Avvenire, the bishops’ newspaper, criticizes the Dominicans of Palermo for blessing the mafia boss: “That offering had to be returned”

The controversy over the silver wedding of boss Tommaso Lo Presti in the church of San Domenico, where the remains of judge Giovanni Falcone are kept, is not over. Yesterday Future, the bishops’ newspaper, returned to the topic with an article by Antonio Maria Mira, one of the historic authors of the newspaper of the Italian Episcopal Conference: at the center of the reflection, the offer (of 400 euros) given by the Porta Nuova mafia boss to fathers of San Domenico. «The rector explained in a note that he did not know who Lo Presti and his wife were. We believe him – writes Mira – But no one recommended him? Did he warn him? He also added that “the mafiosi must not believe that they can access the sacraments with any sort of subterfuge: no salvation is possible outside of a perspective of repentance and conversion”. As for the offer made by the couple – continues Mira – the rector specified that he will keep it and allocate it “to initiatives in support of the fight against the mafia”. That money, however, stinks of evil, pain, violence.”

The signature of Future he does not agree with this choice of the Dominican fathers. And he tells what happened in another case. «A few years ago in another territory, no less delicate than Palermo like Calabria, when the bishop of Locri-Gerace, Don Franco Oliva, learned that the restoration of a parish had been paid for with the offer of an unsavory character, he demanded that that money be returned, with two bank transfers from the diocese, quoting the words of Pope Francis: “The people of God, that is, the Church, does not need dirty money”, so that it would be documented which side the Church is on”.

Another observation from Antonio Mira: «The mafia does not love the Church which reiterates the irreconcilability between the mafia and the Gospel. As the Archbishop of Palermo, Corrado Lorefice, reiterates almost daily.”

The Dominicans immediately said they would not return the offering. In the interview with RepublicFather Sergio Catalano, the rector of the church, declared: “That money will be used for good works.”

In the letter launched on Friday, when the case had already become national, the fathers then reiterated: «The money received, amounting to 400 euros, will be made available, as is the case with all the other offers we receive, for social purposes. We believe that this is the only possible restitution, in analogy with what happens for assets seized from the mafia and destined for civil society. In this sense – added Father Catalano – to give further symbolic strength to this restitution, in coordination with the authorities, we will allocate the sum in question to initiatives in support of the fight against the mafia”.

But the money taken from the clans through seizures and confiscations is one thing, the offers from the mafiosi to the Church are another. Don Pino Puglisi had no hesitations: he refused all the offers from the mafiosi. It was considered an affront, for which he paid with his life.