"Quick - sprinkle those kids with holy water before their Jew parents find out them alive!" - paraphrase of candidate for sainthood Pope Pius XII.

Pius XII told churches not to return Holocaust war babies

The children were entrusted to the church to save them from German death camps. But if the parents survived and came forward to reclaim their children, they were only to be returned "provided (they) have not received baptism", the Vatican ordered.

The instructions, in a letter dated October 20, 1946, were sent by the Vatican department responsible for church discipline to the future Pope John XXIII, Angelo Roncalli, who at that time was papal envoy in Paris. The letter was published yesterday by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

The letter ends with the words: "Please note that this decision has been approved by the Holy Father." This may well have been a warning to the then Monsignor Roncalli who, in his previous job as papal ambassador in Istanbul, was suspected by some in the Vatican of an excessively pro-Jewish outlook.