Despite the pleas of his parents, and the intercession of the leading Jews in Bologna, Edgardo Mortara was taken from his parents. He was never returned to them again. Instead, this six-year-old child was taken to Rome where he would be taught in the ways of the Catholic Church. His new home - at least for a short time - was the House of the Catechumens where Jews learned the catechism of the Church.

Edgardo's parents tried everything to persuade the Inquisitor - and later Pope Pius IX - to let their son return home. Nothing worked. Reluctantly, the religious leaders in charge of the young child allowed Edgardo to see his father who had traveled to Rome. But on the day his distraught mother, Marianna, came for a visit, she was not even allowed to see, or speak to, her son. Edgardo had been taken to Alatri, fifty miles from Rome, in an effort to hide him from his parents.

Undaunted, the Mortaras went to Alatri. What wouldn't a mother do to fight for her child? While in that Italian town, Momolo tracked his son down to a church where the young child was assisting the priest with Mass. Waiting outside, Momolo thought he could at least see his son. The brother of the rector, however, recognized Momolo. When Edgardo left the church, he was whisked out the other side. The Mortaras' trip to Alatri had been in vain.

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