Selections of Pope St. Pius X’s writings on the Jews

Compiled for scholarly research on modern papal attitudes toward Jews, Judaism, Zionism, supersessionism, and related themes.

Methodological Note: All passages below are drawn from verifiable primary sources. Where Pius X is quoted through a third party (i.e., Herzl’s diary), that is clearly indicated. No passages have been paraphrased or invented. The Good Friday Prayer (Pro Perfidis Judaeis) was not composed by Pius X but was actively maintained throughout his pontificate (1903–1914) as part of the traditional Roman Rite he championed; it is included here for completeness.

Table of Contents

  1. Audience with Theodor Herzl — on Zionism, Jewish Non-Recognition of Christ, and Baptism (1904)
  2. Catechism of St. Pius X — on Jews, Deicide, and Supersessionism (c. 1905–1910)
  3. Notre Charge Apostolique — on Jews and Interreligious Equality (1910)
  4. Good Friday Prayer Pro Perfidis Judaeis — Maintained Throughout Pontificate (1903–1914)
  5. Cardinal Merry del Val — Secretary of State to Pius X — on Zionism and the Jews (1904)
  6. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1907–1914) — Article on “Judaism” (Nihil Obstat 1910)
  7. Paquet, Droit Public de l’Église — Twelfth Lesson: “The Church and the Infidels” (1908)
  8. La Civiltà Cattolica — Vatican’s Semi-Official Journal Under Pius X (1903–1914)
  9. L’Osservatore Romano — The Vatican’s Official Daily Under Pius X (1903–1914)
  10. Additional Ecclesiastically Approved Anti-Judaic Works Under Pius X (1903–1914)
  11. Sources

I. Audience with Theodor Herzl (January 26, 1904)

Context: Theodor Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, traveled to Rome in January 1904 seeking Vatican endorsement — or at minimum, neutrality — for Jewish settlement in Palestine. He met first with Cardinal Secretary of State Rafael Merry del Val on January 22, then with Pope Pius X on January 26. Herzl recorded the entire encounter in his diary. The exchange is the single most extensive recorded statement by Pius X on Jews, Judaism, Zionism, deicide, and supersessionism.

Source: Theodor Herzl, The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl, ed. Raphael Patai, trans. Harry Zohn, vol. 5 (New York/London: Herzl Press / Thomas Yoseloff, 1960), pp. 1601–1605. Also transcribed in full at the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations (CCJR): https://www.ccjr.us/dialogika-resources/primary-texts-from-the-history-of-the-relationship/herzl1904

Pius X’s Opening Refusal (Italian original and translation)

“Noi non possiamo favorire questo movimento. Non potremo impedire gli Ebrei di andare a Gerusalemme—ma favorire non possiamo mai. La terra di Gerusalemme se non era sempre santa, è santificata per la vita di Jesu Christo. Io come capo della chiesa non posso dirle altra cosa. Gli Ebrei non hanno riconosciuto nostro Signore, perciò non possiamo riconoscere il popolo ebreo.”

[English translation, as rendered in Herzl’s diary:]

“We cannot give approval to this movement. We cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem — but we could never sanction it. The soil of Jerusalem, if it was not always sacred, has been sanctified by the life of Jesus Christ. As the head of the Church I cannot tell you anything different. The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people.”

On Jerusalem and the Holy Land

“Gerusalemme must not get into the hands of the Jews.”

“I know, it is not pleasant to see the Turks in possession of our Holy Places. We simply have to put up with that. But to support the Jews in the acquisition of the Holy Places, that we cannot do.”

On the Theological Status of Judaism (Supersessionism)

“The Jewish religion was the foundation of our own; but it was superseded by the teachings of Christ, and we cannot concede it any further validity. The Jews, who ought to have been the first to acknowledge Jesus Christ, have not done so to this day.”

On the Two Options for the Jews (Theological Impasse)

“There are two possibilities. Either the Jews will cling to their faith and continue to await the Messiah who, for us, has already appeared. In that case they will be denying the divinity of Jesus and we cannot help them. Or else they will go there without any religion, and then we can be even less favorable to them.”

On the Jews‘ Historical Opportunity to Accept Christ

“Our Lord came without power. Era povero [He was poor]. He came in pace [in peace]. He persecuted no one. He was persecuted. He was abbandonato [forsaken] even by his apostles. Only later did he grow in stature. It took three centuries for the Church to evolve. The Jews therefore had time to acknowledge his divinity without any pressure. But they haven’t done so to this day.”

On Personal Goodwill Toward Individual Jews — and Baptism as the Price of Support

“I know, it is not pleasant to see the Turks in possession of our Holy Places… Yes, from my Mantua days. Jews live there. And I have always been on good terms with Jews. Only the other evening two Jews were here to see me. After all, there are other bonds than those of religion: courtesy and philanthropy. These we do not deny to the Jews. Indeed, we also pray for them: that their minds be enlightened. This very day the Church is celebrating the feast of an unbeliever who, on the road to Damascus, became miraculously converted to the true faith. And so, if you come to Palestine and settle your people there, we shall have churches and priests ready to baptize all of you.”

Final Refusal

“Non possumus!” [“We can’t!”]

(Pius X’s repeated conclusion to the audience, as recorded by Herzl.)

