Despite their poverty, villagers vowed to collect funds to take the case to the House of Lords and European Court and to bring back the bodies of one or both of the twins to be buried in their home town. It is up to the parents to decide, and to them and to us it is God's will, not for a court to decide. The moral and ethical dilemma being argued out in a courtroom in far-off London has horrified the village. For all its cars screeching around the narrow lanes, Xaghra is a traditional place where women wear black for the rest of their lives after the loss of husbands or sons and 95 per cent are staunchly Catholic. A letter in the local paper expresses a woman's fears that her going out to work brings disrespect on her husband.
Religion plays a key role in the lives of the villagers.
Seven Masses a day are held in the Church of Our Lady of Victory, saints in glass boxes take pride of place in house driveways and above drivers on buses, and there is even a kind of sacred cashpoint where people deposit money to have their prayers answered. Abortion and divorce are illegal and priests are used to having their word unquestioned, even on how to vote in elections. Father Refalo was the first person in Xaghra to be told in May of the severity of the twins' condition after their mother had flown to England and been examined by St Mary's hospital in Manchester. Among the congregation for pre-dawn Mass Saturday were the twins' maternal grandparents for whom he acts as counsellor, discussing the daily developments on the case which they listen to on the radio. Saturday's visit to the church was a rare outing.