Things became a bit stranger when the infant Jesus disappeared from a church in Belvedere, followed quickly by the vanishings of three more infant Jesi from churches in Marittimo, Tortora, and Diamante, all four cities being on the Tyrrhenian coast. The one in the hall. It was as if Andy Warhol had sued Campbell Soup for selling cheap imitation Warhols. Anyway, you only care for the money, not for the Child's sacral value. . . . In Calabria people die of hunger, thirst, unemployment, mafia, corruption and usury.
Illegal employment is the rule.
There are no houses. The Church doesn't care and gets richer. If you don't distribute a 100 million lire worth of food . . . The infants stolen have a high commercial value, said the suspicious cops, and instead of being smashed they may be sold to the highest bidders, like the famous Maltese Falcon. One incautious priest in Belvedere remarked worriedly that the only way to prevent future thefts would be to lock all the churches and keep everybody out.