Pope Pius IX was well acquainted with the Lemann brothers; was we not?
RS: I think of the Lemann Brothers as the patron saints of my book. Reading their works was one of the original inspirations for writing my book, because they took on very much the same role I am attempting, that of illustrating the integral relationship between Judaism and the Catholic Faith and illuminating one with the other. The Lemann Brothers were twin brothers, born to a wealthy family of merchants living in Lyon, France and orphaned at an early age. They were raised by relatives, and at the age of eighteen, they were baptized together into the Catholic Church, having come to the Faith through seeing the charity and love in Christians, then reading the Scriptures and coming to the conclusion that Jesus Christ was exactly who the Christians said he was: the Jewish Messiah. They were persecuted terribly by their family. They actually had to flee Lyon to escape the wrath of the family. Eventually, they became priests and canons of the Church. They each had very active apostolates.
