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Anti-semite propaganda against episcopal protests in the summer of 1942Up until August 1942, French bishops did not publically denounce the two “Jewish statutes adopted by the Vichy government which were actually measures to allow persecution. This silence raises an important question whose answer has components that relate to the fact that the Holy See did not think it appropriate to intervene in the internal legislation of a country. This had been the approach of Pope Pius XI in 1938 when Italy adopted anti-Jewish laws. But several bishops continued to approve the double protectorate doctrine in force in Papal States until 1848 which affirmed that Jews do not have access to all professions, but the State must protect their families and is not allowed to confiscate their property.The bishops’ silence opened the door to collaborationist newspapers and publications justifying the spoliation measures and the requirement to wear the Yellow Star based on Papal texts from the Middle Ages. The clandestine journal Cahiers du Témoignage chrétien dismantled this propaganda during the autumn of 1941, but one had to wait for the protest of the Archbishop of Toulouse, Monseigneur Saliège, in order to hear a Papal denouncement of the round-ups that took place in the summer of 1942.Should we see in Monseigneur Saliège’s letter of denouncement only an isolated voice of an enlightened high priest, or is it rather an authorized statement by the Holy See, i.e. the personal word of Pope Pius XII? Several elements allow us to confirm the second option, since in fact the Nonce and Episcopate were making an effort to discredit collaborationist propaganda, orchestrated by both Laval’s government and German censorship, and to support the authority and voice of the Christian Church.