Il ruolo delle esperienze religiose nella cultura della legalità

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The Sicilian Renaissance Institute

Villa Virginia - Via Dante 159

I 90141 Palermo - Italy

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C U L T U R E O F L A W F U L N E S SThe role of religious experiences

The Sicilian case

The SicilianRenaissanceInstitute



INDEX

- Introduction

The Sicilian Cart

by Leoluca Orlando Pag. 7

- Preface

The need for "antimafia pastoral"

by Cardinal Salvatore Pappalardo 11

- Promotion of a culture of lawfulness

The contribution of Sicily's Catholic community

by Mons. Salvatore Di Cristina 19

- Palermo's "Segno"

by Nino Fasullo 25

- What model of Church to face the Mafia

by Cosimo Scordato 33

The Sicilian Reinassance Institute

Statement of purpose 39

Biographies 45



The Sicilian Cart

by Leoluca OrlandoPresident of the Sicilian Renaissance Institute

Culture of legality seems a play on words, words that express different realities:

wholesome and warm the former, cold and angular the latter. An astounding play on

words.

It is the priority choice of the United Nations Organization in the matter of crime

prevention in the world in 2002 and for the next four years.

But the astonishment goes further. The United Nations indicate the rebirth of

Palermo as model and symbol for the promotion of the culture of legality in the five con-

tinents.

What happened in Palermo and, more generally, in Sicily during the last few years

of the century and the millennium?

The citizens sought to oppose a violent and uncivil phenomenon like the Mafia

without themselves becoming violent and uncivil.

Their NO to the death penalty to the point of conferring honorary citizenship

upon the condemned (of any country and no matter what the reason: nobody may kill,

not even a state!) and honorary citizenship for the 14th Dalai Lama, the concert of soli-

darity for the oppressed Kurdish people and honorary citizenship for David Trimble and

John Hume, both winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, but also the re-opening of the

Massimo Theatre and the construction of tens of new school buildings, and the rehabi-

litation of the city's immense and most beautiful centre, completely abandoned for so

many years ... all these, far from being episodes of protagonism of a peripheral admini-

stration, were part and parcel — like the tesserae of a mosaic — of a precise and harmo-

nious cultural project.

Our experience proved to be a theory and a model, and not only a vitalistic and

precarious experience made up of unemployed asking for work by protesting on the

roofs of the palaces of power, or of garbage bins overturned by demonstrators, made up

of traffic jams and continuous exhortations to do better (a kind of "io speriamo che me

la cavo"1; or as we would put it in our Sicilian dialect, "agghiurno... ora speriamo ca

scura"... "we have seen the day break ... let's hope we'll manage 'til the evening").

That experience is today making the rounds of the world, a foundation — The

Sicilian Renaissance Institute — has come out of it and promotes positive leadership

towards the tandem democracy-legality.

If it is true that there is a relationship between democracy and peace, it is also true



that peace is far too important for it to be entrusted solely to the military. Palermo

reminds us that there is a relationship between democracy and legality, but that legality

is far too important to be entrusted only to policemen and public prosecutors.

The model is the Sicilian cart, the traditional Sicilian cart with its two wheels, the

wheel of culture and the wheel of legality.

Two wheels that have to turn at the same speed, otherwise the cart won't move for-

ward, will simply wheel in circles.

If only the wheel of culture is turning and the wheel of legality remains still, there

is the risk of organizing a fine concert of Sicilian music in honour ... of some Mafia boss.

At the beginning of my work as mayor (in the second half of the 'eighties) I see-

med to be — just like many other mayors of Sicilian cities — a policeman, a public pro-

secutor: I almost invariably talked about crime and trials ... the cart stood still, both its

wheels had sunk deep into the bog of fear and collusion .. but a start had somehow to

be made, the cart had to be got moving again.

Thanks to the dedication of courageous policemen and magistrates, the wheel of

legality eventually started moving again and I could therefore concern myself with the

other wheel, making sure that the two wheels would turn at the same speed.

And so it was, the two wheels began to turn at the same speed, and Palermo, once

a handicap, became a resource, something shameful was turned into a model.

Midway through the 'eighties we had some 240/250 Mafia killings in Palermo

(and solely in Palermo!) each year. In 2000 we had just eight murders in Palermo, none

of them connected with the Mafia.

Midway through the 'eighties they said there was democracy and free market in

Palermo. 1 don't know what kind of democracy and what kind of free market they had

in mind, seeing that the whole of the economy was controlled by the Mafiosi and that

every Palermitan had either a relative or a friend who had been killed by the Mafia, either

because he opposed that criminal organization or was actually a member of it!

In 2000 we can really speak of democracy and free market in Palermo: democracy

in Palermo lives the hopes and the ills — and the latter unfortunately are not by any

means few — of Italian politics as a whole and in Palermo it has become possible to live,

work and do business without coming up against the Mafia.

At the beginning of my term as mayor, midway through the 'eighties, the munici-

pal administration neither had a regular budget nor an inventory of public property; in

2000 Palermo's municipal administration obtained an Aa3 rating from Moody's, an

international financial reliability rating that put it on par with the administrations of

Stockholm, Boston and San Francisco, and better than such cities as New York or

Chicago, to say nothing of Rome, Milan and Turin.

Am I saying that the Mafia no longer exists in Palermo? Certainly not!!!



The Mafia exists, even in Palermo.

But today the Mafia no longer controls — as it did in the past — the heads and the

purses of Palermo's citizens.

Though the Mafia — I am referring to the new and winning Mafia - still seeks to

control both heads and purses, it no longer does so by invoking and distorting such tra-ditional values of culture as honour and family, but rather by evoking and distorting

liberty and success, the emerging values of Italian culture.

Today in Palermo both the "old" and the "new" Mafias are present and operating.

There is the risk that the old Mafia, the Mafia bound up with the politics of the

so-called "First Republic" — which should have been swept away by the explosion of the

moral question in the 'nineties — will now become flanked by a new Mafia, the Mafia

that tries to get its foot into the politics of the so-called "Second Republic": the Mafia

of the First Republic bound up with the distortions of the economy of unearned

income, the Mafia of the Second Republic bound up with the distortions of theeconomy of profit.

This experience is today becoming a model and surpasses the confines of the rea-

lity conditioned by the Mafia.

In the past the Mafia was a "genus"; and this genus coincided with the Sicilian

Mafia.

The Mafia was the Sicilian Mafia - the Mafia was Sicily, Sicily was the Mafia.

Today it is being realized that the Sicilian Mafia is only a "species"; the Russian

Mafia is another, so is the Chinese variety, and the Colombian one is yet another.Reflecting about the different Mafias in the world today, we can affirm that the

genus is not Mafia, but rather what is called "identity illegality", i.e. an illegality con-

nected with a cultural identity.

When we are attacked by a robber who wants to deprive us of our money, all we

have to do is to call the police, the public prosecutor. But when we are attacked by a rob-

ber who wants to deprive us of money by invoking Corsican pride, Basque identity, the

teachings of Mahomet or the words of Christ or of Yahweh .. . it is no longer enough to

call the police or the public prosecutor ... what we need is the second wheel of theSicilian cart, the wheel of culture.

In other words, school, the world of information, the men of religion, civil society.

And thus every time we think of violation of human rights by bandits and terro-

rists, no matter what their cultural identity, we always come back to the wheel of cultu-

re, the wheel that at Palermo contributed to freeing the heads of the citizens from the

hegemony of the Mafia.

Culture, as should be clear by now, is music, is dance, but first and foremost is con-



sciousness of one's individual and community identity and its link with the respect of

the human person, every human person.

Every cultural identity is exposed to the risk of mortifying (humiliating) the

human person, the fundamental rights of every human person. It is the phenomenon,

the theory that, basing myself on Salman Rushdie's famous book and the experience of Palermo's renaissance, I call "satanic verse".

When a value, a cultural sign is used to mortify human rights, that value, that cul-

tural sign is turned into satanic verse. Honour and the family were thus used by the

Mafia as satanic verse to kill and rob... in the name of honour, in the name of the family.

And likewise Basque, Catholic-Irish or Corsican pride have been used by Basque,

Catholic-Irish and Corsican terrorism to kill and to rob... in the name of that

selfsame pride.

And in just the same way the German people's respect for the law was used by

Nazism to obtain obedience for the racial laws... in the very name of that traditionalGerman respect for the law.

And in just the same way freedom, security and wellbeing can be used as satanic

verse whenever they are invoked to kill, to rob, to violate rights of the human person.

It is Palermo's experience that tells us all this.

And we Sicilians have a great experience that we ought not to boast about ...

indeed, George Bernard Shaw reminded us that experience is the name we give to our

mistakes... and we Sicilians have great experience because we have made many great

mistakes.

The Mafia still exists: violent and weakened the one that uses honor, family and

friendship as "satanic verse"; enchanting and go-getting the one that uses liberty, success

and wealth as its "satanic verse".

Though equally criminal, both these mafias can be resisted: that is the lesson that

comes from Sicily. With the two wheels of the Sicilian cart, with respect for law and

identity, with the culture of legality born in Sicily amid sorrow and fear, rage and hope,

it is possible to resist all the Mafias in any part of the world, as also all the manifesta-

tions of identity illegality".

