ROME (Reuters) - Jewish groups planned a protest in Rome on Saturday against the beatification of Pope Pius IX, a controversial and ultra-conservative 19th century head of the Roman Catholic church accused of anti-Semitism.
Polish-born Pope John Paul is due to beatify Pius IX, the last ''Pope King'' who reigned from 1846 to 1878 with the 20th century reformist Pope John XXIII on Sunday.
Beatification is the penultimate step before elevation to sainthood by the Roman Catholic church.
John XXIII, the reformist pope of the Second Vatican Council, was a much-loved figure but Jewish groups and their supporters, including members of Italy's Radical party, have called a peaceful demonstration against Pius IX's elevation.
Pius, who adamantly opposed religious tolerance and defined the doctrine of Papal infallibility, referred to Jews as ``dogs'' and once had a Jewish boy kidnapped from his home, forcing him to be brought up as a Roman Catholic.

On June 23, 1858, papal police in Bologna entered the home of the Mortaras, a Jewish family, snatched six-year-old Edgardo, and took him to Rome.

``Today, after almost a century and a half, the Italian Jewish community remains embittered by that assault on Judaism and parenthood,'' Seymour Reich, chairman of a collective of major U.S. Jewish groups, said in a letter to a cardinal on August 23.
Reich argued that Pius's actions could not be excused as the practice of the times. ``If saintliness is seen as the goodness, wisdom and courage to behave righteously and right wrongs regardless of when they occur, then Pius IX's conduct falls far short of saintliness,'' he said.
A group of traditionalists called Principe Ruspoli plan a separate demonstration in favor of Pius's beatification on Saturday evening. They argue that Pius did much to strengthen and enhance the Papal legacy.