Pope Francis and the Mafia

He didn't like them; they quite liked him.

Pope Francis went to Sicily several times as Pontiff, and he said the sort of things you would expect the Pope to say when he was there. For example, he told people ‘You cannot believe in God and be Mafiosi,’ which, the BBC helpfully explains, is ‘a reference to the fact that many mafia members are regular worshippers.’ That was in September 2018.

On an earlier occasion, as the BBC reports here, in 2014, the Pope had warned Mafiosi about the prospect of going to Hell, and condemned them for their monetary greed.

It is very simplistic of the BBC to point out that many mafiosi are ‘regular worshippers’ by which they may mean practising Catholics. Yes, many Mafiosi go to Mass, along with many others who commit all sorts of sins; while one can go to confession and confess ‘one off’ sins such as adultery, it is rather more difficult to do so if your whole life is the result of a sinful choice. So the Mafioso who goes to Mass has a dilemma; either the Mass is not true and the Church is lying, in which case why bother going? Or, the Mafia is indeed an evil organisation, in which case, one had better repent at once. But there is a third way. One can retreat into doublethink. One can take the position that the Church is wrong to condemn the Mafia because it fails to understand the Mafia for what it really is, and if it did understand the Mafia it would shut up on the subject as numerous great clerics of the past did.

Needless to say, all Catholics, bar the saints, are masters of doublethink of this sort. We all make compromises, don’t we, moral compromises?

The other thing is that most Mafiosi (I am of course speculating) are, in the words of the old joke, cattolici ma non fanatici. They are deeply attached to the traditional way of Sicilian life, the feasts, the Churches, the processions, the Catholic calendar, but if they actually go to Mass, they would stand at the back, or better, out of the door on the church parvis, and would never receive communion, or go to confession, leaving that thing to their wives, children, or in their own cases, to their death-bed.

One scene I was especially pleased with in my own work is when Beppe’s grandfather is dying, and the house fills up with women and the priest finally comes to call. I imagine every Mafia man has a pact with his devoutly Catholic wife, namely that he will live as he has to live, but he will die as she wants him to die: with a priest in attendance, having been shriven, anointed and received Holy Communion. Perhaps this is the secret and unspoken pact that underpins every Italian marriage. Who knows?

It is my firm belief that organised crime is only interesting when practised by Jews and Catholics. I cannot say with regard to the former, but there is definitely a concordant fit between Catholicism and the Mafia. Both are hierarchical, both have their mystical side, both are passionate rather than Puritan. Both are what Hollywood would term ‘colourful.’

Meanwhile, how are the Mafiosi taking the sad passing of Pope Francis? Philosophically, would be my guess. ‘Muore un Papa, si fa un altro.’ (A Pope dies, you create another.) He wasn’t Sicilian, or even Italian, though of Italian pedigree, but even then, from the north of the country. His most important intervention, from the Sicilian way of looking at things, was his trip to Lampedusa where he spoke of the plight of the migrants crossing the Mediterranean. He was warmly welcomed by the mayor of Lampedusa, who was subsequently voted out of office.

Meanwhile the Giornale di Sicilia tells us that thousands of Sicilians are making their way to Rome for the Pope’s funeral on Saturday: ‘For many Sicilian faithful, the journey to Rome takes on the form of a spiritual pilgrimage. The Pope who chose a simple life, who spoke in Sicilian dialect during his visits to the Island, who met the fishermen of Lampedusa and wept for those who died at sea, will also be greeted by that land that embodied many of his battles: the Sicily of welcome, solidarity, faith lived in daily life.’

Those last three are qualities that the Mafia do not recognise as having value. But they will pray for his soul. He was, after all, Pope, and the Mafia are respectful of tradition. They even listened in respectful silence when the Pope, as traditional, condemned them. Then they shrugged and moved on.

May he rest in peace!