his neighborhood was close enough to the church and school to enjoy the protection of the penumbra of the catholic ghetto - flocks of children in navy blue and white uniforms filled the air with joyful noise in relative unchanging safety , near the urban decay but protected from it as through the ministrations of an angel of the second-lowest order , not exactly assigned by the vatican but still able to exert a forcefield-like penumbra of beneficence for a radius of a block or two , with ease .