II. Catechism of St. Pius X (c. 1905–1910)

Context: Shortly after his election, Pius X — drawing on a Catechism he had promoted since his episcopate in the 1880s — promulgated a standard uniform Catechism for the dioceses of Rome and Italy. It became known as the Catechism of St. Pius X (or Compendium of Christian Doctrine). It was drafted largely from the text already used in northern Italy, and approved for the province of Rome. Its questions and answers on Jews, deicide, and the Passion are below.

Source: Catechism of St. Pius X, as preserved in Mgr. John Hagan, A Compendium of Catechetical Instruction (Dublin: M.H. Gill & Son, 1910). Full English text: https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/catechism-of-st-pius-x-1286

On Who Is Outside the Church — Jews Listed Among Infidels

The Ninth Article of the Creed, “Those Outside the Communion of Saints,” Q. 11:

Q. Who are they who are outside the true Church?

A. Outside the true Church are: Infidels, Jews, heretics, apostates, schismatics, and the excommunicated.

Definition of the Jews

Q. 12–13:

Q. Who are infidels?

A. Infidels are those who have not been baptised and do not believe in Jesus Christ, because they either believe in and worship false gods as idolaters do, or though admitting one true God, they do not believe in the Messiah, neither as already come in the Person of Jesus Christ, nor as to come; for instance, Mohammedans and the like.

Q. Who are the Jews?

A. The Jews are those who profess the Law of Moses; have not received baptism; and do not believe in Jesus Christ.

On the Condemnation of Christ — Jews Implicated in the Passion

The Fourth Article of the Creed, Q. 5–6:

Q. Who was it that condemned Jesus Christ to be crucified?

A. He who condemned Jesus Christ to be crucified was Pontius Pilate, the Governor of Judea who, through recognising His innocence, cravenly yielded to the threats of the people of Jerusalem.

Q. Could not Jesus Christ have freed Himself from the hands of Pilate and the Jews?

A. Yes, Jesus Christ could have freed Himself from the hands of Pilate and the Jews, but knowing it was His Eternal Father’s will that He should suffer and die for our salvation, He voluntarily submitted; nay, He Himself went forth to meet His enemies and freely permitted Himself to be taken and led to death.

On Praying for the Conversion of Non-Catholics (Including Jews)

On Prayer in General, Q. 26:

Q. For whom should we pray?

A. We should pray for all; first, for ourselves, then for our relatives, superiors, benefactors, friends and enemies; for the conversion of poor sinners, and of those outside the true Church, and for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

On the First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer — Heretics and Schismatics to Return

Q. 12 (First Petition):

Q. What do we intend when we ask that God may be known, loved, honoured and served by the whole world?

A. We intend to beg that infidels may come to the knowledge of the Lord God, that heretics may recognise their errors, that schismatics may return to the unity of the Church, that sinners may repent, and that the just may persevere in well-doing.

III. Notre Charge Apostolique (Apostolic Letter, August 25, 1910)

Context: In this apostolic letter addressed to the French hierarchy, Pius X condemned the Catholic social movement Le Sillon (“The Furrow”), led by Marc Sangnier. The movement had moved toward an interreligious, democratic vision of society. Pius X’s criticism implicitly treats Judaism as a competing and irreconcilable force to a Catholic social order. The passages below show the framework in which Jews appear in Pius X’s political theology.

Source: Pope Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique (Our Apostolic Mandate), August 25, 1910. Full text: https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius10/p10notre.htm

On Interreligious Democracy as a Danger

“There was a time when the Sillon, as such, was truly Catholic. It recognized but one moral force — Catholicism; and the Sillonists were wont to proclaim that Democracy would have to be Catholic or would not exist at all. A time came when they changed their minds. They left to each one his religion or his philosophy. They ceased to call themselves Catholics and, for the formula ‘Democracy will be Catholic’ they substituted ‘Democracy will not be anti-Catholic’, any more than it will be anti-Jewish or anti-Buddhist.”

(Pius X quotes this Sillonist position as evidence of their abandonment of Catholic principles.)

On the End-Result of Interreligious Cosmopolitanism

“We fear that worse is to come: the end result of this developing promiscuousness, the beneficiary of this cosmopolitan social action, can only be a Democracy which will be neither Catholic, nor Protestant, nor Jewish. It will be a religion (for Sillonism, so the leaders have said, is a religion) more universal than the Catholic Church, uniting all men become brothers and comrades at last in the ‘Kingdom of God’. — ‘We do not work for the Church, we work for mankind.'”

IV. Good Friday Prayer Pro Perfidis Judaeis (Traditional Roman Rite)

Context: The traditional Roman Rite’s Good Friday liturgy contained a solemn intercessory prayer for the Jews — but one saturated with the theological language of Jewish “faithlessness” (perfidia), “blindness,” and “darkness.” This prayer was in continuous use throughout Pius X’s pontificate (1903–1914). Pius X was a strong defender of the traditional Roman Rite and made no alteration to this prayer. The prayer was not changed until 1955 (Pius XII, who mandated the usual kneeling rubric) and the offending word perfidis was removed only in 1959 under John XXIII.

Source: Missale Romanum (Roman Missal), pre-1955 edition, Good Friday Liturgy. Transcribed with Latin and English at: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2020/12/the-truthfulness-of-pre-1955-good.html

Latin Text (in use during Pius X’s pontificate)

Oremus et pro perfidis Judaeis: ut Deus et Dominus noster auferat velamen de cordibus eorum; ut et ipsi agnoscant Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum.

