Father Felice Palamara (pictured) - who is known for bravely denouncing organised crime in his small town - narrowly missed drinking the lethal mixture when celebrating Mass last Saturday.

Fortunately, he smelt the bleach just before he drank from the poison chalice. He immediately suspended the Mass and called the police.

After investigating, the police found Palamara's altar cruets of water and wine had been laced with bleach.

"I'm sure that this act of intimidation has nothing to do with my parishioners because I have been here for 10 years and I have always had good relations with the people of the parish" Palamara says.

"We don't allow anyone to do harm to the parish. Nobody can stop a town that deserves redemption and that wants to grow."

Mafia connection

The poison chalice attempt occurred in Cessaniti in the southern region of Calabria. That's where the powerful ‘Ndrangheta crime network originated.

The ‘Ndrangheta is believed to be the world's richest organised crime group.

It has made tens of billions of dollars from trafficking cocaine and has ties across Europe.

They are thought to be behind the string of threats and intimidation Palamara has suffered, including numerous death threats by post and email. His car has also been vandalised twice in recent months, he says.

Police are checking potential links to a dead cat found on the steps of a nearby church, and are trawling hours of CCTV footage of that church and Palamara's.

"We aren't sure whether it's organised crime or someone with a grudge against the church, Satanists or just cranks but it's being taken very seriously" a source says. The incident with the bleach could have had serious repercussions had Palamara swallowed it.

'The most likely theory is organised crime and the local mafia but until we know for sure nothing is being ruled out and an open mind is being kept."

Forgiveness rules

Local Bishop Attilio Nostro visited the parish last weekend. He is concerned for parishioners.

"The Diocese is ... suffering because of these intimidating acts which have nothing to do with the Christian life of a parish.

"That is why I am appealing to the Christian community that they do not allow themselves to be discouraged by the violent language.

"We should not give in to this logic and be tempted by anger and discomfort. We must not respond to hate with hate as we know that it's not possible to dialogue in this way."

Palamara says he is not out for vengeance to punish his would-be assassins.

"My vendetta is love, my shield is forgiveness and my armour pity" he says.

"I'm serene, and besides offering pity and forgiveness, I hope that justice is done and there is clarity on these criminal episodes."

Police have been assigned to give Palamara 24/7 protection until the case is solved.

Source

• New York Post
• Daily Mail

Father Antonio Coluccia is known for his efforts to rescue young people from the drug trade.

Coluccia immediately vowed the assault won't interrupt his work.

"I will continue my fight which I am carrying out against the crime that controls the drug dealing squares ..." he said, referring to neighbourhoods long associated with mafia activity.

Coluccia's assailant, Sergio Del Prete, is a drug user with previous arrests for possession and damage to property, media reports say.

Reportedly, the 28-year-old from Belarus with a criminal record is currently under armed guard in hospital.

Police are now investigating to see if the man acted alone or was commissioned by those controlling the area's drug trade.

Two police officers were reportedly injured in the incident.

Helping addicts

The anti-mafia priest's way of engaging with addicts is to approach young people who serve as look-outs and street-level sellers to invite them to consider other ways of life.

He also leads regular "marches for legality" through the streets of the east Rome suburb, which is synonymous with the drug trade.

In 2012, Coluccia opened a house of welcome for young people seeking to abandon the drug trade or to recover from drug addiction.

He also runs a boxing club and gym to provide youth with alternative activities.

"I go into the peripheries, between cocaine and crack, to pray and to talk," Coluccia says.

"My church is the street."

Civic support

High-ranking Italian officials, including Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini, have voiced their unwavering support for a priest believed to be the target of mafia reprisal due to his relentless crusade against drug trafficking in Rome.

Minister Piantedosi took proactive steps, directly calling Rome's chief of police to enquire about the well-being of the injured officer involved in the incident.

Salvini, the leader of Italy's right-wing Lega party, did not mince words in expressing his respect for the priest, saying his solidarity with "a man of the Church who fights all kinds of drugs to save young people."

Saluting the injured officer's courage, he expressed disdain for the attacker, condemning the "vile injured criminal."

