Editing Blood libel (section)

==Views of the Catholic Church==
The attitude of the [[Catholic Church]] towards these accusations and the cults venerating children supposedly killed by Jews has varied over time. The [[Pope|Papacy]] generally opposed them, although it had problems in enforcing its opposition.

In 1911, the ''[[Dictionnaire apologétique de la foi catholique]]'', an important French Catholic encyclopedia, published an analysis of the blood libel accusations.<ref>English translation here [http://counterenlightenment.blogspot.com/2011/04/blood-libel-view-from-1911.html].</ref> This may be taken as being broadly representative of educated Catholic opinion in continental Europe at that time. The article noted that the popes had generally refrained from endorsing the blood libel, and it concluded that the accusations were unproven in a general sense, but it left open the possibility that some Jews had committed ritual murders of Christians. Other contemporary Catholic sources (notably the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] periodical ''[[La Civiltà Cattolica]]'') promoted the blood libel as truth.<ref>As shown by David Kertzer in ''The Popes Against the Jews'' (New York, 2001), pp. 161–163.</ref>

Today, the accusations are rarer in Catholic circles. While [[Simon of Trent]]'s local status as a saint was removed in 1965, several towns in Spain still commemorate the blood libel.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-08-11 |title=Spanish Catholic church to investigate antisemitic rituals |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/11/spanish-catholic-church-to-investigate-antisemitic-rituals |access-date=2022-08-28 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref>

===Papal pronouncements===
[[Pope Innocent IV]] took action against the blood libel: "5 July 1247 Mandate to the prelates of Germany and France to annul all measures adopted against the Jews on account of the ritual murder libel, and to prevent the accusation of Arabs on similar charges" (The Apostolic See and the Jews, Documents: 492–1404; Simonsohn, Shlomo, pp.&nbsp;188–189, 193–195, 208). In 1247, he wrote also that "Certain of the clergy, and princes, nobles and great lords of your cities and dioceses have falsely devised certain godless plans against the Jews, unjustly depriving them by force of their property, and appropriating it themselves;... they falsely charge them with dividing up among themselves on the Passover the heart of a murdered boy...In their malice, they ascribe every murder, wherever it chance to occur, to the Jews. And on the ground of these and other fabrications, they are filled with rage against them, rob them of their possessions without any formal accusation, without confession, and without legal trial and conviction, contrary to the privileges granted to them by the Apostolic See... Since it is our pleasure that they shall not be disturbed,... we ordain that ye behave towards them in a friendly and kind manner. Whenever any unjust attacks upon them come under your notice, redress their injuries, and do not suffer them to be visited in the future by similar tribulations."<ref>[https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08017a.htm Pope Innocent IV], ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' (1910), Vol. 8, pp.&nbsp;393–394</ref>

[[Pope Gregory X]] (1271–1276) issued a letter which criticized the practice of blood libels and forbade arrests and persecution of Jews based on a blood libel, ''... unless — which we do not believe — they be caught in the commission of the crime.''<ref name="gregx">{{cite web | url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/g10-jews.html | title=Medieval Sourcebook: Gregory X: Letter on Jews, (1271-76) – Against the Blood Libel | author=[[Pope Gregory X]] | access-date=2007-05-07 }}</ref> 

[[Pope Benedict XIV]] wrote the bull ''Beatus Andreas'' (22 February 1755) in response to an application for the formal [[canonization]] of the 15th-century [[Andreas Oxner]], a [[folk saint]] alleged to have been murdered by Jews "out of hatred for the Christian faith". Benedict did not dispute the claim that Jews murdered Christian children, and in anticipating that further cases on this basis would be brought appears to have accepted it as accurate, but decreed that in such cases beatification or canonization would be inappropriate.<ref>Marina Caffiero, ''Forced Baptisms: Histories of Jews, Christians, and Converts in Papal Rome'', translated by [[Lydia G. Cochrane]] (University of California Press, 2012), pp. 34–36.</ref>