church demands that local police take the 6-year-old Edgardo from his family and place him in the custody of Pope Pius IX.

Kidnapped is a true story, and every detail adds to its tragic absurdity. The housekeeper baptizes infant Edgardo on the spurious theological counsel of the town pharmacist, then denounces herself to the Inquisition in return for some much-needed cash. Despite being warned of the bad international press the Mortara case is generating, Pius IX doubles down on keeping Edgardo, countering that returning the child to his family would damage the pope’s credibility as a ruler; nevertheless, Pius loses his state within a decade. In one of the most heart-rending scenes, Edgardo’s father, Salomone, realizes that the only way to get his child back is to encourage Edgardo to make himself so miserable that his papal governors would give Edgardo up out of exasperation, but Salomone can’t bring himself to root for his son’s misery.

Edgardo’s first catechist explains who Jesus is: “He’s God’s son. He’s Jewish, like you, and the Jews killed him. He died for our sins and rose again.” Edgardo, justifiably confused, imagines something very different: a suffering man who could be helped if someone simply removed his nails.