Rome's Mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, communicated directly with the priest, echoing a city's collective support. He emphasised Rome's stance against the mafia and violence, declaring that "violence and mafia must be opposed by all means."

Sources

• Crux Now
• Wanted in Rome

Francis was in Sicily on the weekend to honour a priest murdered by the mob 25 years ago while trying to save youngsters in poor neighbourhoods from falling into their hands.

"You can't believe in God and belong to the mafia," Francis said.

"Those who belong to the mafia don't lead a Christian existence because their lives are blasphemous," he said to the 100,000 worshippers at an open-air mass near Palermo's port.

"Change! Stop thinking about yourselves and your money, convert!"

His homily was held in honour of Father Giuseppe "Pino" Puglisi, who served as parish priest in the Palermo neighbourhood of Brancaccio for two years.

Puglisi was killed for trying to engage local youngsters and keep them away from drugs and the mafia suppliers.

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI officially recognised Puglisi as a martyr in 2012, for being "killed by hatred of the faith".

The following year Puglisi was beatified.

"Don Pino knew what he was risking but above all he knew that the real danger in life was to not take any risks and to just scrape along," Pope Francis told the crowd on Saturday.

After his mass, Francis laid a rose wreath outside Puglisi's home.

centre," he told AFP.

Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis has openly confronted the mafia and called on the faithful to stop all collaboration with them.

Mafiosi are often practising members and benefactors of Catholic parishes.

In 2015, Francis said those who in their lives follow this path of evil, as the Mafiosi do, are not in communion with God," and excommunicated them.

Source

• News.com.au
• BBC
• Image: EWN

When a Sicilian mobster known as the "boss of bosses" died in prison last month, a spokesman for the Italian conference of bishops said it would be "unthinkable" to give him a public funeral. Read more

"How many times have we heard — all of us, around the neighbourhood and elsewhere — 'to be a Catholic like that, it's better to be an atheist?'" he asked a morning Mass congregation.

Basing his homily on St Mark's Gospel, Francis quoted Jesus who gave a warning to anyone who 'causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin'.

"Cut off your hand, pluck (your eye) out, but do not scandalise the little ones" - they are the just ones who believe in God, Francis said.

"It is a scandal to say one thing and do another. That is a double life."

Rather than profess Catholicism, Francis said some of these people should also say "my life is not Christian, I don't pay my employees proper salaries, I exploit people, I do dirty business, I launder money, (I lead) a double life."

Since his election in 2013, Francis has often told Catholics, both priests and lay people, to practise what their religion preaches.

He has condemned sexual abuse of children by priests as being tantamount to a "Satanic Mass," has told Mafia Catholics to excommunicate themselves, and has told cardinals not to act as if they were "princes."

Shortly after his election, he also said Christians should see atheists as good people if they do good.

Source

• USA Today
• Newsweek
• Image: Huffington Post

City officials are mapping the confiscated real estate to see if any of it is suitable for temporary housing.

The first census of 200,000 potentially available apartments is due by the end of October, according to Mayor Virginia Raggi's Facebook page.

The city's push to find migrants accommodation follows a 5000-strong protest last weekend over the way city officials were treating 800 Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees.

The refugees, many of whom have jobs and children at school, had been evicted from an office block they'd been living in since 2013.

The UN refugee agency also condemned the evictions, especially as adequate alternative housing arrangements were not provided.

Having nowhere to go, the evicted people camped out on a central piazza.

Rome authorities and police then used water cannons against them.

Police say the raids were necessary because the migrants had cooking gas canisters and other flammable materials.

Raggi defended the police action saying the city wouldn't tolerate illegal squatters. She estimates squatters occupy about 100 buildings around Rome.

Rome has had a long-standing housing shortage, with poor families on waiting lists for suitable accommodation for several years.

The city authorities have not so far managed to ease the shortage.

Source

• NZ Herald
• The Times
• Independent.ie
• Image: Euronews

He has often denounced the mafia. He has declared them "excommunicated" and urged them to change their ways.

Many mafia turncoats have done just that. Read more

She says the Church is very far from the brotherhood these days.

