Since then, negotiations between the two sides in Milwaukee have broken down: the church has argued that about 400 of the 575 cases are invalid, while lawyers for the victims have accused the church of hiding assets.
But down is down, and eventually we arrive at the church of Santa Maria Assunta, after joining a wedding party heading that way.
The true Ark of the Covenant, as it so happens, is said to be just down the road in the church of St Mary of Zion.
For most of the week hundreds of Protestant Orangemen have been camped on the edge of the Catholic Garvaghy Road, in the town of Portadown, demanding the right to stage their annual march from the church of Drumcree, down the road.
The quake badly damaged the facade of the church of Sant'Agostino in Teramo, shifted a bell tower at the convent of San Domenico and brought down the ceiling of the church of Poggio Cono.
"I share the concern of some that that kind of rhetoric will encourage some who would tear down the barriers of church and state," said Rabbi Menitoff, executive vice president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, which represents rabbis in Judaism's Reform movement.
A stream of models paraded down the church's aisle, cameramen scuttling in front of them.
Gregg, with a sigh, took down the names of the church and the high school.
Within a decade economic reform slowed down, the activity of the church was circumscribed, and intellectuals were subjected to pressures.
