The Remnant, Theresa Moreau: One bridge connects the two territories. A few meters of barbed wire separate two worlds and two civilizations. The physical distance can be measured in a few meters. The moral distance, however, cannot be measured. On one side there is liberty, over there the negation of every religious liberty. – Father Ambrogio Poletti, from “The Priest at the Bamboo Curtain”
Under the brim of a grimy, frayed newsboy cap, two sunken eyes rimmed in black stared straight ahead from their sockets, as if frozen from fear. A scraggily beard hung like gray stalactites from cavernous cheeks. Bald patches detailed a survey of where torturers had plucked hairs during interrogations. Upon a stretcher lay an Italian bishop, 63 years old, frail and weak. His black tunic and dirt-stained pants draped loosely over his bones. Chinese black-cloth shoes – wrapped around and tied with spare twine – swaddled his swollen feet. Story is here.