This hurts the members she says as they have what she calls a "complex and varied" relationship with the Church.

They rely on the Church for spiritual strength.

"Entering a Mafia is converting into a religion - one never stops being a priest and one never stops being a Mafioso."

A short biography about Merlino on Setpon Hall University's website this year, where she was a guest lecturer, says she is "Lecturer and Head of Italian at the University of Bangor"

Her research focuses on "the cultural dimension of Italian organized crime, with a specific reference to the Sicilian mafia and religion ..."

Merlino says the Church tolerated and bowed down to the Mafia until the 1980's.

It wasn't until pro-Mafia police, magistrates and politicians died off in the 1980's and 1990's that the church began turning away from the criminal brotherhood.

The Church relationship with the Mafia is very different today.

Merlino used a situation involving the Cardinal Archbishop of Palermo in 1964 as an example of how far the Church has changed over the years.

Ernesto Ruffini, the Cardinal, claimed the Mafia was a much maligned small band of petty criminals.

He also claimed the name Mafia was a detergent brand.

St Pope John Paul denounced the Mafia in 1993. Then in 2014 Pope Francis excommunicated all Mafia members for adoring evil.

Merlino says in the past some priests have been close to the Mafia, said Mass for them and offered spiritual support.

In return, some Mafia members offered the Church financial support. These days many priests refuse this and return donations.

In fact, Merlino says some clergy have always refused favours from criminal gangs. even before the post-1980s changes.

"For example, there was the famous Sicilian priest Pino Puglisi [pictured], from a very Mafia-dense part of Palermo, who was killed in 1993," Merlino says.

"It was because he was clearly opposing the Mafia."

In Merlino's opinion, excommunicating the Mafia will help keep clergy away from them.

Pope Francis has said the Mafia's values and "morals" are incompatible with the Church's.

Source

• DW
• Image: First Things

The Church is lobbying against proposed state legislation that would give victims of sexual abuse more time to sue their abusers.

Archbishop Charles Chaput inadvertently sent an email to a state representative accusing him of "betraying" the Church.

In the email received by Jamie Santora, the archbishop warned of "consequences" of supporting the legislation.

Archbishop Chaput had intended to send the email to a staff member in his own office only.

Continue reading

The bishops of region have included the ban in a new set of pastoral guidelines.

Persons convicted of Mafia-related crimes are also not permitted to carry statues in religious processions unless they have publicly repented of their deeds, the bishops added.

Calabria's bishops met in July last year to discuss ways to cut fake religious ties used by Mafia criminals.

This came after Archbishop Giuseppe Fiorini Morosini of Reggio Calabria asked the Vatican if he could suspend for 10 years the naming of godfathers in his archdiocese.

"There are two problems," he told Vatican Radio last year.

"There is the use of religious symbols and even a sacrament to present a ‘clean' face to society, but there is also the concrete fact that being a godfather at a Baptism or sponsor at Confirmation forms a bond between families."

Some families delay Baptisms of children for years to wait until the "godfather" gets out of jail.

The Calabria ban comes as Sicilian authorities removed a series of roadside billboards announcing the Baptism of a "Cosa Nostra" toddler.

The posters showed baby "Antonio" dressed in jeans and a driving cap with the message: "This marvellous creature is . . . Cosa Nostra!"

Investigators have alleged that Antonio's father may have links to the Sicilian Mafia, known as the Cosa Nostra or "Our Thing".

The Baptism celebration, which was due to take place on Sunday, was going to be covered live by a local radio station and feature several popular Italian entertainers, the posters said.

Antonio's parents cancelled the event.

The family's lawyer, Enzo Iofrida, told La Stampa newspaper that they did not intend to show a "lack of respect for the Church or institutions", and simply wanted to celebrate a lavish event.

Sources

• Catholic World News
• Salt and Light TV
• The Telegraph
• Image: The Telegraph

The blood of the patron saint of Naples, which is normally solid, partially liquefied after Pope Francis kissed the relic during his day trip to the southern Italian city.

Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe of Naples showed the vial to the congregation in the city's cathedral, saying: "The blood has half liquefied, which shows that St Januarius loves our Pope and Naples."

