Pope to Mafia: Fuhgeddaboud your evil ways

Palermo at Christmas (by Josep Renalias)

The Bishop of Rome, i.e. Pope Francis, is taking care of business right at home.

He not only made a pastoral visit to one of Rome's peripheral parishes, but also recently preached against Mafia "exploitation and slavery."  Frances D'Emilio of the Associated Press reports that Francis "paid tribute to a courageous priest murdered by the Sicilian Mafia as a martyr [Rev. Giuseppe Puglisi, beatified this past Saturday in Palermo] and urged mobsters on Sunday to abandon their evil ways…"

These "evil ways" include drug and human trafficking.  The latter entails the clandestine placement of illegal

immigrants on farms and in factories, plus the use of "young people from abroad for prostitution."  Because

Francis envisions a "poor church for the poor," he is concentrating upon bettering the lives of society's most desperate people.

Rev. Puglisi had done the same.  He had worked in Palermo, Sicily's toughest slums – neighborhoods in which young people were being recruited by the Cosa Nostra for illicit activities such as "drug pushing and

numbers running."  Puglisi accepted neither Mafia favors nor intimidation, and he repeatedly urged

parishioners to do the same.  Wikipedia reports that his last words as Mafia hit men approached him were these:  I've been expecting you.

 

Resources

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-urges-mafiosi-stop-exploitation-others-104849224.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pino_Puglisi

Copyright May 28, 2013 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved