Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 10, 1993 TAG: 9305100110
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO NOTE: ABOVE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: AGRIGENTO, SICILY LENGTH: Medium
"God once said, `Don't kill.' Man, any man, any group of men, the Mafia, can't change and trample this most sacred law of God!" the pope said in a voice shaking with rage, his face reddening.
The outburst at the end of his visit to this Mafia bastion was the Roman Catholic Church's strongest condemnation of organized crime. The tongue-lashing came in impromptu remarks at the close of an outdoor Mass beneath a hilltop cluster of fifth century B.C. Doric temples.
The pope exclaimed that people here have the right to live "without murder victims, without fears, without threats."
Referring to mobsters, the pope said, "These who have on their consciences the weight of so many human victims, must understand - must understand! - that they can't be allowed to kill innocents.
"I say to those responsible, `Repent!' One day the judgment of God will come," he said. John Paul urged Sicilians to reject "Mafia culture, which is a culture of death."
A decade ago, when the pope visited the island for the first time, hardly anyone in the Mafia fiefdom dared denounce Cosa Nostra openly. But public outrage over recent slayings of crusading prosecutors has changed that.
Earlier Sunday, thousands cheered when John Paul paid homage to those and other law enforcement heroes killed by the mob.
"During this latest visit in Sicily, I can't help but recall, with particular emotion, those who, in affirming the ideals of justice and law, paid for their commitment to the struggle against the violent forces of evil with the sacrifice of their lives," John Paul said.
He spoke to a cheering crowd outside Agrigento's cathedral from a balcony adorned with lemon- and orange-tree branches.
Later, the pope met privately with the parents of Judge Rosario Livatino, who was gunned down on a highway outside Agrigento in 1990. The Mafia allegedly ordered Livatino's slaying after he refused to let the Mafia sway him in issuing a sentence.
Last year's killings of prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino - Italy's leading Mafia investigators - fueled anger against Cosa Nostra across the island. They were the latest in a long series of prosecutors, judges, police, journalists and politicians slain by the mob. "They are martyrs of justice, indirectly of the faith," John Paul told Livatino's parents, squeezing their hands.
When John Paul went to Sicily in November 1982, becoming the first pontiff in six centuries to do so, he visited Palermo, the Sicilian capital. Since then, grass-roots groups led by schoolteachers, priests in poor parishes and some politicians have blossomed there to challenge the Mafia's grip.
But such opposition pulses more weakly in Sicily's hardened heartland, where the pope, on a five-city swing, has brought his harshest denunciations of the mob.
In Agrigento, Mafia bosses are considered second in power only to the Palermo families and the Corleone mobsters under recently captured "boss of bosses" Salvatore "Toto" Riina. That made Agrigento's enthusiasm and affection for the pope all the more remarkable.
by CNB