Italian Bishops Support Priest Threatened by Mafia

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This CNA report may not have been posted:

Italian Bishops Support Priest Threatened by Mafia

Rome, Italy, Sep 3, 2014 / 11:59 am (CNA).- Responding to threats on the life of an anti-mafia priest, the Italian bishop’s conference issued a letter offering support and calling for an end to corruption and injustice.

“The Italian Church, which in recent years has not failed to make heard it’s voice educating to legality, confirms it’s closeness to and its esteem for Fr. Luigi in a time when he has been made the subject of gratuitous intimidations,” the Sept. 1 letter read.

Signed by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, President of the Italian Bishops Conference, the letter responded to a threat made last week on the life of Fr. Luigi Ciotti. Italian mafia boss Totò Riina, was overheard in prison saying the anti-mafia priest had to be killed.

Related story from June:

Pope tells mafia in Calibri they are barred from Catholic Church

In an area where the Italian mafia is strong, Pope Francis has told mobsters straight, “They are not in communion with God, they are excommunicated,” from the Catholic Church.

Francis made a one-day trip Saturday to the southern Italian region of Calabria. There he spoke out against the local mafia, deeming its acts as “adoration of evil and contempt for the common good.”

 

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The Priest, Luigi Ciotti is the subject of a profile at the website"Moral Heroes"

Determined to make a difference, the 19 year old Luigi Ciotti founded the Gruppo Abele, a non-profit organization seeking to “give voice to the voiceless.” Luigi envisioned Gruppo Abele to connect with troubled youth in juvenile detention centers and struggling drug addicts to help build a network of legal and financial support around them so they can begin a process of change. As Gruppo Abele began to get involved in the lives of the youth, their services expanded to meet many of the causes that led to their current situations. Gruppo Abele soon began offering education and information services, community housing for the homeless, preventative health care, alternatives for imprisoned teens, and services specifically tailored to the needs of women victims of trafficking and violence.

• “I’m just a citizen who feels within himself the overwhelming need for justice.” – Luigi Ciotti*

 

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This CNA report may not have been posted:

Related story from June:

This is good news. Now only if Pope Francis will tell the same thing to the Latin Kings.

in the USA.
Corrupted church members, on this level are a main driving force for Protestantism. and anti Catholicism at its best.

 

[chero23]

This is good news. Now only if Pope Francis will tell the same thing to the Latin Kings.
in the USA.

Corrupted church members, on this level are a main driving force for Protestantism. and anti Catholicism at its best.

People who use the Latin Kings as a reason for heading to Protestantism just use it as an excuse. These are the people who are only Catholics by name, and dont even know how to hold and say a rosary. They are not the best people to see when it comes to the Catholic life.

 

[Path_Finder]

This is good news. Now only if Pope Francis will tell the same thing to the Latin Kings.
in the USA.

Corrupted church members, on this level are a main driving force for Protestantism. and anti Catholicism at its best.

Did the Latin Kings threaten a Priest? Not that I know of. Your premise seems flawed.

The Mafia has existed for centuries but let’s say someone like the Ku Klux Klan back in the 1950s and 1960s, did the heads of Protestant Denominations speak against them? Do they speak today against groups from the Crips to the Aryan Brotherhood today?

Those in organized crime already are not following Christ obviously.

 

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Did the Latin Kings threaten a Priest? Not that I know of. Your premise seems flawed.

The Mafia has existed for centuries but let’s say someone like the Ku Klux Klan back in the 1950s and 1960s, did the heads of Protestant Denominations speak against them? Do they speak today against groups from the Crips to the Aryan Brotherhood today?

Those in organized crime already are not following Christ obviously.

The Latin Kings, are a violent street gang, that violently attack people no differently then the traditional definition of the organized mafias. They are a burden on society.

Organization like this, are a driving force for protestantism. They take away the credibility of Catholicism, by people’s actions, who build the church. Throwing their Catholic “identity” into their perverse life style.

How about MS 13? from Latin America? Most of them are Catholic as well. Do you think the pope should excommunicate them as well for being in a violent organization ?

Yes, protestants do speak against other criminal organizations such as the Klan or Crips. Go to a Calvary Chapel you will hear plenty of it.

 

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The Latin Kings, are a violent street gang, that violently attack people no differently then the traditional definition of the organized mafias. They are a burden on society.

Organization like this, are a driving force for protestantism. They take away the credibility of Catholicism, by people’s actions, who build the church. Throwing their Catholic “identity” into their perverse life style.

How about MS 13? from Latin America? Most of them are Catholic as well. Do you think the pope should excommunicate them as well for being in a violent organization ?

Yes, protestants do speak against other criminal organizations such as the Klan or Crips. Go to a Calvary Chapel you will hear plenty of it.

Actually, the 2nd link in post #1 mentions the Pope condemning the Mafia beforehand months ago.

Priests have already been killed by the Mafia in Italy: globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/130525/thousands-watch-murdered-anti-mafia-priest-beatified-sicily

Perhaps if “Calvary Chapel” says so, many Protestant churches as we all know posts their sermons online. Perhaps you could link to such a sermon.

 

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There’s no shortage of Black Ministers condemning the shooting of a young unarmed blackman like Michael Brown but I don’t see the stories of them criticizing the Bloods and Crips.

 

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Dude… I’m not . going to scour you tube looking for Calvary Chapel sermons condeming gang activity. But there are, Nick Vujici sermons talking about why people join gangs. ect. ect.

Talk to any fundementalist, about the Catholic church and the Catholic countries that are constructed around an entire econemy of corruption and deception, who identify as

“Catholic” . The LDS alone, while reformers; (not protestant) use this as an example of why their orginization has the truth and why the Catholic church does not.

LDS members, who are close friends of mine, ask me all the time, why these gang members are not excommunicated, and how if it was in the LDS church, they would be exccommunicated. It is not like, these things are not spoken of.

I dont know if your catholic, protestant, ect. I really dont care. But you lead by example in what ever faith, you are in. That is what builds crediability amongst the people.

Not, gang members, wearing rosaries around their neck with their colors, and making the sign of the cross, while selling dope and commiting acts of violence.

 

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In fact, for the longest time, some preachers, perhaps even Billy Graham actually supported segregation. The Catholic Church has long stood against these evils and the likes of the Mafia in Italy. That is in Italy, hard to judge it from the USA.

The Catholic Church feeds the hungry and have outreach programs to help people and often goes into the jails for prison ministries where one would confront gangs.