That lesson, which the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations adoptedand made its own, has affirmed itself as a strategic choice for the prevention of crime throu-

ghout the world. But that lesson stands in need of being continuously updated and vivified

to avoid that distortions of the economy of unearned income and capitalism without rules,

isolation and mortification of the operators of justice and loss of sense of responsibility could

bring about, and not only in Sicily, a return to the terrible season of massacres.

1) A schoolboys completely ungrammatkal, but also untranslatable way of saying "let's hope I'll get by" rendered

famous by the book of a teacher published in Italy some years ago.



The need for "antimafia pastoral"

by Cardinal Salvatore Pappalardo

Palermo Archbishop emeritus

When I first arrived in Palermo in December 1970, it was still being affirmed that

Cardinal Ruffini, one of my predecessors in the see, had denied the existence of the

Mafia in Sicily. That was not correct. In a pastoral letter written in 1967 he had in fact

said that the Mafia was not "the true face of Sicily", as some people may still hold today,

but that Sicilians (and even I have said this on several occasions) had rather to be consi-

dered as the victims of the Mafia and that, given their ancient civilization, culture and

Christian faith, they had virtues and merits that could not but be loyally recognized. Ishould here add that the Cardinal's letter went on to sustain that the cause of the pre-

sence and arrogance of the Mafia in Sicily's territory was the absence of the State, una-

ble to assure the orderly enjoyment by the citizens of their rights and their legitimate per-

sonal liberty.

Nowadays everybody recognizes that such a situation existed for a long time in

Sicily and that a citizen who wished to obtain something from a municipal, regional or

state administration often had to seek the mediation of an influential friend, or turn to

some politician or even a Mafioso, with the result that people obtained as a "favour"what was really their due as an act of correct administration or justice. And it could also

happen that in this manner they obtained things to which they were not entitled and

even things that were clearly contra legem.

In short, the political situation in Italy, and especially in Sicily, was for a long

period of time such as to give rise to collusions, connivances, favouritisms and the like,

and this to the point where all this was practically taken for granted! A regional inquiry

about the Mafia carried out in the 1970's produced numerous volumes of proceedings,

but practically no results. Evidently, the action of those who were supposed to ascertain

the facts and set the law in motion whenever appropriate had become blocked at a cer-tain point, and everything could therefore continue as before.

It should be borne in mind, however, that very little was known at that time about

the nature and organization of the Mafia. People could be certain only that it was some-

thing you had best stay away from, indeed, that you did well not to even pro-nounce its

name in public for fear that in some way or another that could bring troubles on your

head. It therefore created a certain impression when in the course of some public spee-



ches I openly referred to the presence and pernicious action of the Mafia and the Mafiosi

and suggested that they were present even among the so-called "white collars". In short,

there was a tendency to consider and confine the Mafia as something purely criminal

and therefore of interest only to the police forces and the courts. The crimes it commit-

ted, especially the murders, were looked upon either as internal affairs of the Mafia gangsor as intimidations or vendettas involving some official or magistrate who had done his

work with excessive zeal. In the sad period when organized terrorism was rampant in all

part of the Italian peninsula, some people even came to believe - almost with satisfac-

tion - that no such terrorist acts had occurred in Sici-ly, because there was the Mafia to

prevent it!

However, for the purposes of a proper valuation of the attention that the Sicilian

episcopate paid to the large number of assassinations and armed robberies that were

being perpetrated in the island, it seems to me important to mention that the bishops,ever since the regional synod in 1952, and therefore in the days of Cardinal Ruffini, had

inflicted "excommunication" (i.e., the spiritual penalty of exclusion from the Church

community) upon the executors and instigators of these crimes. The excommunication

was confirmed by the Sicilian Episcopal Conference on two subsequent occasions and it

still applies today.

The perception that the Mafia, quite apart from its individual crimes, also pro-

moted a subversive project vis-h-vis the State dates to the end of the 1970s, and with it

came the general realization that the fight against it could not be left solely to the poli-ce forces and the courts. The numerous crimes committed around the beginning of the

1980's, among them the assassination of the Regional President, Piersanti Mattarella,

other servants of the State and then also the Prefect of Palermo, General Carlo Alberto

Dalla Chiesa, brought home to everybody just how tragic the situation had become and

how great was the need for the State to intervene quickly and with great determination.

The Latin phrase I quoted on the tragic occasion of the funeral of General Dalla Chiesa

remained impressed in people's memory: "Dum Romae consulitur, Saguntum expugnatur"

("While they talk in Rome, Saguntum is being conquered") was intended to be, and was

also understood as such, an appeal that the State should be more continuously and acti-vely present in its territory and implied also that the social structures should realize that

they could no longer remain inert, but had likewise to be present and active in the face

of such a menacing danger.

Since then the Church assemblies and meetings in the island have witnessed an

ever larger number of interventions and denunciations not only of the antisocial aspect

of the Mafia, but also of the things that place it in such sharp contrast with the Gospel



and the ways of living and operating that are peculiar to the Church community. The

Regional Meeting of 1985 even arrived at prospecting the need for a specifically "anti-

mafia pastoral" in the island. The diction may not have been wholly correct, but it did

bring home just how very essential it was that the Church, too, should assume a very

dear and decided position in its educational and formative action. A position that wouldvigorously underscore that observance of the natural law, the divine commandments and

the evangelical precepts implies in itself not only a radical opposition to individual acts

of criminal transgression, but also the refusal of the very concepts and mentality of the

Mafia, which have to be expressly condemned as such and shown up as in every way

detrimental to legality, true justice and Christian charity.

The statements made in this connection by the bish-ops in their pastoral docu-

ments and the communiques of the Regional Conferences thus became ever stronger

and more explicit and were subsequently confirmed also by the present Pope, who in1991 re-ferred to the Mafia in the following terms: "This social scourge represents a

serious menace not only to civil society, but also to the mission of the Church, since it

undermines the ethical consciousness and Christian culture of the Sicilian people from

within". In short, we realized more clearly that, as far as the Mafia was concerned, we

had to talk not only with the juridical categories and the language of the penal code and

civil society, but also with the categories and terminology of the Church, so as to make

it very clear that the actions and the mentality of the Mafia are already in themselves gra-

vely sinful, that they are in radical conflict with the Gospel, which proclaims justice, love

and peace as the fundamental and inalienable values of a Christian.

Equally strong words can be read in similar documents published between 1992

and 1995 (years that witnessed the massacres of the magistrates Falcone and Borsellino

and their escorts, and the assassination of Don Puglisi, a priest), when the General

Assembly of the Italian Dioceses to be held in Paler-mo was already being prepared: "As

regards the Mafia, inasmuch as it is a distorted complex of false values, quite apart from

its pernicious potential of delinquency... it is our duty to underscore the denunciation...

regarding its incompatibility with the Gospel..., which is inherent in the Mafia as such,

because without any shadow of doubt it forms part of the kingdom of sin, and turns itsmembers into nothing other than hands of the Devil". For this reason, we kept on repea-

ting that "all those who in some way and deliberately form part of the Mafia or commit

acts of connivance with the Mafia should know that they are and live in unhealable

opposition to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that they are outside the communion of his

Church". These were unequivocal statements that cannot leave any doubt as to the posi-

tion the Church has assumed in respect of the Mafia, and were made known both to the

faithful and to all those in society who could be interested in knowing this position.



Other citations, if you wish, could still be added, a case in point being a document

that the bishops published in 1996 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Sicily's

Statute of Autonomy: "We cannot but recall and denounce delinquency in all its forms,

and particularly the Mafia... It constitutes Sicily's most shameful social scourge that with

its foul and excessive power, the tragic succession of its dead... and its abominable cri-mes, humiliates, mortifies and damages our land, corrodes the essential nodes of its

social and political life, and clouds its image and name before the rest of the country and

the world". It is legitimate to hold that such repeated public denunciations and con-

demnations have not remained without effect in the mind and conscience of those who

in this land of Sicily are anxious to continue calling themselves Christians.

As regards the Palermitan Church, in particular, together with all the other chur-

ches in the island, it has sought to be present and active in its territory, intensifying the

various forms of evangelization in the course of time, especially the so-called popularmissions, which were celebrated throughout the dioceses with great commitment in

1984 and the immediately following years as a moment of intent reflection about the

moral and religious values of life and a strong and general appeal for a change in peo-

ple's behaviour. Some 4000 "lay missionaries" of both sexes were involved in this work,

by means of which the Church sought to reach as many people and families as possible,

in individual homes, in blocks of flats, in streets and squares, in public structures, in

meeting places and at work.

It was in those years that we had the opportunity of increasing the number of parishes, which was brought from 158 to 178, thus enhancing their presence in the ter-

ritory and the specific activities of religious education and formation performed at this

level. We paid ever greater attention to young people, to whom so many pastoral appeals

had already been addressed in preceding years, seeking to stimulate them ever more

strongly towards the good and away from evil.

We sought to involve all the Church realities and communities in this program, so

that it should be seen that the action that had to be taken was not just limited to the

clergy, the religious and small groups of volunteers, but called for the presence of theentire Church community. We also had some extraordinary penitential celebrations that

took place in the Cathedral and enjoyed a massive participation of people and civil and

social representations; improperly called "antimafia masses", they sought to promote

wide-spread consciousness of the social and moral evil induced by Mafia activities.

