The Church and the Italian Mafia - Essay Example

THE CHURCH AND THE ITALIAN MAFIA By Location The Church and the Italian Mafia The Italian mafia, a crime organization that is governed by unwritten laws was known for traits such as greed, arrogance, power, oppression, and hegemony, was highly popular during the 20th century. This organization is believed to have originated from the Sicily Island. Originally the term “mafia” had no criminal implication but was use in reference to individuals who were suspicious to the central authority. There has always been a question of the exact role that the church played to the existence of the Italian mafia during the 20th century. When this question is raised there is always divided opinion with some asserting that the church must have condemned their activities while others maintaining the opinion that the church was indeed conspirators to the activities by the Italian mafia during the 20thcentury? There is indeed historical evidence that proved that the church played a conspirator role in the dominance of the Italian mafia during this period. One of the reasons that it is believed that the church must have been conspirators during the dominance of the Italian mafia in the 20th century is the fact that the church was highly silent during this period. Even at its early stages, the church was known for its open opposing of any form of social ills. In fact, this attribute of the church would get them into trouble at the early stages of its existence. Looking at people like St. Peter and John, someone can easily see what the church stood for at its early stages. The members at that time did not value any physical possession neither did they fear any form of power. This was unlike the church in Italy, which kept silent while the mafia oppressed people through illegal acquisition of power and dominance. Someone who is conversant with the Christian religion would have at least expected the church to raise their voice agonist the mafia. The fact that the church did not raise their voice against the mafia should be viewed very suspiciously. Apart from the silent, the church also allowed the mafia to penetrate into their churches. Most of the people in Italy are Catholics. According to the Catholics, when a child is being baptised there is need for a godfather to stand for them during the baptism process. The church never made any stand against having mafia members within them as godfathers. This was not fair for the children, but the church did not do anything about it (Buckler 2014, p. 156). Given the non-tolerance picture that the church has always depicted it is least expected of them to allow such things to happen. This is a simple implication that some of the things that the church did contributed to further growth of mafia activities in the countries. In this case not doing anything can be counted as something that was indeed influential in the growth of dominance of the Italian mafia. There is also a common belief that some of the priests worked closely with the mafia. This is basically used to explain the reason as to why there was no condemnation of the Italian mafia during the 20th century. According to some of the former members of the Italian mafia, the church indeed played a very important role in the existence of the mafia. Despite the fact that loyalty was a very important thing in the mafia, some of the rebels were able to tell some of the hidden secrets of the organization before their lives were eventually taken. It is believed that some of the priests and powerful religious leaders in the country would be silenced either by being paid off or being threatened (Pickering-Iazzi 2007, p 112). However, it is believed that most of the conspirators were paid in order to let the operations of the mafia go on in the country unopposed. Given the fact the fact that the mafia was very powerful, they could take the laxity in the church and make sure that they have some of their own people in Vatican. This would make it easier for them to manipulate the church. After the death of Roberto Calvi, who was the chairman of an Italian bank, BancoAmbrosiano, it was discovered that Calvi had ties to both the church and the mafia. Banco Ambrosiano was the second largest private bank in Italy at that time in history. His ties to the mafia came from the fact that the bank that he had been managing had been secretly handling the mafia’s money laundering business. It was after the collapse of the bank that he was assassinated amid fears that he would reveal the organization’s secrets regarding money laundering. His ties to the church were because of the close ties that he had with the Holy See (Williams 2003, p. 167). The ties to the Holy Seeearned him the nick name, “God banker”. However, it should be noted that the church having ties with people who were directly involved in the Mafia’s money laundering activities tells allot regarding their lack of willingness to bring an end to the oppression that the Italian mafia was subjecting people to in Italy. The church has also been seen to cover the existence of the mafia in Italy in some instance.A Cardinal Archbishop of Palermo was once gave a statement that the mafia did not exist (Lane 2010, p. 123). However, given the activities of the Italian mafia there would be no doubt that it existed at that time. However, the question that would rise from the archbishop’s statement is why someone would insist that the mafia does not exist. Maybe it is because they are involved or maybe it is because they want to find an excuse for not having opposed the social ills that the organization was involved as it was expected of them. However, what remains clear is that the church was at that moment not willing to do anything to bring the mafia activities to an end (Porter & Prince 2009, p. 186). Given the fact that the country’s population is made up of majority their opposition of the oppression would have been very important towards bringing an end to the oppression that people were subjected to by the mafia. Looking at the Italian society during the 20th century, someone can easily notice that a majority of the people were of the Christian religion, to be specific Catholics. The church does not only influence the religious and social aspects of human lives but even the political ones. It has been often seen religious leaders standing against corruption involving political leaders. Looking that the politics in Italy during the 20th century, it can be noticed that the mafia attained the power that they had through political protection. This happened because they had political leaders who could succumb to their pressure (Findley & Rothney 2011, p. 201). However, the notable thing is that the church did not oppose that kind of leadership neither did they inform their congregation on the importance of choosing the most appropriate political leaders. The people who voted for the political leaders in the country were the same people who were treated to oppression by the mafia who were being protected by leaders that they voted for. It is believed that things would have been different if the church decided to intervene by sensitising their congregations on the role that the government plays in the dominance of the mafia and importance of voting the right people into office. As evident herein, the relationship that exist between the church and the mafia is much long-winded. Many stereotypes and unidentified acuity that have proved rather hard to interpret have been brought forth. It becomes even a bit complex when filmmakers bring films that seem to be in support of the mafia by creating a picture of how the Catholic Church collaborates with the group. Example of such movies includes “the Godfather”. Such images have appear offensive to those families that have priests killed by these mafia, though research believe that there exist an element of truth in the killings. This paper has brought forth in depth the issue of Catholic Church and the mafia. It is thus evident that the history of the Mafia and the Catholic Church relationship that has existed for a while is really mysterious and many have neglected it. However, this is an issue, which with the importance created in this paper requires a detailed and sustained study rather that the current brief digression. It is clearly evident that the church did not do anything to oppose the mafia activities in Italy in the 20thCentury. As much as some people might assume that the opposing these activities because of the few cases of assassination of priests, it has been proved herein that in fact there were some powerful members of the church that would indeed make work much easier for the mafia. The Italian society was mostly consisting of Catholics. If the church was determined to curb the influence of the mafia in Italy then they would have done so. They would also have indirect influence to these activities through influencing the country’s politics. This is because much of the power of the mafia came from the protection that they used to get from the country’s political leaders. Bibliography Buckler, PP 2014,Bloody Italy Essays on Crime Writing in Italian Settings, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson.http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1643906. Findley, CV &Rothney, JAM 2011,Twentieth-century world, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Belmont, CA. Lane, DS 2010,Into the heart of the Mafia: a journey through the Italian south,Profile, London. Pickering-Iazzi, R 2007, Mafia and outlaw stories from Italian life and literature,University of Toronto Press, Toronto. Porter, D & Prince, D 2009,Sicily,Wiley, Hoboken, N.J. Williams, PL 2003,The Vatican exposed money, murder, and the Mafia,Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY.http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/50920610.html. Read More