Pope Francis responded: "The bishop just announced that the blood half liquefied. We can see the saint only half loves us. We must all spread the word, so that he loves us more!"

The blood last liquefied for a pope in the presence of Pius IX.

The phenomenon did not occur when St John Paul II visited Naples in 1979 and when Benedict XVI visited the city in 2007.

St Januarius was a Bishop of Naples who is believed to have been martyred around the year 305 during the Diocletian persecution.

His blood is kept in a sealed glass ampoule and traditionally liquefies three times a year.

Speaking in Naples, Pope Francis warned priests and religious against living too closely attached to money.

The pontiff has also decried what he called a "terrorism of gossip" in Church circles.

He again spoke out against what he has termed "ideological colonisation" of the family, identifying particularly gender theory as "an error of the human mind".

Addressing members of the mafia directly, Francis said: "I humbly, like a brother, repeat: Convert to love and to justice! Let yourself be found by God's mercy. Know that Jesus is looking for you to embrace you, kiss you and love you."

During his trip to Naples, Francis also met for lunch with 90 prisoners from two nearby institutions, including 10 from a prison ward for transgender and gay prisoners and those who suffer from AIDS.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Huffington Post

Despite protests from the boy's family, Cardinal Paolo Romeo, the Archbishop of Palermo, banned the confirmation of the 17-year-old son of jailed killer Giuseppe Graviano in the city's famous Norman cathedral at the weekend.

The 17-year-old was due to be confirmed along with 49 other students of a private Jesuit school in Palermo cathedral on Saturday. But the Archbishop ruled that the mobster's son would have to receive the sacrament in a private ceremony, elsewhere. Continue reading

Although CNN got the story and the quote correct, they mistakenly aired a photo of Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI. Have a look

The Holy Father was celebrating mass on Saturday in Calabria, a mob-heavy region in southern Italy, when he deviated from his prepared remarks and announced that the mafia are excommunicated.

"Those who go down the evil path, as the Mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated," he said.

The thousands who had gathered underneath the hot sun cheered.

Calabria is home to the ‘Ndrangheta, a global drug trafficking syndicate.

Reports suggest that the group turns over $72 billion per year in the cocaine trade and uses that wealth to entice young people in the region—where the unemployment rate is 50% or higher—to work for it.

Last week Pope Francis also reaffirmed his position against recreational drug use and the drug trade.

Francis has condemned corporate financial sins throughout his papacy, particularly for their socio-economic consequences.

His pronouncement on Saturday yet again shows how seriously he takes those consequences.

"When adoration of the Lord is substituted by adoration of money, the road to sin opens to personal interest…Your land, which so beautiful, knows the signs of the consequences of this sin," Francis explained.

"The ‘ndrangheta is this: adoration of evil and contempt of the common good. This evil must be fought, must be expelled. It must be told no." Continue reading.

Source: Time

Image: VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images

It is believed to be the first time a pope has used the word excommunication in direct reference to organised crime groups.

"Those who in their lives follow this path of evil, as mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated," Pope Francis said during a homily in southern Italy on June 21.

The mafia is an example of the "adoration of evil and contempt of the common good", he said.

The Pope had been visiting the Calabria region, which is the heartland of the feared ‘Ndrangheta crime group.

Pope Francis said that the Church would use its full force to combat organised crime.

"Our children are asking for it, our young people are asking for it," he said.

The comments came after the Pope met the family of a three-year-old child who was murdered earlier this year.

Authorities believe that the ‘Ndrangheta are behind the killing, in which two other people died.

A Vatican spokesman said the Pope's words did not constitute a formal excommunication.

Rather, it was a message that criminal groups had effectively excommunicated themselves, the spokesman said.

But the Pope's statement is still expected to have a deep impact on members of the mafia, because many see themselves as religious and attend ceremonies.

Many in organised crime in Italy see themselves as part of a religious, cult-like group, take part in sacraments, go to church and in some cases have also had complicity from clergy.

In 1993, Pope John Paul warned members of Sicily's mafia that they would "one day face the justice of God" and urged Catholics to rise up against them.