The Palermitan Church has always been richly blessed with good will and dedica-

tion to its mission, and it made extensive use of these to spread not only strictly religious



values, but also those of human promo-don, social solidarity, legality and morality. The

youth groups in the parishes have always been a field where priests, religious educators

and pastoral workers have worked with much patience, fighting unceasingly against

every form of egoism and spreading the notion of the common good that is just as essen-

tial for the life of the Church community as it is for the progress of civil society.

The same formative and educational commitment has also been extended to many

and highly diverse associations of young people - and also of the not so very young - that

exist in the dioceses, about a hundred in all, each with its own membership, and all for-

ming part of the Lay Apostolate Council. They include the popular confraternities, some

of which can look back on a history covering several centuries, the numerous groups of

Catholic Action, and those animated by the numerous religious orders present in

Palermo with their churches, schools, oratories and meeting places where adolescents can

play and learn.

We have always been able to rely also on the numerous volunteer groups at work

in various social service centres for persons at risk or in need of material or assistance,

among them the "Borsellino Centres, Santa Chiara, the so-called Case famiglia (Family

homes), those of the Cardinal Ruffini Charitable Institution, the Sisters of the Good

Shepherd, the Servants of the Poor, the Missionaries of Charity, Biagio Conte's Hope

and Charity Mission, and so on. But mention should also be made here of the strongly

formative activities of the Catholic schools: between kindergartens, elementary, secon-

dary and higher schools they tot up to 132; managed either by religious educators or di-rectly by the Diocese, they are doing highly profitable work, not least among the fami-

lies of their pupils.

Together with these charitable and educational institutions, Palermo's Church has

also sought to help lay people to improve their education in the social and religious

fields: apart from the Theological Faculty and the Superior Institute of Religious

Sciences, about forty popular schools have been opened offering three-year courses of

basic theology, a Social Service University School, university courses in jurisprudence,

and two centres dedicated, respectively, to political culture and Catholic social doctrine.

This long list of initiatives, not by any means com-plete, bears witness to the atten-

tion the Diocese has always paid in the past, and even more so in recent years, to ensu-

re that evangelical culture and spirit should permeate to the various levels of the popu-

lation, for these not only sustain the life of faith of Christians, but are undoubtedly also

a valid antidote for every form of ethical, legal, moral and social deviation.



Though care has always been taken to enhance the fundamental action and

responsibility of parents in the education in the religious and civil education of their

children, our Church has always held that the state school institutions are privileged

means and fields for promoting the global education of children and preventing them

falling prey to the obscure forces at work in society. Recent years have seen the Paler-

mitan schools actively engaged in activities aimed at promoting social values, and this

has undoubtedly been one of the most important elements for fostering greater civil con-

sciousness not only among the young, but among the citizenry as a whole.

Don Giuseppe Puglisi, the priest assassinated by the Mafia in Palermo in 1993,

thought and acted in this way. Particularly committed in the Brancaccio quarter, he did

a great deal of work for the religious and social formation of the young and this was why

the Mafia decided to kill him. Always well conscious of the duties that derived from his

pastoral ministry, he kept asking the competent authorities that in his quarter, quiteapart from appropriate structures to take the youngsters away from the degradation and

miseducation of the streets, there should be opened a secondary school, capable not only

of giving them culture, but also promoting the sense of their civil dignity and liberty and

the ability to defend them.

Palermo's Church today takes this minister as symbol and martyr of the will of

redemption that still animates the city, so that it may continue and complete the pro-

mising process of liberation from the Mafia that has been under way and to reaffirm the

loftiest values of physical, civil, moral and religious life, values that are all inherent in theChristian faith that for so many centuries sustained this ancient and noble Sicilian peo-

pie.

* Speech in occasion of the international symposium "The role of Civil society in Countering organised crime: (

bal implication of the Palermo, Sicily Renaissance" '— December 2000



T h e role of rel igious experiencesThe Sicilian case



Promotion of a culture of lawfulness

The contribution of Sicily's Catholic community

by Mons. Salvatore Di Cristina

Let me begin by bidding a hearty and most cordial welcome to all of you, Ladies

and Gentlemen, and saying a word of thanks to the organizers of this seminar, to whom

I am most grateful for having invited me to come here and make a contribution. May

you all have the fruits and benefits you expected from this experience.

As regards my specific contribution, I cannot set the ball rolling without making

at least a brief mention of a "note" by the Italian Episcopal Conference that goes back toa few years ago, but is still rather significant for our present purposes. Indeed, both the

subject matter of the note, which bore the title Educare alia legalira (Educating for legal-

ity), and the particular historical moment that suggested its publication at the time have

a close bearing on the reflections of our seminar

The note in question is dated 4 October 1991, a date that brings to the mind of

us Italians a rather stormy and tempestuous period of our recent history, characterized

by certain scandals that derived from the failure of some top levels of the political life of

our country to comply with the requirements of legality. Let me say right away that the

note of the Italian episcopate had a considerable and, indeed, capillary impact of reflec-tion and self-criticism on practically all the country's Church communities, giving rise

to a courageous calling into question of choices and life styles that were more or less cur-

rent at the various levels of public and private life and a consequent and rather tangible

re-awakening of a more authentic civil consciousness among Italian Catholics.

As regards Sicily in particular, the theme of education for legality had at the time

and keeps on having true moments of choral reflection that, on at least two particularly

solemn occasions during this last decade, also enjoyed considerable publicity and echo.

I am referring to a great Church meeting held in November 1993 with the partic-

ipation of more than one thousand five hundred representatives of all the Sicilian dio-

ceses. That meeting courageously denounced the "spreading and taking root of an exces-

sively subjectivist mentality", the tendency to interpret the "good, including the com-

mon good, in an egocentric and utilitarian sense. It therefore declared this way of seeing

things and the behaviour patterns that go with as being in contrast with Christian cul-

ture. Given the ecclesial character of the meeting, the message was clearly addressed first

and foremost to Catholics and was intended to stimulate a healthy self-criticism:

"Unfortunately — as the final document of the meeting noted — we have to admit that



not even Christians always manage to remain immune from this sickness of society" .

The second solemn occasion was offered by the Conference of the Sicilian Bishops

in 1996, which coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the statute that set up the

Sicilian Region. As regards lawfulness, the final document, produced with the help of

numerous experts in various juridical, administrative and social fields, noted with dis-cretion, but also rather forcefully, that the regional political framework at that moment

was "burdened by the widespread technical incompetence of those responsible for the

public Administration, the lack of true political professionalism of these selfsame admin-

istrators .. and (even) a certain deplorable openness of the system to being permeated by

illicit and illegal interests" . The bishops therefore called for the "vigil and responsible

participation of all, especially those who have direct responsibilities in the political and

social field", appealing to them "to act in a manner that was not in conflict but in har-

mony with the inalienable good of democracy and civil living together" , this in clear

awareness that "no institutional reform is possible if it is not accompanied, founded andsustained by a reform of customs, fruit of the conversion of minds and hearts" .

But the efforts of the Sicilian Church in favour of education for legality, efforts

that we have been vigorously making for many years now, even though we are always

looking for new methodological approaches, found their most typical application in

connection with the sad phenomenon of the Mafia.

It would hardly be appropriate for me to attempt a description of the Mafia phe-

nomenon here; nor do I think would you wish me to retrace the various changes that

have occurred in the attitude of the Church and civil society vis-a-vis this phenomenon

and the reasons underlying these changes. Here I only want to recall that - from aboutthe middle of last century onwards - the change began to take shape in the Church, per-

haps too slowly at first, but almost certainly long before it did so in civil society. In this

connection one only has to bear in mind that - as early as 1962 - the Plenary Council

of Sicilian Bishops under the chairmanship of Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini had inflicted

excommunication upon the executor and instigators of crimes committed in furtherance

of organized criminality: a penalty that was subsequently confirmed by the Sicilian

Episcopal Conference and is still applicable explicitly in connection with Mafia crimes.

For the sake of truth and justice, I should also recall that as from the 'seventies

onwards the contributions of the Sicilian episcopate and especially the statements of its

Regional Conference have been characterized by the forcefulness and appropriateness of

their denunciations. In particular, I cannot but recall the interventions of Palermo's pre-

vious Archbishop, Cardinal Salvatore Pappalardo, especially the speeches he made on the

occasion of the tragic assassinations of the 'eighties and the early 'nineties, murders that

shook the entire nation. Given his acute intelligence, Cardinal Pappalardo was well

aware of the risk that could be associated with his commitment, which - though prima-

rily intended as a pastoral commitment — could nevertheless be interpreted in accor-



dance with the stereotype of the "anti-mafia priest" (or, in his case, "anti-mafia bishop"):

in other words, the risk that his role as minister of the Word of God could become flat-

tened into the reductive instances of so-called "civil religion".

