Blood Purity... not just for Voldemort and Nazis

The great Tesyaa comments:

(Perhaps there have been isolated incidents, but a Catholic descendent of a Jew is treated as, you know, a Catholic.)

Well, no. It was a big machlokes in the church. See, in Spain (1300s) lots of Jews converted. Over a 100,000 by some estimates. Only, after getting baptised many of them still acted like Jews. This confused the Church as baptism was supposed to be this magic things that made you a new soul, and clearly it wasn't working on Jews. So the doctrine of blood purity arose to explain it. As a result the decendants of converts were banned from church offices and certain orders (the Jesuits officially banned  anyone "descended of Hebrew or Saracen stock". This was their official policy until 19 - not a typo - 1946.

The Vatican was opposed to this... except when someone who believed it sat on the throne of St. Peter. So there was some back and forth.   For a long period this blood purity crap was Vatican Law. Then it wasn't. Then it was again. 

By World War II it was out of favor (except in, you know, Nazi Germany where they coopted this and other lovely Catholic ideas about Jews) which is why that great Jew lover, Pius 12, was able to raise up such a holy storm in the name of protecting CONVERTED Jews while staying completely silent regarding the fate of nonconverted Jews.

 Search for more information about the Jesuits at4torah.com