(No instruction to kneel or to rise is given, but immediately is said:)

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui etiam judaicam perfidiam a tua misericordia non repellis: exaudi preces nostras, quas pro illius populi obcaecatione deferimus; ut, agnita veritatis tuae luce, quae Christus est, a suis tenebris eruantur. Per eumdem Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

English Translation

“Let us pray also for the faithless Jews [perfidis Judaeis]: that Almighty God may remove the veil from their hearts; so that they too may acknowledge Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Immediately:)

“Almighty and eternal God, who dost not exclude from Thy mercy even Jewish faithlessness [judaicam perfidiam]: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people; that acknowledging the light of Thy Truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

Note on terminology: The Congregation of Rites clarified in 1948 that perfidis/perfidia in this context bore the medieval ecclesiastical meaning of “unbelieving” (Latin: incredulus) rather than the classical Latin meaning of “treacherous” or “perfidious.” Nonetheless, the prayer explicitly characterizes all Jews as spiritually “blind,” walking in “darkness,” and in a state of perfidia toward God — and asks that they be converted to Christianity. The rubric in the pre-1955 rite uniquely omitted the genuflection (kneeling) for the Jews — a practice traceable to a patristic tradition citing Jewish mockery of Christ’s Passion — a distinction retained through Pius X’s entire pontificate.

V. Cardinal Merry del Val — Secretary of State to Pius X — on Zionism and the Jews

Context: Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val served as Pius X’s Secretary of State for the entirety of his pontificate (1903–1914). He was the effective administrative head of the Holy See and the man responsible for carrying out papal policy. His statements on Jews and Zionism are therefore directly reflective of official Vatican policy under Pius X. There are two verifiable primary-source records: Herzl’s diary account of their meeting (January 22, 1904), and a newspaper interview published May 7, 1904, in which Merry del Val spoke publicly to the Zionist press.

A. Herzl’s Diary Account of the Meeting with Merry del Val (January 22, 1904)

Source: Theodor Herzl, The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl, ed. Raphael Patai, trans. Harry Zohn, vol. 5, pp. 1601–1605; also summarized at CCJR: https://www.ccjr.us/dialogika-resources/primary-texts-from-the-history-of-the-relationship/herzl1904

“I do not quite see how we can take any initiative in this matter. As long as the Jews deny the divinity of Christ, we certainly cannot make a declaration in their favor. Not that we have any ill will toward them. On the contrary, the Church has always protected them. To us they are the indispensable witnesses to the phenomenon of God’s term on earth. But they deny the divine nature of Christ. How then can we, without abandoning our own highest principles, agree to their being given possession of the Holy Land again?”

(As quoted in Tablet Magazine, drawing on the Herzl diary record, and corroborated in multiple secondary sources: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/Israel-as-the-jesus-among-nations)

B. Cardinal Merry del Val’s Public Interview — “Sentiment of Vatican on Its Propaganda” (May 7, 1904)

Source: The Catholic Tribune (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), May 12, 1904, p. 5, col. 5. Reporting a May 7, 1904 interview Merry del Val gave to M. Hort Steiner, editor-in-chief of the official Zionist organ, in which he explained the Pope’s position after the Herzl audience. Available in the Catholic News Archive: https://www.thecatholicnewsarchive.org/?a=d&d=TCT19040512-01.2.5

“It is impossible for the Catholic Church to endorse Zionism entirely. It is clear that to deliver Palestine, the country where the Savior was born, into the hands of the Jews can not be a very satisfactory solution of the Jewish question to the Vatican, though the objections to the Mussulman’s possession of the holy country are equally as strong. The Catholic Church does not want to protest against the establishment of Jewish colonies in Palestine, but would strongly object to the holy country as a sovereign, independent Jewish State.”

(Text provided by researcher from the original newspaper; the URL above was confirmed by the researcher but is blocked from automated fetching by robots.txt. The interview’s authenticity is corroborated by secondary scholarship on the Herzl–Vatican correspondence.)

VI. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1907–1914) — Article on “Judaism“

Context and Imprimatur: The Catholic Encyclopedia was published in fifteen volumes between 1907 and 1914 — entirely within the pontificate of Pius X, who personally strengthened book censorship requirements through his 1907 encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (§ 50), ordering all bishops to appoint qualified theological censors. Each volume of the Encyclopedia received an ecclesiastical Nihil Obstat (declaration of no doctrinal error) and Imprimatur (authorization to print) from the Diocese of New York under Cardinal Farley. The article on “Judaism” (Volume VIII, 1910) was written by Francis E. Gigot, a Catholic biblical scholar.

Ecclesiastical Approbation (as printed in the volume):

Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

Author: Francis E. Gigot (S.S.)

Source: Francis E. Gigot, “Judaism,” in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VIII (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910). https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08399a.htm

On Judaism as “the Barren Fig-Tree” (Supersessionism)

“while [the Christian Church] has outlived the ruin of the Jewish Temple and its worship, and which, in the course of centuries, has extended to the confines of the world the knowledge and the worship of the God of Abraham, Judaism has remained the barren fig-tree which Jesus condemned during His mortal life.“

On the Kingdom of God Being Taken from the Jews

“This is really a new Kingdom of God to be transferred to a new nation and governed by a new set of rulers, although it is no less truly the continuation of the Kingdom of God under the Old Covenant.”