Cardinal Pappalardo's concern really derived from the need for finding an appro-

priate methodology, a Christian approach to the Mafia phenomenon, the peculiar theo-logico-pastoral horizon of which had not yet been clearly appreciated. On the one hand,

there was the need for dispelling some commonplaces that saw the Mafia as traditional-

ly "bound" to Sicily's ecclesiastic environment, be it on account of an occasional mafia

affiliate who was also a relative of a member of the clergy, or the longstanding practice

of the local mafias to play an active part in parish committees and congregations, or sim-

ply the ostentatious respect the Mafia was wont to show to men of the Church; on the

other hand, the Church wanted to define the Mafia and the struggle against it in terms

of a language that was not simply the mirror image of the language used by the courts

and the mass media and therefore rather sterile from the point of view of the faith. Morerecently, lastly, an episode bound up with certain sacramental events administered by a

Catholic priest to a fugitive mafia member, an episode that made the headlines not least

on account of a clumsy and theatrical police operation, laid bare the existence of a spe-

cific problematic regarding the "pastoral care of Mafia members".

But let me come back to my theme. The tragic recrudescence of Mafia violence,

which reached a peak of brutality on the occasion of the assassinations in Palermo that

I recalled a moment or two ago, aroused a wave of indignation that at long last began to

assume a truly popular character even in Sicily. A wave of indignation that, at least

among the strata of the population normally reached by Christian catechesis, obviouslyalso tended to assume specifically Christian connotations. At this point many people

took the view that dissociation from the Mafia, paid for with one's life, could be due to

a Christianly motivated fidelity to one's conscience or that the commitment in the fight

against the Mafia of some servants of the State could in some way be connected with the

fact they were also practicing Catholics. The need for organizing an opposition to the

Mafia that in some way was inspired directly by the Christian faith was beginning to be

felt in the parishes and among the groups of the Catholic associations. At the regional

meeting it was even said that Sicily stood in need of an "anti-mafia pastoral": the term

may not be very appropriate, but is certainly highly expressive of this strongly-felt needfor motivating and organizing the handling of this specific problem by means of a

method inspired by the Gospel.

A true turning point as regards the sense and the authentically Christian style of

the fight against the Mafia was reached when Don Giuseppe Puglisi, parish priest of

Brancaccio, one of Palermo's quarters where the Mafia is particularly numerous, was

assassinated precisely on account of the dedication with which he sought to recuperate

the people of his parish to a truly Christian consciousness. The spiritual stature of Don



Giuseppe and his lofty personality as a pastor, which he lived with a simple and yet win-

ning and intensely communicative humanity, forcefully proposed him as a lofty model

for the ecclesial community and its pastors, especially with a view to a method of fight-

ing the Mafia no longer defined in purely general terms, but rather by its specific con-

gruity with the mission of the Church.The formative contribution that Don Giuseppe Puglisi made to the fight against

the Mafia, a contribution he paid for with a death — forgive me the oxymoron — lived as

a true Christian, not only enabled the Church community to shed once and for all the

equivocations of a certain and by then distant past, but also to adopt a pedagogy that

will surely prove a winner against the Mafia's culture of death.

Some months after his death, all this was very much in the minds of those attend-

ing the previously mentioned Third Meeting of the Sicilian Churches, whose labours are

reflected in the document issued by the Sicilian bishops under the title "New

Evangelization and Pastoral", especially when, assuming an unusually forceful positionagainst the culture and the practice of the Mafia, they make specific reference to Don

Giuseppe Puglisi:

"Against this Mafia mentality and against the violence of the Mafia, we Bishops of

Sicily intend to oppose once again, but even more decidedly, the unarmed and yet irreducible

power of the Gospel, a power that is dedicated to the persuasion, promotion and conversion

of people, but also wholly intransigent in not authorizing exceptions or simple-minded com-

promises as far as evil is concerned, no matter who may commit it or profit therefiom. Don

Giuseppe Puglisi fully incarnated this twofold power of the Gospel: he represents an example

for all of us; the model that he constitutes for the Sicilian clergy and every true Christian isalso the challenge we launch to all those whom it may concern".

It is legitimate to think that such strong denunciations and condemnations by

Sicily's topmost Church authorities have not failed to produce effects in the mind and

consciousness of all those who in this land of ours set store - and continue to set store

— on calling themselves Christians.

The Theological Faculty of Sicily and other of the island's academic and Catholic

cultural realties have for a long time past been involved in this reflection about theChristian specificity of both the theological motivation and the methodology and pas-

toral language of the Church's fight against the culture of the Mafia. Using the appro-

priate scientific instruments, they came to grips with the themes of the correct ethical

and moral valuation of the Mafia phenomenon and sought to define in various ways the

principles that should inspire the Church's attitude in the face of organized criminality.

To which I might add that some priest-teachers have for some time been experimenting

an interesting model of environmental pastoral action in a particularly degraded area of





can claim to be absolute leaders in this field at the national level. A particular has been

made in connection with the work of Christian formation of the lay confraternities, tra-

ditional forms of religious association in our island, though in the past not always free

of infiltrations far from compatible with an authentic Christianity. Today the confrater-

nities often constitute a precious source of help for the priests.

5. The organizations at work to recuperate the unwitting victims of the Mafia cul-

ture, especially the children and the youngsters in the high-risk areas include the Centro

Padre Nostro, founded by Don Giuseppe Puglisi in his Brancaccio, centres like Santa

Chiara of the Salesian Fathers and Paolo Borsellino in the San Ernesto Parish, Casa dei

Giovani, an association that is also an important structure for the rehabilitation of drug

addicts, and the recently founded Centro Educazione alia Fraternita, which is sustained

by a private association of highly motivated Christian laymen.

6. Though the Church of Palermo has always endeavoured to use its service struc-

tures to arouse and enhance the fundamental responsibility of the family in the religious

and civil education of the new generations, it has also held in great consideration the task

and the responsibility that the public institutions, school first and foremost among

them, have in connection with the global human education of the young. It has there-

fore endeavoured to maintain close relations of collaboration through its own associative

organizations. As a general rule, these relations are fruitful and cordial, based on mutu-

al respect for the competencies of the two sides and dedicated solely to the interest of the

young.This was the way of thinking and acting of Don Giuseppe Puglisi, engaged to the

very end in urging the lower secondary school so sadly lacking in his quarter. It has since

been set up and bears his name.

The Church of Palermo, its clergy and people, all, has assumed this minister as

symbol and witness of the will for redemption that animates it. It hopes that, following

his example and trusting in his intercession with God, the whole of the City of Palermo

will continue and complete the work of liberation from the Mafia, liberation from all

browbeating of man by man that has been so promisingly commenced; a liberation

accompanied by the promotion of the authentic (and therefore Christian) culture of thevalues of life, peace and justice that founds human co-existence and is desired by our

Creator.



Palermo's "Segno"

by Nino Fasullo

1. The first issue of "Segno" (Sign) saw the light of day in Palermo in November

1975. It did not have at its back a real editorial program, fruit of studies and specific

analyses: the new paper had been decided in the space of a few weeks in substitution of

another. But behind it there was an experience and, certainly, also very clear ideas about

the renewal of the Church and politics: indeed, the paper kept steering its course on the

twin rail of the Christian faith and commitment in society.However, the ideas of "Segno" had not been born right in Palermo. They came

from the Vatican Council. The paper thus drew its origin from the most important

ecclesial event of the century. The experience and the passions, on the other hand, were

altogether Sicilian or, better, Palermitan: they assumed form and color in a city that,

though immobile and backward, was also rich in energies that always seemed on the

point of erupting.

In actual fact "Segno" was born in Palermo in the house of the Redemptorist Fathers

in Via Badia, rising from the ashes of another review, "II Cristiano d'Oggi"(The Christian

Today), which ever since the end of 1972 had aroused quite a few perplexities and reservesin the Church environment and the political environments associated with it.

Of this story we shall here underscore only two points: the essential characteristics

of the review and its links with Palermo. The latter aspect is somewhat particular, inas-

much as "Segno", even though it was situated in and always concerned itself with

Palermo, never enclosed itself in the city or in Sicily: its space was the country, with an

ever-open eye for the problems of international life.

2. The period and the ideas amid which "Segno" saw the light of day are thus those

of the 'seventies and, in their turn, were prepared by the previous decade. Years that fromthe ecclesial point of view were marked by the Council, and therefore by Gaudium et

spes and the explosive force of the liturgical reform, which had brought the spontaneous

ecclesial groups to life.

At the social and cultural level, on the other hand, those years were marked by don

Lorenzo Milani's Lettera ad un professoressa (Letter to a schoolmistress) and the Letter to

Pipetta, by 1968 in die universities, the war in Vietnam and guerilla warfare in Latin America,

with the theology of liberation associated with it. And therefore by critique of politics.



"the political unity of Catholics is abolished", but rather because it had "commanded"

the Church to leave herself free of all mundane concerns of wielding power - be it even

indirect, be it even for good purposes, for example, safeguarding democracy and the

interests of the Church - in order to concern herself full-time with the Gospel, and

therefore with the poor. In the end the Council had left the Church with the possibili-ty of having but one party: the party of the poor. And if she had acquired authority and

civil and cultural force, these had to be wholly spent for the poor.

It will readily be understood just how new and subversive an approach of this kind

must have seemed in Palermitan Catholic environments, that it aroused reserve and in

some cases even hostility.

"Segno", which in the meantime had come to life, found itself in the midst of the

tempest. Quite a few people, understanding the sense of its cultural commitment and

the issue at stake, sympathized with the review, that is to say, with the perspective of free-

dom and democracy that, from within the Church, it represented for Palermo and Sicily.

