Reuters) - A Roman Catholic priest said he was continuing to give Holy Communion
to mafia bosses at a high-security prison in Italy, even after Pope Francis
said members of organized crime groups were "excommunicated".
During a trip to one of Italy's most mafia-infested regions last month,
Francis for the first time described mafiosi as "excommunicated" - totally cut
off from the Church - because "their lives follow this path of evil".
After the pope's comments, "some prisoners came to me and asked me if they
should consider themselves excommunicated, saying that if they could no longer
take the sacrament, they would stop coming to Mass," prison chaplain Marco
Colonna told la Repubblica newspaper in an article published on Monday.
"I tried to explain to them that the Church doesn't kick anyone out, and
after a few days of reflection, I told them that they would continue to receive
the sacrament," said Colonna, who works at the prison in the southern town of
Larino.
"I continued to give communion to bosses ... I cannot avoid it," the priest
added.
The Vatican has said the pope's use of the word "excommunication" last month
had not amounted to a formal decree under church law.
Instead, a Vatican spokesman said, the pope had meant to tell the criminals
they had effectively excommunicated themselves and could not participate in
Church sacraments because they had distanced themselves from God.
High-ranking Church officials also quoted in the Italian media on Monday said
the pope's words meant mafia bosses should not be allowed to take communion, but
added that did not mean they were shut out forever.
"Someone who is excommunicated cannot take communion and is excluded from the
sacraments, but he can listen to the word of God," Nunzio Galantino, secretary
general of the Italian Bishop's conference whose diocese the pope was visiting
when he spoke out against the mob, told Corriere della Sera newspaper.
In some areas, like the one Galantino comes from, the Church has taken a
strong stand against organized crime.
But many members of organized crime groups in Italy see themselves as part of
a religious, cult-like group and regularly take part in sacraments.
On Wednesday, during a religious procession of a statue of Saint Mary in the
southern Italian town of Oppido Mamertina, parishioners paused before the home
of the town's elderly mafia boss as a sign of respect, triggering an impassioned
debate in the Italian media.
1Samuel2:22-25RSV(Catholic Edition) " Now Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 23 And he said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. 24 No, my sons; it is no good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad. 25 If a man sins against a man, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father; for it was the will of the Lord to slay them."
1Samuel3:11-14RSV(Catholic Edition)"Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel, at which the two ears of every one that hears it will tingle. 12 On that day I will fulfil against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13 And I tell him that I am about to punish his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God,[c] and he did not restrain them. 14 Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering for ever.”
