Rome - Pope John Paul II's imminent apology for the Catholic Church's errors has been snagged by his decision to beatify a predecessor who kidnapped a Jewish child, Rory Carroll reports.
Italy's Jews have denounced the beatification of Pius IX as in effect condoning the 1858 snatching of Edgardo Mortara, who was raised as the Pope's son after a maid said she had baptised him. They said putting a "criminal" like Pius on the road to sainthood had soured the build-up to Sunday's long-awaited apology for 2,000 years of mistakes and persecution.