5. One characteristic of "Segno", possibly a specific one, was its laity. The review

was constituted — in the house of the Redemptorist Fathers, but independent and

autonomous of them — as a monthly of "Catholics and laymen". An intentionally

ambiguous, but correct description. Because, even though historically "laymen" and

"Catholics" in Italy represented two line-ups that were not only different but also hos-

tile, today Catholics who base themselves on the Council can also be "laymen" without

ceasing to be Catholics. The differences and dividing fences of former days have disap-

peared. Without traumas and in all tranquillity a Catholic can also be a layman. Rather,he cannot but be such, for example, in politics or in proposing or voting a law to regu-

late the phenomenon of divorce. Laity, as far as the review is concerned, no longer

means, obviously, opposition to the Church, but simply responsible use of critical rea-

son in all fields of knowledge and morality, society and politics. In Palermo and Sicily,

"Segno" was de facto the expression of a group of men and women committed to com-

mon objectives that were really shared by believers and non-believers. Who is a believer?

was the question asked in those years. Those who in words profess the faith, or those

who concretely further the teachings of the Gospel? Who is a Catholic politician? Those

who frequent the curias and are presented and sustained by the bishop at election time,or those who are effectively committed in favor of justice, liberty, peace, the dignity of

the poor, of women, and for a future of freedom for the young?

6. The editorial group of "Segno" used Chapter 25 of the Gospel according to

Saint Matthew as the criterion for reading the history of the Church. It was also sus-

tained by the evangelical parabola (Mat 21, 28-32 of the father who has two sons, but

who is effectively obeyed only by the younger, who is seeming disobedient in words.



What collapsed in those days was a Catholic pseudo-culture and the seemingly massive

and often artificial wall that divided believers from non-believers: all of whom were

invariably seen as "left-wingers". There came to be experimented a cultural and opera-

tive co-existence that changed not only the ideology, but also — and more concretely —

everyday practice.One of the most significant effects of this position was the unitary character of the

anti-Mafia movement of the 'eighties. The fact that in Palermo there was but one anti-

Mafia movement, where believers and non-believers found themselves committed side

by side to the attainment of one and the same objective: putting an end to the domin-

ion of the Mafia and the culture that characterizes it. And this was yet another of the

Council's qualifying teachings that "Segno" promoted by its various initiatives.

In short, "Segno"'s Catholics took the Council as their guide. It was not by chance

that in those years the young readers of the review were reading some of the Council's

documents each week. The "segnisti" were laymen to the hilt, because they distinguishedbetween faith and reason and assumed the responsibility of science and culture, as also

of actual practice. They freed God of all responsibility that really behoved men.

7. "Segno" was a review of critique. A review that criticized in order to rejuvenate,

to push towards new comprehensions and responsibilities. Passion for change was the

most intimate spring of the cultural and political activity of "Segno". Purely Christian

passion, as one might say. To the point of legitimately holding that a Christian who did

not commit himself to changing the world in a progressive sense would not be a

Christian. In this sense, for whatever meaning there may attach to this term, "Segno"was culturally a paper of the left. But only if left is not taken to mean, as it must not be

taken to mean, atheist and unbelieving. As far as "Segno" was concerned, man or woman

of the left meant only a seeker of freedom, especially for the poor, justice, equality, truth

and peace: in the sense of Pacem in terris of John XXIII, a notoriously left-wing mani-

festo.

8. The central category of Chapter 25 of Matthew's Gospel is practice. Tell me

what you do, what side you are on, the things and the people you are in favor of, and I

will tell you whether you are a Christian. Not that orthodoxy is of no importance, quitethe contrary. But it is life, practice and behavior that resolve and settle questions, some-

times even the theoretical ones. At least according to the Gospel. Another parabola that

"converges" with the teachings of Matthew is that of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10, 30-

37), which in Palermo, in Via Badia, was the theme of a memorable talk given by Dom

Giovanni Franzoni. The doctrine of the parabola is clear: you cannot pass beyond the

problems of men, pretending not to see them. You have to stop, take them in, and come

to grips with them. Consequently, the Christian faith, rather than being a mere title for



saving oneself, is a force for liberating others. The faith has to be spent in the city. Spent

in the sense of consumed, run through, employed to the very last drop.

With these convictions it was inevitable that "Segno" should confront itself with

the problems of the city. It seemed beyond all doubt that the gravest and most urgent

problem of Palermo and Sicily was the Mafia. We could not ignore it. Unlike the over-

whelming majority of the Church, who behaved as if the Mafia did not exist, who would

not perceive the infernal fire that burnt the men of Cosa Nostra and the city, "Segno'"s

little group began to thunder against the Mafia and to say that the Mafia phenomenon

was radically anti-Christian and that failure to oppose it was gravely sinful. "Segno" was

the first Catholic review after the Council to say all this. While others remained silent.

Or distinguished or understood, but passed on. To be precise, "II Cristiano d'Oggi" had

already begun to talk about the Mafia in the 'sixties. In issue No.42, with a leading arti-

cle entitled Without prophets, it had openly denounced the silence of the Church.

Isolated, we were looking for contacts. There was no lack of collaboration, even fromsome (but very few) priests.

9. In the last thirty years, practically the entire life of "Segno", the fight against

the Mafia has de facto been the reviews principal commitment. But only because the

Mafia was the dominant problem. "Segno" was not conceived as a periodical of Mafia

questions. The review found the Mafia there without looking for it. And thus there was

practically no issue of the 'eighties that did not speak about the Mafia. It was the fault

of Cosa Nostra if in those terrible years we did not succeed in publishing an issue that

did not talk about the Mafia. In "Segno" there is everything: the anger, the sorrow, theindignation, the weeping, the desperation, the humiliation, the anguish, the widows, the

orphans, the funerals, the homilies of the Archbishop, the press communiques of the

trade unions, the parishes, the police unions, Catholic Action (but never of Opus Dei or

Communion and Liberation), the political parties, first and foremost the Italian

Communist Party. And integral documents with date, place and time of publication.

And then studies and reflections: precise, rigorous, documented. In this way "Segno" was

the expression not only of the little editorial group that for almost thirty years has writ-

ten its leading articles only after having discussed, read and approved them. But rather

the review of a large number of men and women who wrote, subscribed and met to fighta phenomenon and a power that offends Palermitans, Sicilians, Italians, humanity. You

cannot understand "Segno" apart from this choral consent, ample though not vast, and

not only Sicilian.

10. There is an aspect of the Palermitan anti-Mafia that the review often under-

scored and promoted: the fact that the civil and cultural opposition to Cosa Nostra can-

not be a matter of principle, words, sterile, with the risk of running dry within itself.

Attention was always concentrated on the propositional contents. De facto the paper



fought specifically for constructing something new: legality. It was a question of intro-

ducing esteem for the law into civil ethics, understanding the law as a common asset of

primary importance, so that every care had to be dedicated to the acquisition of a prop-

er sense and appreciation of it. A revolution in the fullest sense of the term. Opposing

the Mafia does not just mean repudiating the violence of others, but promotion of obser-vation of the law by all. If being Mafiosi means feeling and being concretely exempt from

and outside the law, being anti-Mafia must mean publicly observing the law. Submission

to the law as practice of non-Mafia culture. More practice of the law, less Mafia. More

Mafia, less law observed. In this, as in many other things, Leonardo Sciascia, was a great

master. The great writer kept affirming that the Mafia had to be fought with law.

11.The concrete experience of this motive was initiated in August 1987, when

Leoluca Orlando formed his "pentacolor" government: the event was probably the most

positive that Palermo had known in the second half of the twentieth century. "Segno",

never given to easy infatuations and political fideisms, was among the first to grasp the

importance of this experience understood as an exceptional opportunity for the city that

could not be wasted. In fact, it constituted a turning point in the history of Palermo and

the fight against the Mafia. It was not by chance that against it there came to be

unleashed the opposition of political and cultural forces that have to be described as —

to say the least — short-sighted. And of men and groups incapable of understanding ideas

and processes not forming part of their own schemes. Apart from the results, undoubt-

edly open to question and at times disappointing, that Palermitan political experience,which turned Italy upside down, remains possibly the most significant the city has ever

known. "Segno" sustained it, albeit not uncritically, dedicating it several monographic

issues and numerous studies.

12. Another characteristic of "Segno" is its discretion. It lives precariously in the

mist of hardships. It arrives more or less everywhere. Having sent out one issue, we start

thinking about the next. It has known some moments of success, but all very ephemer-

al. Its financial sponsors are its subscribers, among whom Father Giuseppe Pugliesi was

one of the most faithful. And then Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, willed into

the Courthouse by Rocco Chinnici. It can rely on excellent collaborators, among them

the late Marcello Cimino and Giuliana Saladino, who prepared the index of the first ten

years of the review.

Let us recall some of the important issues that made (albeit little) history. First of

all "Segno" 35/1982, Sul fronte di Sagunto (On the front of Saguntum), the issue pub-

lished immediately after the assassination of General Dalla Chiesa, which documents the

mobilization of civil society and the first significant commitment of the Church. In it



you can also find the answers that 26 leading Catholics gave to some questions posed by

the review, the first of which asked (remember that the date is 1982!) "whether the Mafia

was a problem that the Church had to face". The issue also contains the report that G.

