Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara

• If the law says a crime is not a crime, is the act a crime notwithstanding the law?



• If the act is still a crime, how is it punished?



• Who imposes punishment if the lawmakers are the lawbreakers?



• Can moral outrage help to change the law?

With that background, and those questions in mind, we begin the story of Edgardo Mortara - a six-year-old Jewish boy, living in an Italian Papal State.