The Vatican may soon enter the case of the Finaly brothers, two Jewish children forcibly baptized by Catholic authorities and spirited out of France recently, it was reported here today from Rome.
It is believed here that if the Vatican decides that the children were baptized in accordance with Church law, they will never be returned to France and the jurisdiction of French civil courts which have awarded the custody of the war orphans to their aunt in Israel. If the Vatican rules that the baptism was not in accordance with Church law, then it is considered likely that the children will be returned here from Spain and handed over to the courts.
Meanwhile, the French section of the International Conference of Christians and Jews, which is headed by a Catholic, has issued a statement sharply condemning the baptism of the children, whose parents left them in the care of an orphanage in Grenoble in 1944. The parents subsequently were murdered by the Nazis. The Conference’s statement urges all authorities, “religious as well as civil,” to take all steps necessary to return the children to their family.
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