Falcone and G. Turone made to the Castelgandolfo meeting in June 1982 and which we

gave the title The Mafia in the sanctuary of the banks, though it was originally entitledInquiry techniques in the Mafia field: we had obtained the text from Rocco Chinnici,

who asked Giovanni Falcone for it. The other important document of that issue was the

famous pastoral letter of Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini, integral text, entitled The true face of

Sicily, in which the Archbishop denounced the "three factors that more than any others

... have contributed" to the organization of "a grave conspiracy to dishonor Sicily [...]:

the Mafia, the Gattopardo, Danilo Dolci".

Another important issue was "Segno" 45/1983, Verso la signoria dei missili

(Towards the dominion of the missiles), dedicated to the movement for peace, not only

in Sicily, against the installation of the missiles at Commiso. It also contains an impor-tant study by the historian Carlo Marino, Pacifist movement and popular struggles at

the beginning of the 'fifties.

"Segno" 66/1986, Processo alia Mafia (Mafia on trial), published the most signif-

icant parts of the ordinance of the investigating magistrates of the Court of Palermo that

was to give rise to the maxi trial commenced on 10 February 1986; and also Cronaca

di una mattanza (Account of a slaughter), the dramatic story of the dead who had

stained Palermo with blood in those years.

"Segno" 53/1984 published an Article by Aurelio Grimaldi, Viaggio in un girone

della citta violenta (Voyage in a circle of the violent city), on which Marco Risi based hisfilm Mery per sempre (Mery forever).

"Segno" 93/1988, Palermo oltre Sagunto (Palermo beyond Saguntum), was the

issue of Palermo's political turn guided by Leoluca Orlando, but prepared by decades of

democratic struggle by the left for the liberation of the city and Sicily from Mafia

dominion.

"Segno" 101/1989 published a correspondence between the Vatican Secretariate of

State and Cardinal Ruffini on the theme of the Mafia and the Ciaculli massacre of 1963.

"Segno" 209/1999 was a great monographic issue dedicated to Leonardo Sciascia.

13. In 1995 "Segno" brought to life the Alfonsian Weeks, an initiative of a cultur-

al character that takes place each year in the last week of September. They are opened in

the Sala delle Lapidi (Hall of the Inscription Tablets) of Palazzo delle Aquile , to under-

score that the event is closely connected with the city. In actual fact, however, they could

be opened anywhere and maintain the same significance.

The first Alfonsian Week was dedicated to the them Una cultura mite per la citta

(A gentle culture for the city), a request for peaceful civic relations, governed by reason,



liberated from the acrimony that tends to poison them. The year after it considered

trust, understood as the fundamental virtue of civil life. The 1999 topic was repentance,

seen as an anthropologic force that cannot but concern all of us. The 1997 theme was

Religione violenza vangelo (Religion, Violence, Gospel). A number of priests had kept

visiting an arrested Mafioso to convert him: a behavior that was equivocal and speciousand brought out some not very convincing aspects of a pastoral practice that was far

from transparent. It was sustained that there was a difference between religion and

Gospel. As if to say that a Mafioso could be religious without having anything in com-

mon with the Gospel. The theme Dio, chi e, dov'e? (Who is God, where is he?) was tack-

led by the fifth Week , the interlocutors including, among others, the great Lutheran the-

ologian Jiirgen Moltmann. In September 2000 we talked about the poor: because the

poor come immediately after God. In 2001 we came to grips with the theme of the "use-

lessness" of Christianity, to draw attention to the delicacy of and respect for the mystery

of God, which nobody should ever dare to put into his service, not even for so-calledgood purposes.

Among the rapporteurs of the Alfonsian Weeks we have had Massimo Cacciari,

Marciano Vidal, Gherardo Colombo, Massimo D'Alema, Furio Colombo, to cite only

a few of the best known and appreciated personalities.

14.Today the review is face to face with new and difficult problems. The Mafia

question, though terribly identical and monotonous, has relatively new and elusive char-

acteristics, as is typical of all complex phenomena. The Mafia has a long history and it

is simply impossible not to be on one's guard and suspicious where this criminal organ-ization is concerned. One must be particularly careful to avoid the facile vice of illu-

minism applied to the Mafia. An almost unpardonable ingenuity that nobody, especial-

ly a Sicilian, must ever commit.

Lastly, "Segno" is a useful review: and that is one thing that can be said without

any shadow of doubt. Whoever wants to know in detail what happened in Palermo in

the course of these last thirty years, must necessarily turn to it. There he will find a world

of passions and intelligence, at times exalting. Above all, however, he will find the dream

of an island and a world free of the humiliating power of the Mafia.



What model of Church to face the Mafia

by Cosimo Scordato

What was the perception that the Church had of the Mafia and what had been the

Church's attitude towards it? What made it possible for such a phenomenon so pro-

foundly anti-Christian in both its inspiration and its practice to take root in a Christian

environment? What part was played by certain expressions of Mafia culture and practice

that, though undoubtedly different, yet seem so very similar to a certain religious-

Christian world? What can the Christian community do in concrete terms? These and

similar questions have become more and more pressing in the reflections of the ItalianChurch and, more particularly, the Church in Southern Italy.

Notwithstanding the good will of individual people and local churches, notwith-

standing the pontifical pronouncements of the last few decades, and with all the undoubt-

edly greater awareness of the Christian community in the face of the Mafia emergency ,

we have to admit that we have not yet matured an ecclesial intervention that, as the Pope

had suggested, could be considered "specific, original, concrete and efficacious".

Exploring the space for a "Christian approach", i.e. capable of intertwining with

and yet distinguishing itself from other approaches , has become ever more essential to

safeguard the peculiarity of the diaconate that the Church is called upon to offer to theworld in which it lives. It is not a matter of chance that recourse should be had to the-

ology in this context, for theology is the critical instrument of ecclesial reflection. But,

given the size of the available Mafia biography , we shall limit ourselves to an initial

working definition:

"Mafia is a series of criminal organizations — among which Cosa Nostra is the most

important, but not the only one — that act within a vast and ramifiied relational context, con-

figuring a system of violence and illegality aimed at the accumulation of capital and the

acquisition and wielding of power, that avail themselves of a cultural code and enjoy a cer-

tain social consensus".

Here, indeed, we come face to face with various definition possibilities that reflect

different cognitive and interpretative itineraries; this very fact makes it necessary to

adopt a multidisciplinary approach, seeing the problem in various perspectives; and yet

one can nowadays note a certain convergence as regards the constitutive data of the

Mafia association.



1. What model of Church?

If the Church does not want to exhaust her task in the role of a civil religion, it

becomes urgent to undertake a reflection that will take its cue from a re-thinking of the

Church's very identity at the historic and concrete level; historical experience has clearly

shown that, notwithstanding the gradually growing awareness of the Church, there

remain disquietening interweavings within the Christian community; so that the next

step cannot but be a radical re-thinking of the Church's image and her relationship with

society.

"The question that the sore of the Mafia raises for the Sicilian Church is not that of a

sermon against the Mafia, a vigorous denunciation of its evil. It is rather something that is

more profound and, at the same time, very simple. Without enlarging the Church's faults,

without resolving this distorted religious mentality in a simplicist manner in the responsibil-

ity of the Church, it remains true that the Church must come to grips with the question, must keep vigil on herself not only in depth, but also in the simplicity of her road, which is noth-

ing other than that of the essentiality and radicality of following the crucified Christ, con-

templated... "

The need for re-thinking the Church model is explicitly assumed by G. Mazzillo

who - highlighting the inadequacy of the juridico-hierarchical and mysterico-charis-

matic ecclesial models, which have indirectly rendered possible the persistence of the

Mafia phenomenon, proposes as a true alternative the design and practice of what he

calls the historico-liberating model.

"According to the historico-liberating model, the Church is the People of God on themarch with Christ and with men and receives and shares the needs and the hopes of all and,

first and foremost, the poor. "

If the Church wants to avoid the risk of slipping on reality, she has to move

between prophetic denunciation and the practical purposes of bearing witness.

"Recognizing that sin is not a simple personal or individual dimension, but also a social

structure and anti-solidarity pact, the prophetic denunciation must be accompanied by a pact

of solidarity and love that is a concrete project and not just vaguely spiritual or an exhorta-

tion. "

This time attention has to be concentrated on rendering concrete the commu-nity inasmuch as it is committed to translating into the space of solid visibility the true

response and alternative to the being and acting of the Mafiosi, and conferring credit and

strength not only upon denunciation, but even more upon the capacity of factual

announcement, on new and creative gestures of the community. Within this radical re-

thinking of being Church, we should like to explicit some particularly central aspects of

our theme.



2.1 Power in the Church

First of all, it has to be clearly affirmed that every form of Constantinism has to be

seen as a disguised form of paganism, because the witness of the Church, just like that

of Jesus, has to be put 'before' power and not 'by means of" power and dominion; onaccount of her propositional aspect, the Church, characterized by her eschatological

reserve and contagious memory, living her faith as the primary principle of critique of

every theory and every practice, cannot assume and legitimize any institutional models

and political formulas, but "gives form to practice as tension to produce and develop ever

more numerous and qualified conceptual coordinates and practices in which man can be con-

ceived as a free being, legitimate possessor of the reason of end in the ample intra-mundane

and intra-historical horizon and true protagonist of projects that orientate towards the novum

and imply going beyond. "

In observing the ecclesial phenomenon, without in any way belittling her mysteri-co-sacramental aspects, one must never forego the instruments of critique; as compared

with the twofold stumbling block of those who do not in any way want to objectivate

the way they behold the Church and those who observe her by means of a mere tran-

scription of socio-political categories, it is preferable to establish a fecund hermeneutical

circuit in which the organization of social life and its thematization with rules of the

game and specific limitations capable of safeguarding the minimum conditions of

coexistence is assumed as opportunity for re-thinking the ecclesial space and, vice versa,

the Church could offer the diaconate of her reflection wherever such ecclesiological

categories as service, charisma and others could enrich human comprehension of community life.

