Today at the HowStuffWorks office, employees’ kids are invited to come trick or treat. This is making my desk, currently home to Snickers, Butterfingers and Starbursts, a popular place to be. In exchange for candy, I made my writer, How-to blogger Molly, give me my blog topic today. “What about the pope who kidnapped a kid?” What about him indeed.

That pope would be Pius IX, he of the longest pontificate, and the kidnapped child was named Edgardo Mortara. In 1858, Edgardo was 6 years old and living with his seven siblings in Bologna when he was taken away by order of the Inquisitor.

The Mortara family was Jewish, but they had a Catholic servant. When he was very young, Edgardo became seriously ill, and the servant, fearing his death and damnation, baptized him. She confessed her act to Church authorities and set history in motion.