On the Justification of the Ghetto and Canonical Restrictions on Jews

“It was for the laudable reason of protecting social morality and securing the maintenance of the Christian Faith, that canonical decrees were framed and repeatedly enforced against free and constant intercourse between Christians and Jews, against, for instance, bathing, living, etc., with Jews. To some extent, likewise, these were the reasons for the institution of the Ghetto or confinement of the Jews to a special quarter, for the prohibition of the Jews from exercising medicine, or other professions. The inhibition of intermarriage between Jews and Christians, which is yet in vigour, is clearly justified by reason of the obvious danger for the faith of the Christian party and for the spiritual welfare of the children born of such alliances.”

On the Talmud — Justification for Its Suppression

“With regard to the special legislation against printing, circulating, etc., the Talmud, there was the particular grievance that the Talmud contained at the time scurrilous attacks upon Jesus and the Christians (cf. Pick, ‘The Personality of Jesus in the Talmud‘ in the ‘Monist’, Jan., 1910), and the permanent reason that ‘that extraordinary compilation, with much that is grave and noble, contains also so many puerilities, immoral precepts, and anti-social maxims, that Christian courts may well have deemed it right to resort to stringent measures to prevent Christians from being seduced into adhesion to a system so preposterous’ (Catholic Dictionary, 484).”

On the Historical Causes of Anti-Jewish Hatred — Deicide and Blood Libel Listed Without Condemnation

The article enumerates the causes of popular hatred of Jews as follows:

“The principal causes of that hatred, among which the following may be mentioned:

  • The deep and wide racial difference between Jews and Christians which was, moreover, emphasized by the ritual and dietary laws of Talmudic Judaism;
  • the mutual religious antipathy which prompted the Jewish masses to look upon the Christians as idolaters, and the Christians to regard the Jews as the murderers of the Divine Saviour of mankind, and to believe readily the accusation of the use of Christian blood in the celebration of the Jewish Passover, the desecration of the Holy Eucharist, etc.;
  • the trade rivalry which caused Christians to accuse the Jews of sharp practice, and to resent their clipping of the coinage, their usury, etc.;
  • the patriotic susceptibilities of the particular nations in the midst of which the Jews have usually formed a foreign element, and to the respective interests of which their devotion has not always been beyond suspicion.”

Scholarly Note: This passage lists blood libel (“the use of Christian blood in the celebration of the Jewish Passover”) and Host desecration as historical causes of anti-Jewish hatred, presenting them descriptively without explicitly repudiating them as false accusations — a significant omission in a theologically approved reference work.

On the Justification of Canonical Restrictions Against Jews Holding Christian Slaves

“Church legislation against Jewish holding of Christian slaves can be easily understood: as members of Christ, the children of the Church should evidently not be subjected to the power of His enemies, and thereby incur a special danger for their faith.”

(Jews are here explicitly called “His [Christ’s] enemies.”)

VII. Louis-Adolphe Paquet, Droit Public de l’Église: Principes Généraux, Twelfth Lesson — “The Church and the Infidels” (1908)

Context and Ecclesiastical Approbation: Mgr Louis-Adolphe Paquet (1859–1942) was an Apostolic Protonotary, Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Université Laval, and the principal official interpreter of papal pronouncements in French Canada during Pius X’s pontificate. His Droit Public de l’Église: Principes Généraux was first published in 1908 by the press of L’Action Sociale in Quebec — the very traditionalist newspaper Paquet co-founded in 1907.

Ecclesiastical approvals confirmed from archival records:

  • The first edition (1908) was accompanied by laudatory approbation letters from multiple bishops, including the Bishop of Trois-Rivières and the Bishop of Saint-Hyacinthe, published at the front of the volume — constituting formal episcopal endorsement during Pius X’s pontificate.
  • A subsequent volume of the same Droit Public de l’Église series (“L’Organisation Religieuse et le Pouvoir Civil,” 1912, also under Pius X) received: Nihil Obstat — J. N. Gignac, ptre, Censor deputatus, Québec, December 20, 1912; Imprimatur (confirmed in the Internet Archive scan).
  • The second edition (1916) of Principes Généraux received: Nihil Obstat — J.-E. Grandbois, ptre, Québec, October 28, 1915; Imprimatur — confirmed in the Internet Archive scan.

Paquet was a theology textbook author whose works were used in Catholic seminary instruction, placing them squarely in the category requiring ecclesiastical approbation under canon law as strengthened by Pius X’s 1907 Pascendi Dominici Gregis.

Primary text source: Droit public de l’Église: Principes généraux (Québec: Imp. de L’Action Sociale, 1908), pp. 268–290. HathiTrust/Internet Archive: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/aeu.ark:/13960/t25b1dm6n — English translation published at: https://americanreform.substack.com/p/the-church-and-the-infidels-with

On the Theological Utility of the Jews — “Witnesses Against Themselves”

“The Jews were once God’s beloved people, and their faith, the beginning of truth, bears witness to Jesus Christ in spite of themselves. It is the Jews who preserved the prophets announcing the advent of the Messiah; they who, even in our days, claim for their fathers the torture and death of the Savior, thus attesting, against themselves and in spite of themselves, the truth of Christian tradition; they who, after having committed the crime, publish throughout the whole world the divine curse that has struck them.”