The following conditions are proposed within the postulate of controllability and

the minimum conditions of the theory of the personalistic political community and

could lead to the re-thinking of ecclesial life. The members of the community must

perceive themselves as a multipolar "we"; a political community with personalistic con-

sciousness is in the trim of dialogue; is the creator of human and humanizing values;

turns each and all its members into protagonists of the community's history; realizes jus-

tice in accordance with the logic statute of love (which excludes hate, but does not

exclude struggle); lastly, it fights against every type of alienation of man. It should beexpressly recalled that the concrete realization of all this runs the historical risk of obscu-

rity and turbidity.

2.1.1 For a non-violent and creative communication

Exercise of power in the Church has to be observed with a two fold attention sug-

gested by the ambit of communication; the first is that the incumbent of any ecclesial



ministry should divest himself- or at least re-dimension — his personal point of view and

assume that of the community, thus avoiding the risk of absolutizing his personal per-

spective for no other reason than the fact that he has the task of deciding in the name of

all; the second concerns the development of conceptual forms, interpretative structures

capable of receiving complexity to an ever greater extent and therefore capable of accept-ing the multiplicity of different points of view and approaches. We could develop with-

in the life of the Church the very methodologies that, when applied to the reception of

confessional differences, could open ample space for intra-ecclesial pluralism.

With a view to opening up adequate operational horizons, we should also adopt

indications that, though born and conceived in other conceptual contexts, could facili-

tate the progress of a critical re-thinking.

2.2Sacramental practice

It is well known that even Mafiosi enjoy ample access to sacramental life; apart

from comments proposed in connection with canonical discipline and also the need for

an evangelization to integrate the process of sacramentalization that is often mere rou-

tine, we should like to draw attention to the radical alternative that the sacraments rep-

resent vis-a-vis any kind of Mafia ideal. The first three sacraments (baptism, confirma-

tion and communion) are conceived, in analogy with the human condition (at birth

man is washed. Perfumed and nourished), as gestures with which God, through the

mediation of the minister of the Church, purifies and restores the transparency of his

image and likeness (baptism), strengthens, perfumes and replenishes his gifts (confirma-tion), and nourishes with himself and has himself assimilated (communion).

Very well, going beyond stereotyped rituality, we have to rediscover the beauty and

the wealth of the symbolic gestures with which God reveals and donates himself to man

in the celebrative event, which ought to constitute the basis that founds and inspired the

whole of Christian life. God, in fact, makes himself known as father-mother-brother

who stoops over the life of his creature and expresses his relationship of love by taking

on loan the tenderness of the mother (or the father) who washes her child, perfumes it

and nourishes it at her breast. There is nothing heavy in the simple transparency of this

divine gestural expressiveness that, seeing the God has taken it from human languageand given it back into the hands of the Church, should become the style of life of the

community. Jesus' (baptismal) invitation to his disciples to wash each other's feet has to

be seen in its regal capacity of inspiring each and every gesture of the Church when this

originary and eschatological divine tenderness constitutes the starting point.



2.3 Poor Church or Church of the poor

Ecclesial comprehension for the condition of the poor, combined with the choice

of poverty, represents the true antidote to the potential of violence accumulated in the

course of history, whereas — quite the contrary — the wealth of ends and intentionality inhuman relations constitutes the slow alternative to this violence.

On the one hand, we have to overcome the removal with which the society of well-

being and economic power keeps everything that could disturb its imperturbability at

arm's length. Face to face with the conviction that poverty, misery are not natural facts

like rain or the setting of the sun, but rather fruit of a history and political choices that

prolong its duration, we need not only good will and pious desires, but also readiness to

change the course of things, utilizing all the elements of analysis and intervention that

reflect the sensitivity and greater awareness of our day and age.

On the other hand, every local community has to fall silent (some time or other)and hearken to the multiplicity of laments that rise from within it. Listening to these

voices implies a twofold response: the first in the direction of an institutional involve-

ment (promotion of adequate services) with the possibility of assessing the suitability of

a policy on the basis of the choices made in this field; the other in the direction of a self-

involvement of the community who, giving priority to the most urgent needs, takes steps

to commit its best resources of people and means.

In this context even the reconstruction and interpretation of history by the Church

has an obligatory point of observation: looking at historical events from the point of

view of the oppressed, the last. Hitherto all historical reconstruction have been far toosimilar to the narrations, the gestures of the world in which there are celebrated person-

ages, wars, victories, defeats, conflicts of power and the like, but where are the people to

whose laments God lent his ears and with respect to whom he spoke his definitive word?

And where is the narration of the passion of the Lord and, in Him, every passion of suf-

fering humanity? Have we hearkened to the shout of all those who have suffered vio-

lence?

3. For a cultural shift

What we have in mind here is the importance that attaches to the cultural role of

the ecclesial community within a society in which even the Church is running the risk

of becoming squashed and flattened; on the one hand, indeed, we must not lack the crit-

ical consciousness of a searching look that will see the many myths (accumulation of

money and profit, ambition of hegemony in various ambits, concentration of resources,

etc.) the fount of the unbalances that offend the person, social coexistence to the point

of lack of international equilibrium, in this context the Church must not fail to speak



the word of denunciation that often concerns the very countries of Christian origin; on

the other hand, the Church must cultivate the so-called 'eschatological reserve' in mak-

ing a distinction between every historical realization and the goal of the kingdom of

God; by means of this reserve we create the conditions for the prophetic attitude that

does not remain that does not remain imprisoned by the dazzling allure of contempo-rary conquests, but rather, looking at the world from the point of view of eschatological

perfection, tends to highlight and underscore the undeniable limits that are associated

with even the best projects.

In this difficult task of discernment and accompaniment, we have to re-think the

various interventions of the Church's pastoral work (catechesis, popular celebrations,

etc.) and highlight the need for combining evangelical choices with the places and times

of Christian life.



The Sicilian Reinassance Institute

Statement of purpose

Sicily is undergoing a remarkable transformation. Following decades of Mafia con-

trol, Palermo and other communities over the island have been making in recent years a

significant comeback to lawfulness and democratic culture, based on a revival of citi-

zenship participation and commitment. In a world where organized crime and corrup-

tion have become major impediments to democratic, political and economic develop-

ment, the renaissance process which is going on in Sicily even through difficulties and

resistances is a shining example of how communities can work together to reduce crime

and corruption and enhance the quality of life of their people.The Sicilian Renaissance Institute (SRI) is designed to foster civic renewal throu-

ghout the island and to provide information and inspiration to interested regions and

communitites around the world. Specifically, the Institute will: facilitate an understan-

ding of the recent Sicilian experience in this field through publications, audiovisual

material, seminars and educational exchange; and co-operate with institutions, commu-

nities and individual in Sicily and elsewhere to encourage the adoption of civic initiati-

ves designed to strengthen a culture of lawfulness and democracy aiming at preventing

and mitigating the effects of crime and corruption.

The Sicilian Renaissance Institute (also named Istitutoper il Rinascimento Siciliand)

was founded in Palermo on November 29, 1999 as a nongovernmental, nonprofit orga-

nization by a group of Italian and American civil society leaders. The SRI is based in

Palermo, Italy, and it maintains an office in Washington D.C., USA. Its policy and direc-

tion is set by an international Board of Directors.

The members of the current SRI Board of Directors are:

President: Hon. Prof. Leoluca Orlando, member of the Sicilian Parliament; former

Mayor of Palermo and member of the European and Italian Parliaments;

Vice President: Dr. Rita Borsellino, Vice President of LIBERA (Italian national consor-tium of civic associations);

Counselors: Prof. Roy Godson, President, The National Strategy Information Center,

Washington, D.C.; Professor at the Georgetown University; and Andrea Scrosati,

President, Media Network (Italian national public relations firm).

Honorary President is Cardinal Salvatore Pappalardo, Palermo Archbishop Emeritus.

Honorary Director for Culture is Prof. Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate in Literature and

Professor at Emory University.



Activities completed

Ever since its foundation the SRI has carried out an intense research and docu-

mentation activity on the ongoing process of civic renewal in Sicily, and has subse-quently disseminated worldwide its findings about the principles that have inspired the

initiatives undertaken in this field by the various components of Sicily's civil society, as

well as their effective practices and the results obtained.

This knowledge-spreading effort was made first of all by means of two publications

that the SRI prepared, printed and distributed on a worldwide scale to international

organizations; government agencies; public bodies; foundations; civic, religious and edu-

cational associations; newspapers and journals; as well as to individual politicians, edu-

cators, trade unionists and other civic leaders in many countries interested in the pro-motion of a culture of lawfulness as an effective complementary strategy to prevent and

reduce the effects of crime and corruption..