The mafia responded several months later with bomb attacks against several churches in Rome.

‘Ndrangheta activities are estimated to amount to at least 3 per cent of Italy's GDP.

The organisation has spread across the world and has revenues of around NZ$85 billion from drug trafficking, extortion and money laundering.

Sources

• The Guardian
• The Independent
• Image: The Express

He made these remarks during a prayer vigil in Rome for victims of the Mafia.

"Men and women of the Mafia, please change your lives, convert, stop doing evil," the Pope said.

"I ask on my knees and for your own good."

"This life you have now, it will not give you pleasure, it will not give you joy, it will not give you happiness," the Pope said.

"The power, the money you have now from so many dirty deals, from so many Mafia crimes, blood-stained money, blood-stained power - you will not be able to take that with you to the other life."

"There is still time not to end up in hell, which awaits you if you continue on this road," Pope Francis continued.

"You had a papa and a mamma. Think of them, weep a little and convert."

Every year since 1996, the Italian anti-Mafia group Libera has observed March 21, in memory of innocent victims of organised crime.

This was the first time a pope has participated in this event.

According to the group, the approximately 700 people gathered with Pope Francis in a Rome church this year represented the families of an estimated 15,000 victims across Italy.

The Pope listened for about 45 minutes, head bowed and hands folded in prayer, as members of the congregation recited the names of people killed by the Mafia.

Francis made special reference to a recent attack near Taranto, in which three people - two adults and a toddler - were shot dead in an apparent Mafia hit.

"Let us pray together to ask the strength to move ahead," the Pope said, "to be not discouraged but to continue to struggle against corruption."

In 1993, Pope John Paul II urged the Mafia to "convert" and warned them that judgment day was coming.

Two months later, two Roman churches were damaged in bomb attacks amid a wave of violence.

Sources:

• Catholic News Service
• The Guardian
• The Daily Mail
• Image: Catholic News Service

"There is no concrete reason that would lead us to worry. There is no reason to feed alarmism," the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican's press office, told ABC News. "We are very calm."

Recent news reports quoted Nicola Gratteri, a respected Italian anti-mafia prosecutor, as having said that the pope's drive to reform the Catholic Church was making organised-crime members "nervous." He added, "I cannot say if the organiszation is in a position to do something like this, but they are dangerous and it is worth reflecting on." Continue reading

Nicola Gratteri says the Mafia is upset by the Pope's efforts to make the Church more financially transparent.

For years the Mafia has laundered money and made investments, taking advantage of the connivance of the Church, he said.

Gratteri's comments were made against a backdrop of Pope Francis, Monday, again putting clerics and crime bosses on notice.

In a fiery sermon against corruption, the pope said christians who lead a "double life" by giving money to the Church while getting it from nefarious means should be punished.

Reinforcing his comment the pontiff used Luke 17:2, "Jesus says: It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea."

Earlier in the year, May, during an address in St Peter's Square in Rome, the pope strongly criticised Italy's four mafia organisations for "exploiting and enslaving people", and called on gangsters to repent.

"I think of all the pain of men, women and even children who are exploited by many mafias," Pope Francis told thousands of people during his weekly address.

"They are forced to do work that makes them slaves, like prostitution. Behind all this slavery there are mafias."

Crime-stopper Nicola Gratteri, who for 25 years has lived the south Italy region of Calabria, where the Mafia is most active, lives his life under police protection.

"Those who have up until now profited from the power and wealth deriving from the Church are now nervous, agitated. The Pope is dismantling centres of economic power in the Vatican", he said.

"I don't know if organised crime is in a position to do something, but certainly they are thinking about it. It could be dangerous. If the godfathers can trip him up, they would not hesitate to do so," he told Il Fatto Quotidiano, an Italian daily.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• The Telegraph
• Huffington Post
• The Guardian
• Image: Straight Flesh

Father Giuseppe Puglisi, who was murdered by Sicilian Mafia in 1993, was beatified in Palermo on May 25.

Shocked by his death and inspired by his example, many of Sicily's priests began to follow his methods of winning people away from the influence of the Mafia mob.

Continue reading