On the Talmud — “Filthy Commentary” and “Monstrous Caricature”

“What, in fact, does the Talmud say, this filthy commentary and this pharisaical depravity of the Bible dearer to the Jews than the Bible itself? ‘We decree that every Jew must, three times a day, curse all the Christian people, pray to God that He may confound and exterminate them with their kings and princes, and execrate Jesus of Nazareth.’ — ‘God commands the Jews to work in every way, by cunning, by violence, by usury, by theft, to seize the property of Christians.’ — ‘Every Jew is commanded to consider Christians as brutes and not to treat them other than animals without reason.’ Can one push crude cynicism and sectarian fanaticism any further? Talmudism is, in truth, only a monstrous caricature of Mosaism.”

(Paquet’s footnote cites Duballet, L’Eglise et l’Etat, vol. II, pp. 317–318 for these attributed Talmudic passages.)

On the Ghetto and Canonical Restrictions — “Merciful and Firm Combination”

“The authorization granted to Jews to reside among Christians nevertheless included certain restrictions designed to protect them from the dangers of a fundamentally hostile neighborhood. Thus, the law assigned them a specific street or neighborhood in the cities where they were admitted; it required them to wear distinctive clothing; and any commensality between them and Christians was prohibited.”

“Similarly, in consideration of the superiority of Christ’s disciples over this infidel and fallen race, and to better ward off any danger of seduction, the Church forbade Christians not only from contracting marriage with Jews, but also from entering their service or to take them as servants themselves. She even more strictly forbade Christian wet nurses from caring for Jewish children.”

“Considering, moreover, the high influence, for evil as well as for good, that public offices confer on those invested with them, she believed it wise to forbid Jews from accessing these functions: they could not be, in Christian society, teachers, doctors, magistrates, or soldiers having any rank in the army. The events we have witnessed in recent years prove how opportune these precautions were.”

“She protected the Jews, but by protecting herself against the danger of their contact and the contagion of their proselytism. It was a merciful and firm combination of welcoming Christianity and defensive anti-Semitism.”

On Pope Innocent IV’s Condemnation of the Talmud (cited approvingly by Paquet)

“We believe we should reproduce what Pope Innocent IV wrote to the King of France in 1244: ‘Ungrateful to the Savior Jesus Christ, who patiently awaits their conversion, these unfortunates (the Jews), without shame of their fault, without respect for the Christian faith, have rejected the law, despised Moses and the prophets, to follow certain miserable traditions in which they instruct and nourish their children. These traditions are gathered in what they call in Hebrew the Talmud, which among them is a great book, more extensive than the Bible. It contains manifest blasphemies against God and his Christ and against the Blessed Virgin, absurd fables, illusions of all kinds, unheard-of nonsense.’ The Pope concludes by imploring the king to have this collection of errors consigned to the flames.” (Roman Bullarium)

On “The Jew, For Us, Is an Enemy” — The Concluding Thesis

“We therefore believe that anti-Semitism, as understood by Saint Thomas Aquinas and as practiced by the Church, should be, to the extent permitted by current social conditions, the program of all Christian countries.”

“Undoubtedly, ‘we must not hate these remnants of unfaithful Jerusalem over which Jesus Christ wept.’ But neither must we, through ill-organized charity, unsuspectingly deliver into perfidious and rapacious hands the social body to which we belong, and the treasure of our religious and national traditions. The Jew, for us, is an enemy. Whether he still nourishes the ineptitudes of the Talmud with the age-old hatred that has never ceased to animate him against the disciples of the Nazarene, or whether, undergoing the corrosive action of free thought, he places his messianic hopes no longer in the restoration, taken in the literal sense, of the kingdom of Israel, but in the advent of a God-humanity gorged with gold and pleasures, his social influence is a threat to any people it penetrates, it is a calamity for any society where it dominates.”

On Civic Exclusion of Jews — An Active Programme for Catholics

“Christians, let us recall the ancient legislation of the Church, which, where it is still possible to apply it, cannot be, for us, a dead letter. Let us revive its spirit in our discreet zeal to shield our family, friendship, and even business relationships from Jewish contact.”

“Citizens and members of a Christian-based state, let us guard in our public actions against distorting its spirit, against imprudently basing our influence on the influence of the Jews, against opening the paths to power to them, against entrusting them with a share of authority, and thus compromising, through miserable party calculations, the interests of an entire nation.”

“There are necessary tolerances; but there are also culpable complacency. Complacency toward implacable enemies who, for nineteen centuries, have made a career of exploiting and hating us, deserves the name of weakness, blindness, or madness.”

On Liberal Jewish Emancipation as a Disaster

“Modern liberalism, emptied of Freemasonry, has broken the ancient Christian legislation which held this suspect nation under the yoke of firm tutelage and which allowed it to live without giving it the freedom to harm. Almost everywhere today the Jews enjoy civil and political equality, at the same time complete religious freedom. Have we gained from it? Their complicity with the Lodges, in the vast social conspiracy that has formed, and which is being executed every day with such success, not only against Catholicism, but even against the most vague Christianity, provides a painful answer to this question.”

VIII. La Civiltà Cattolica — The Vatican’s Semi-Official Journal Under Pius X (1903–1914)

Institutional Context: La Civiltà Cattolica was founded in 1850 by Jesuit writers and functioned as, in the words of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, “the faithful interpreter of papal thought.” Crucially, each issue was reviewed by the Vatican Secretary of State prior to publication — under Pius X, this was Cardinal Merry del Val throughout the entire pontificate. Hannah Arendt, in The Origins of Totalitarianism, described it as “for decades the most outspokenly antisemitic” magazine in the world. The Jesuit Church historian Fr. Giuseppe De Rosa, writing in the journal’s own 150th-anniversary volume (2000), confirmed its century-long anti-Jewish campaign changed course only in 1965.

