Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara - Preface
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Table of Contents
- 0. STORY PREFACE
- 1. UNSETTLING QUESTIONS
- 2. BAD LAWS
- 3. ...ALLOW BAD ACTIONS
- 4. A LEGAL KIDNAPPING
- 5. LAWS in the PAPAL STATES
- 6. PARENTAL ANGUISH and a KIDNAPPING
- 7. INTERCESSION FAILS
- 8. POPE PIUS IX GETS INVOLVED
- 9. EDGARDO MORTARA CONVERTS
- 10. THE PAPAL STATES FALL
- 11. EDGARDO REFUSES to ESCAPE
- 12. EDGARDO REJECTS HIS FAMILY
- 13. HOW CAN A SINGLE ACTION CHANGE OUR DESTINY?
- 14. UNSETTLING QUESTIONS, HOPEFUL ANSWERS
- 15. MORE BACKGROUND MATERIAL
First Chapter
Photograph of Edgardo Mortara, pictured on the right, together with his mother and possibly (uncertain) his brother. Image online, courtesy Wikipedia Commons.
I'm just following
the Inquisitor's
Orders.
Marshall Lucidi
Explaining why he was removing Edgardo Mortara from his parents' home **
June 23, 1858
Kidnapping is a crime. Period. Parents take great comfort in that truth.
But suppose a place exists where kidnapping is not a crime under certain circumstances. Try to imagine what life in such a country would be like. Think about the terrible effects of such "legal" actions.
** Quoted by David I. Kertzer in The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, at page 5.
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