CATIZONE

It was a long time since I had set foot in a church, but the compulsion was irresistible. St Stephen's Roman Catholic Church in Boston's North End stood like a beacon, proud and defiant against the changing mores of life in Little Italy in the 1960s... St Stephen's had been my parish church, the place where I'd rung the bells and received Holy Communion every Sunday. But I'd drifted away from church and dogma. It was the last place you'd expect to find a kid like me who was mired in the violence of Little Italy's streets. And yet, there I was, not knowing what I was doing there, or why I had come... The dim light and heavy, sweet air of the church were in stark contrast to the piercing light and heat of the summer day. Stepping over the threshold was like stepping into another world.

Primary location: Cambridge United States