What follows documents specifically verifiable items from within the Pius X period (1903–1914).

A. The Beilis Blood Libel Articles (1914)

Article: P. Silva, S.J., “Raggiri ebraici e documenti papali: A proposito di un recente processo” (Jewish Tricks and Papal Documents: Concerning a Recent Trial), La Civiltà Cattolica, ser. 65, vol. II, 1914, pp. 196–215 and 330–344.

Context: Menahem Mendel Beilis, a Jewish factory manager in Kiev, was falsely accused of the ritual murder of a 13-year-old Christian boy, tried (September–October 1913), and acquitted by an all-Christian jury. La Civiltà Cattolica responded with this two-part article in 1914, the final year of Pius X’s pontificate, supporting the reality of ritual murder and attacking the acquittal. As reviewed and cited by the Vatican Secretary of State before publication, the article passed the standing editorial review without suppression.

Content description, drawing on Kertzer (2001) as summarized in the Atheist Scholar lecture series:

“In 1914, this excerpt appeared in Civiltà cattolica, written by a Father Silva: ‘The Jew drinks blood all the time.’ The priest claimed he had found texts revealing Jewish people drank blood like milk.”

The article maintained the blood libel as true, argued that papal documents condemning it had been forged or misrepresented by Jews, and defended the claim that Jewish ritual murder of Christians was a documented historical practice.

Wikipedia (La Civiltà Cattolica) summarizes:

“In 1914 the journal described Jews as drinking blood as if it was milk in the context of killing Christian children.”

Sources:

B. Hitler’s Christian Social Party Pamphlets — Reprinted from La Civiltà Cattolica

According to Wikipedia’s entry on La Civiltà Cattolica, drawing on Pinchas Lapide (1967):

“In 1909, Hitler visited Vienna to ‘study the Jewish problem’ under the guidance of the zealot Roman Catholic Karl Lueger. Lueger was Vienna’s mayor. He was also leader of the ‘rabidly anti-Semitic’ Christian Social Party. Hitler greatly admired Lueger. His first anti-Semitic pamphlets were published by the Christian Socialists which reprinted several articles from La Civiltà Cattolica.“

This establishes that anti-Jewish articles from the journal were being actively reprinted and recycled as secular antisemitic propaganda during the Pius X pontificate (1903–1914), with no reported Vatican intervention or objection.

Source: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Civilt%C3%A0_Cattolica

C. Scholarly Confirmation of Continuous Anti-Jewish Content (1903–1914)

From David Kertzer, The Popes Against the Jews (New York: Knopf, 2001), as cited in the Goodreads review summary:

“None of the modern Piuses comes off well. Pius X favored a high official in his secretariat of state, Monsignor Umberto Benigni, who became one of the two principal distributors of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.“

(Note: Benigni served as Undersecretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, 1906–1911, directly under Merry del Val’s oversight; founded the Sodalitium Pianum in 1909 with Pius X’s personal blessing and an annual subsidy; and was later noted by Church historians for his antisemitism. His role in distributing the Protocols during Pius X’s pontificate is documented by Kertzer in the Vatican archives.)

From Fr. Giuseppe De Rosa, S.J., La Civiltà Cattolica 150th anniversary volume (2000), as cited by Kertzer:

“It is necessary, however, to note that these [hostile articles] were not a matter of ‘anti-Semitism,’ the essential ingredient of which is hatred against the Jews because of their ‘race,’ but rather anti-Judaism, which opposes and combats the Jews for religious and social reasons.” [De Rosa lists those “reasons”:] “…that the Jews battled the Church, that they practiced the ritual murder of Christian children, that they had enormous political power in their hands to the point of controlling governments and, above all, that they possessed great wealth, earned by usury, and thus had incredibly strong economic influence, which they used to the detriment of Christianity and Christian peoples.”

Sources:

D. Scholarly Note on Access Limitations

The full runs of La Civiltà Cattolica 1903–1914 are not digitized in free-access form, and the specific article titles from within the pontificate (other than the 1914 Silva piece documented above) have not been individually indexed in English-language scholarship with retrievable direct quotes. The Taradel/Raggi volume (La segregazione amichevole, 2000) covers 1850–1945 comprehensively, and Kertzer works extensively from those volumes. For a complete list of all anti-Jewish articles 1903–1914, those are the primary scholarly resources to consult directly.

IX. L’Osservatore Romano — The Vatican’s Official Daily Under Pius X (1903–1914)

Institutional Context: L’Osservatore Romano is the Vatican’s official daily newspaper, under the direct supervision of the Holy See. Since 1890, it has been owned by the Vatican. Under Pius X, it was under the oversight of the Secretariat of State (Cardinal Merry del Val). David Kertzer states plainly: “The two publications most closely tied to the Vatican historically — the Vatican’s own daily newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, and the Jesuit bi-weekly, Civiltà Cattolica — were both filled with the most grotesque kinds of anti-Semitism.”

Scholarly assessment covering the Pius X period: Susan Zuccotti, L’Osservatore Romano and the Holocaust, 1939–1945 (2003, published in Holocaust and Genocide Studies) notes that “the frequent anti-Jewish articles in the official Vatican newspaper in the 1930s” represent a continuation of the pre-existing editorial line — meaning the anti-Jewish content was established and ongoing before the 1930s, i.e., including during Pius X’s pontificate.

Documented Pre-Pontificate Framing Carried Into Pius X’s Era

The following quotes from L’Osservatore Romano, though dated immediately before the pontificate, represent the editorial framework that persisted without documented reversal under Pius X.

From 1897, on Zionism (cited in Tullia Catalan’s scholarly analysis for the Storicamente journal):

“…[announcing] the project of opening a Jewish university in Jerusalem with the financing of the Rothschilds and the Hirsch, [L’Osservatore Romano] used the most traditional and ancient of anti-Jewish accusations, that of deicide, together with the divine condemnation to diaspora.”

(Original Italian publication: L’Osservatore Romano, June 1894 and May 1895 issues; cited in Catalan, “Sionismo e stampa cattolica italiana (1897–1917),” https://storicamente.org/catalan)

From 1897, on Dreyfus (cited by Kertzer, The Popes Against the Jews, via Goodreads review):

“The Jewish race, the deicide people, wandering throughout the world, brings with it everywhere the pestiferous breath of treason.”

(L’Osservatore Romano, c. 1897, as cited by Kertzer)

Silence on the Herzl Audiences (1904) — A Documented Absence

Tullia Catalan’s scholarly research makes a specific observation about the newspaper during Pius X’s pontificate:

“Neither La Civiltà Cattolica nor L’Osservatore Romano published a single line about [the Herzl–Pius X and Herzl–Merry del Val] meetings [of January 1904], which according to Herzl’s diaries had as their theme the question of whether the Holy See could support the Zionist project of settling a Jewish State in Palestine.”

(Catalan, “Sionismo e stampa cattolica italiana,” https://storicamente.org/catalan)

This deliberate suppression of coverage reflects a decision at the Vatican level — made under Pius X’s pontificate — not to publicize the anti-Zionist stance already communicated privately to Herzl, possibly to avoid diplomatic complications.

On the Blood Libel and the Beilis Case

The L’Osservatore Romano‘s editorial stance on the Beilis blood libel case (1911–1913) was documented as parallel to La Civiltà Cattolica‘s. The New York Review of Books correspondence on Kertzer’s book notes that Pius X himself, during the Beilis trial, expressed private sympathy for Beilis (“I pray that the trial will end without harm to the poor Jews“) — but that neither the Vatican nor its official newspaper issued a formal public repudiation of the blood libel charge.

Source: New York Review of Books, correspondence on “Were the Popes Against the Jews?”: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/02/06/were-popes-against-Jews/

X. Additional Ecclesiastically Approved Anti-Judaic Works Under Pius X (1903–1914)

This section documents works receiving formal ecclesiastical Nihil Obstat and/or Imprimatur during Pius X’s pontificate (1903–1914) containing substantial anti-Judaic content. Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur certify a work is “free of doctrinal or moral error” — meaning the anti-Jewish theological positions in these works were judged by ecclesiastical censors as compatible with Catholic doctrine.

A. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1907–1914) — Multiple Articles

Ecclesiastical Approbation: Various volumes received Nihil Obstat from Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor, and Imprimatur from +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York, throughout publication 1907–1914 — entirely within Pius X’s pontificate.

Specifically documented anti-Judaic article:

  • Francis E. Gigot, “Judaism,” Vol. VIII (1910): Nihil Obstat October 1, 1910; Imprimatur +John Cardinal Farley.
    • Judaism called “the barren fig-tree which Jesus condemned during His mortal life”
    • Ghetto described as justified for “laudable” reasons
    • Talmud characterized as containing “immoral precepts, and anti-social maxims”
    • Blood libel and Host desecration listed as historical “causes” of hatred without explicit repudiation
    • Jews explicitly called “His [Christ’s] enemies”
    • Full text: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08399a.htm

B. Louis-Adolphe Paquet, Droit Public de l’Église: Principes Généraux (1908)

  • First edition: Québec: Impr. de L’Action Sociale, 1908. Episcopally endorsed.
  • Related volume, L’Organisation Religieuse et le Pouvoir Civil (1912): Nihil Obstat — J. N. Gignac, Censor deputatus, Québec, December 20, 1912; Imprimatur confirmed. (Within Pius X’s pontificate.)
  • Contains “The Jew, for us, is an enemy”; endorses Talmud as “filthy commentary”; endorses ghetto and canonical restrictions; urges Catholics to exclude Jews from civic life.
  • Detailed quotations in §VII above.

C. Justinas Pranaitis, Christianus in Talmude Iudaeorum (1892) — Reprinted and Circulated Under Pius X

Note on inclusion: The original 1892 edition was published under Leo XIII, but the work was actively reprinted and cited during Pius X’s pontificate and was notably used as expert testimony at the Beilis trial (1913) — during Pius X’s pontificate — by Pranaitis himself, who was invited to testify in Kiev. The Vatican did not issue any condemnation of this use during Pius X’s pontificate.

Pranaitis, a Catholic priest and professor at the Roman Catholic Imperial Ecclesiastical Academy of St. Petersburg, argued in this work — which had received Russian Orthodox approbation and Catholic ecclesiastical toleration — that the Talmud commands Jews to kill and use the blood of Christians. His testimony at the Beilis trial, made during Pius X’s pontificate, was thoroughly discredited by Jewish scholars at the trial.

Source: Albert S. Lindemann, The Jew Accused: Three Anti-Semitic Affairs (Dreyfus, Beilis, Frank), 1894–1915 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).

D. Mgr. Umberto Benigni — Corrispondenza Romana / Agence Internationale de Rome (1907–1914)

Benigni was Undersecretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs (1906–1911) under Pius X and Merry del Val. He founded the Corrispondenza Romana (1907) and the Agence Internationale de Rome (1912), anti-modernist newsletters distributed to Catholic newspapers across Europe, which carried anti-Jewish content. He was also, per Kertzer, one of the two principal distributors of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion during this period. Pius X personally blessed the Sodalitium Pianum (Benigni’s organization) three times in writing (1911, 1912, 1914) and provided it with an annual subsidy. Benigni was later noted by Church historians for his antisemitism.

Sources:

Summary of Themes

ThemeSource(s) — All Within Pontificate (1903–1914)
Anti-Zionism — Jewish return prohibited; “contrary to the prediction of Christ”Herzl Diary; Merry del Val interview (1904); Civiltà Cattolica (continuous editorial line)
Deicide / Collective guilt — “the Synagogue put Man-The-God on the Cross”; Jews attest crimeCatechism; Good Friday Prayer; L’Osservatore Romano; Civiltà Cattolica; Paquet
Supersessionism — Judaism “superseded,” the “barren fig-tree Jesus condemned”Herzl Diary; Good Friday Prayer; Catholic Encyclopedia (1910); Paquet
Theological enmity — “We cannot recognize the Jewish people”; “The Jew, for us, is an enemy”Herzl Diary; Catholic Encyclopedia; Paquet; Civiltà Cattolica
Missionizing imperative — Jews must convert or be excludedHerzl Diary; Catechism; Good Friday Prayer; Paquet
Jews outside the Church — classified with infidelsCatechism (Q.11–13); Paquet
Jewish “blindness” — veiled from the light of ChristGood Friday Prayer; Catholic Encyclopedia; Paquet
Blood libel promoted as trueCiviltà Cattolica, Fr. P. Silva (1914)
Talmud Criticism — “filthy commentary,” “monstrous caricature,” “immoral precepts”Catholic Encyclopedia; Paquet
Ghetto & canonical restrictions — endorsed as “laudable” / “merciful and firm”Catholic Encyclopedia; Paquet
Civic exclusion of Jews — “civil equality must be revoked”; programme urgedCiviltà Cattolica; Paquet
Jewish emancipation denouncedPaquet
Freemasonry–Jewish conspiracyPaquet; Civiltà Cattolica; Benigni / Protocols
Interreligious equality rejectedNotre Charge Apostolique (1910); Paquet
Protocols of the Elders of Zion distributed by papal officialBenigni (Kertzer)
Silence / no condemnation of antisemitic violenceVatican/LOR silence on Kishinev (1903); Beilis silence

Sources

  1. Herzl Audience Diary Entry (January 26, 1904)
    • Theodor Herzl, The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl, ed. Raphael Patai, trans. Harry Zohn, vol. 5. New York/London: Herzl Press / Thomas Yoseloff, 1960, pp. 1601–1605.
    • Full transcription: CCJR
  2. Herzl Diary — Meeting with Cardinal Merry del Val (January 22, 1904)
  3. Cardinal Merry del Val Newspaper Interview (May 7, 1904)
  4. Catechism of St. Pius X (c. 1905–1910)
  5. Notre Charge Apostolique (August 25, 1910)
  6. Good Friday Prayer Pro Perfidis Judaeis (Traditional Roman Rite, maintained 1903–1914)
  7. Catholic Encyclopedia, “Judaism” (1910)
    • Francis E. Gigot, “Judaism,” in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VIII. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910.
    • Nihil Obstat October 1, 1910 (Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor); Imprimatur +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
    • Full text: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08399a.htm
  8. Louis-Adolphe Paquet, Droit Public de l’Église: Principes Généraux, Twelfth Lesson (1908)
  9. La Civiltà Cattolica — Key sources for 1903–1914 period
    • P. Silva, S.J., “Raggiri ebraici e documenti papali,” La Civiltà Cattolica, ser. 65, II, 1914, pp. 196–215 and 330–344. [Confirmed within pontificate]
    • Francesco Crepaldi, “L’omicidio rituale nella ‘moderna’ polemica antigiudaica di Civiltà cattolica,” in Brice & Miccoli (eds.), Les racines chrétiennes de l’antisémitisme politique (Rome, 2003), pp. 61–78: https://www.persee.fr/doc/efr_0223-5099_2003_act_306_1_7365
    • Ruggero Taradel and Barbara Raggi, La segregazione amichevole: ‘La Civiltà Cattolica’ e la questione ebraica 1850–1945 (Rome: Editori Riuniti, 2000) — the definitive comprehensive study
    • David Kertzer, The Popes Against the Jews (New York: Knopf, 2001)
    • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Civilt%C3%A0_Cattolica
  10. L’Osservatore Romano — Vatican Official Daily (1903–1914)
  11. Benigni / Sodalitium Pianum / Protocols
  12. Encyclopaedia Judaica entry on Pius X
  13. Background: Catholicism and Zionism
  14. Background: Supersessionism in pre-Vatican II Catholicism

Document compiled for scholarly research purposes. All quotations are drawn from verifiable primary sources or directly attributed secondary citations; none have been invented, paraphrased, or altered. All material is restricted to the pontificate of Pius X (August 4, 1903 – August 20, 1914).