The first of these, originally published and distributed in February 2000, was prin-

ted in two 34-page versions (one, in Italian, entitled "II Rinascimento di Palermo: Fatti e

opinioni"; the other, in English, entitled "The Palermo Renaissance: A Real-life Civics

Course'). This publication was subsequently updated and reprinted in October 2000,

with a total run of 16,000 copies for each version.

The second was a 70-page publication, likewise printed in two versions (inItalian, "Per un cultura di levalita: il Rinascimento di Palermo"; in English, "Creating a

Culture of Lawfulness: The Palermo, Sicily Renaissance") distributed since December 2000

in more than 5000 copies.

The contents of the latter publication, together with other information, were also

inserted in the SRI Internet site, www.sicilianrenaissance.org.

In addition to the above, the Sicilian experience in the promotion of a culture of

lawfulness was also illustrated and discussed by SRI representatives at numerous high-

level international conferences, seminars and meetings. Among these mention mighthere be made of the following:

the Tenth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime held in Vienna in

April 2000;

the biannual Convention of the American Federation of Teachers, held in

Philadelphia in July 2000, in the course of which the SRI President, Leoluca

Orlando, received the AFT Human Rights Award "Bayard Rustin";

the Georgetown University's Executive Leadership Seminar on the theme "Strategic



Approaches to Transnational Crime and Civil Society", held in Washington, DC, in

July 2000;

the International Leaders Forum of the National Democratic Institute of the United

States, held in Los Angeles in August 2000;

the First National Conference on "Building Sound Communities in the Transitionof Mexico" held in Mexico City in January 2001;

the meeting of the Young President's Organization International held in Venice in

June 2001;

the eighth edition of the "Rencontres Internationales du Memorial pour la Prevention

des Conflits", on the theme "Trafics et mafias: les Etats impuissant?", held in Caen,

France, in October 2001 ;

the ceremony held at St. Petersburg, Russia, in October 2001, during which the SRI

President was awarded with the Puskin Prize 2001;

the symposium on the theme "Fostering a Culture of Lawfulness on the Island of Ireland" held at Gleneagles, Scotland, in November 2001;

the participation to the United Nations experts meeting on crime prevention, held

in Vancouver, Canada, January 2002;

the participation to the series of seminars and conferences on "Culture of lawfulness:

the Sicilian model" organized by the German Universities in February 2002;

the participation to the conference "Europe: a cure against the mafia", held in

Antibes, France, in March 2002;

the participation to the memorial ceremonies of the six months anniversary of the

tragic events of September the 11th: "Response, Rebuilding and Reconciliation",organized by Columbia University, New York on the 1 lth -12th of March 2002;

the participation to the international conference "Building Sound Communities-

Security: a commitment for everybody" organized by the cultural Institute "Ludwig

von Mises", Mexico City, 14th-18th of March 2002;

the participation to the Eurasian-American Seminar on crime and terrorism preven-

tion: "the spaces of crime, corruption and terrorism" organized by the magazine

Limes, Rome, May 2002;

participation to the seminar "Enhancing democracy: transatlantic perspectives of the

role of educators", a joint initiative by The National Union of Teachers of Englandand Wales and American Federation of teachers, Stokerochford, UK, July 2002;

participation to the European Conference on "Tackling terrorism - the role and the

responsibilities of local Authorities", organised by the Chamber of local authorities

of the Council of Europe, Luxembourg, September 2002;

the lesson on "Culture of lawfulness and crime prevention: the role of the public

administration" held at the Faculty of Economy of the Havana University in the fra-

mework of the training course for public managers, Cuba, September 2002;



participation to the II Euromoney Conference, organised by Euromoney Istitutional

Investor, Dubrovnik, Croatia, October 2002.

The concrete results obtained in Palermo in the struggle against organised crime

were recognised by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations: in the lastguidelines for the prevention of crime (February 2002) it indicates the necessity of acti-

vely promoting culture of lawfulness as a tool in this field.

Our method of intervention is both simple and innovative: it is based on the "sim-

ple" communication of an experience without any direct intervention in the countries

concerned: we rely on bilateral exchanges to enable social operators, journalists, teachers

and religious authorities to become familiar with what has already been done in Palermo,

assess these experiences and study possible ways in which they could be autonomously

applied in their own reality.

The sending out of our delegations or the presence of foreign delegations in

Palermo and Sicily, appropriate publications and debates and seminars are the instru-

ments for spreading knowledge of what has been done in Palermo, are moment of con-

frontation, stimulus and mutual enrichment, but always in the perspective of respect for

and valorisation of the different cultures, the different reference values.

A similar activity of illustrating the Sicilian experience in matters of education for

lawfulness has also been performed by SRI representatives on numerous occasions when

foreign leaders (government representatives, politicians, educators, professionals, busi-

nessmen, journalists, etc,) visited Palermo either in official delegations or workinggroups.

The SRI also organized — either directly or in collaboration with supporting insti-

tutions — the following events intended to encourage the adoption of civic initiatives

against organized crime in countries particularly at risk:

a five-day seminar on the theme of "The Cultural Approach in the Fight Against

Crime and Corruption" held in Palermo in May 2000 for an official delegation of

the Republic of Georgia;

an international three-day symposium on "The Role of Civil Society in the Fight

Against Organized Crime: Global Implications of the Palermo Renaissance" held at

Palermo in December 2000 as part of the official program of the High-Level Signing

Conference for the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized

Crime. Detailed reports on this theme were presented not only by leaders of the

Sicilian renewal and the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, but also

by authoritative representatives of such countries as Hong Kong, Botswana, Georgia,

Mexico and the United States;



a five-day seminar on "Countering Crime Through Culture" held in Palermo in

September 2001 for an official delegation from Mexico.

In particular, intense activities were undertaken in the various cities of the United

States of Mexico: indeed, in the light of the Palermitan experience, the Mexican govern-

ment, basing recently decided to render the teaching of the culture of legality obligatoryin all the elementary and basic schools..

Lastly, the Institute has carried out a series of activities intended to encourage civic

renewal in other parts of Sicily, and in January 2000 promoted — making also a consi-

derable contribution to its actual organization — a meeting in Palermo of representatives

of Italian civil society that sought to maintain a high level of attention in the fight

against the Mafia.

In the course of 2002, the Institute is intensifying its activities aimed at promoting

a culture of lawfulness in all parts of Sicily and, further, to expand the disseminationabroad of the effective practices and results of the cultural anticrime initiatives that have

been, and will be, undertaken in this island by means of publications, audiovisual mate-

rials and other informational channels.

The SRI is also planning a series of educational exchanges (in the form of seminars

to be held in Sicily or participation of representatives of Sicily's civil society in confe-

rences held abroad) with countries particularly interested in adopting a similar cultural

approach in their struggle against organized crime, terrorism and corruption, among

them Peru, Nigeria, El Salvador, Vietnam, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Albania.Furthermore, the Institute intends to collaborate with global institutions, as well

as with governmental agencies and NGO's of other countries, particularly in the

European area, with a view to adopting joint initiatives aimed at promoting civic edu-

cation and a culture of lawfulness in various regions of the world.



Biographies

Salvatore Di Cristina, is Titular Bishop of Bilta and Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of

Palermo. Born in 1937, completed his studies at the Palermo Archiepiscopal Seminary

and was ordained priest in 1960, subsequently continuing at the Patristics Institute of

the Lateran University, where he obtained his Doctorate in Theology and Patristic

Sciences.

For several years he was a teacher at the Palermo Seminary, where he performed variousfunctions, and later became Dean of the Theological Faculty of Sicily. He set up and for

ten years directed the Diocesan School of Basic Theology and is Consultor of the Roman

Congregation for Catholic Education.

At present is member of the Pastoral Secretariat of the Sicilian Episcopal Conference.

Is Prelate of Honour of H.H. John Paul II and President (Ciantro) of the Cathedral's

Metropolitan Chapter.

Nino Fasullo, Redemptorist Father, taught philosophy and pedagogy in teacher-trai-

ning colleges. At present is editor of "Segno", a review of political and theological cultu-re that he founded in 1975. Among others, he prepared some of the shorter works of

Alfonso de Liguori (1696-1787) for publication: "Degli obblighi de giudici, avvocati,

accusatori e rei" (About the obligations of judges, attorneys, prosecutors and the guilty),

1998; "Maria Nostra Avvocata" (Mary Our Attorney), 2000. For the last eight years has

organized the Alfonsian Weeks at Palermo each year.

Cosimo Scordato, was born at Bagheria (Palermo) in 1948.

Ordained priest in 1972, he is now a lecturer in theology at the Theological Faculty of

Sicily.For many years he has dedicated himself to a project for the rehabilitation and moral

renewal of Palermo's Albergheria quarter, where he is in charge of the "Saint Francis

Saverio" Social Centre.



Published by/Stampa a cura di: The Sicilian Renaissance Institute

Project Manager/Redazione:' Pietro Galluccio

Translation from Italian/Traduzioni dall'italiano: Herbert Garrett

Cover design/Grafica della copertina: Studio Triskeles, Palermo

Printed by/stampato da: Tipografia Vivirito, Palermo

August 2002

Agosto 2002



Documents

Il ruolo delle esperienze religiose nella cultura della legalità