Word: ortona
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...stood charged with the crime of having publicly insulted the Pope. Under the 1929 Lateran Treaty between the Vatican and the Italian government, ratified in the republican constitution, insults to the reigning Pontiff are punishable by imprisonment or fine. The prosecution charged that at a 1948 electoral meeting in Ortona, Laura Diaz had said that the Pope's "hands dripped with the blood of the children of Greece and Palestine" because the Pope had not prevented wars in those countries and that "no amount of holy water could wash those hands...
...gabardine suit and sky-blue jumper, a blue ribbon in her hair, Deputy Diaz last week listened to the charge. Said she, her long, black lashes fluttering: "When I spoke at Ortona I had not prepared any speech so I cannot remember the exact words . . . But what I am absolutely certain of is that I never mentioned hands or blood." Judge Pierantoni interrupted: "What I want to know is whether you mentioned hands and holy water." Deputy Diaz tapped her feet on the wooden floor. Said she: "Niente mani" (no hands). She went on: "I did mention holy water...