The Price of Children: A Book Presentation by Maria Laurino

The Price of Children is the never-told story of how the Vatican and the American Catholic Church sent nearly 4000 children of unwed Italian mothers to the United States for adoption between 1950 to 1970, falsely labeling them “war orphans” then later “orphans.” With the religious stigma of unwed motherhood turning families against daughters, and a Church and State wanting “illegitimate” children sent abroad, mothers were lied to, given forms to sign that they didn’t understand, or even told their baby had died, all to further supply this international adoption pipeline. Maria Laurino’s investigation began from a family discovery: a chance phone call from her cousin revealed that he had been one of these children, leading her to uncover an adoption scheme overseen by the highest levels of the Vatican. More than a post-war adoption story, The Price of Children is a call to defend the rights of women, which are being challenged today around the world. Interestingly the book was published in Italian (Il prezzo degli innocenti: Come il Vaticano ha sottratto migliaia di bambini alle loro madri) before being available in English in the U.S.

Maria Laurino was born and raised in northern New Jersey. Maria Laurino is the author of the national bestselling memoir Were You Always an Italian?, an exploration of how stereotypes and class prejudice influenced Italian-American identity; the memoir Old World Daughter, New World Mother, a meditation on contemporary feminism; and The Italian Americans: A History, the companion book to a national PBS documentary.  

Erica Moretti is associate professor of Italian Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology–SUNY. Moretti’s first book, The Best Weapon for Peace: Maria Montessori, Education, and Children’s Rights (University of Wisconsin Press, 2021), reframes Montessori’s pacifism as the foundation of her educational activism, emphasizing her singular vision of the classroom as a springboard to reshaping society. The Best Weapon for Peace was awarded the first book prize from both the American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS) and the International Standing Committee for the History of Education (ISCHE), and it received honorable mention from the Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies.