Freeing the Madonna from the impurity of the Mafia

In a letter to an anti-Mafia task force, Pope Francis called on them to “free the figure of the Madonna from the influence of criminal organizations.”

“Marian devotion is a religious-cultural heritage to be safeguarded in its original purity, freeing it from superstructures, powers or conditioning that do not meet the evangelical criteria of justice, freedom, honesty and solidarity,” Francis highlighted in the letter, applauding the initiative of the Pontifical International Marian Academy to create the task force.

The scope of the interdisciplinary body is to stop the influence of the underworld on religious events and places dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, including the “detours” taken by some Marian processions in southern Italy to salute Mafia bosses under house arrest.

Pope Francis sent the letter to Father Stefano Cecchin, President of the Pontifical International Marian Academy, who promoted a conference to officially launch the Department of Analysis and Study of Criminal and Mafia Phenomena, on August 15th, when the Catholic Church marks the feast of the Assumption of Mary.

In May, 1993, Saint John Paul II scrapped the prepared text of a speech in Agrigento to deliver a powerful, emotional appeal to the Church to stand up to the Mafia. Describing the Cosa Nostra as “a culture of death” and “an enemy of human dignity and civil peace,” he exclaimed. “In the name of Christ, I say to those responsible: Convert! One day you will face the judgment of God!”

“May there be harmony in this land of yours!” he said. “Concord without deaths, without murder, without fear, without threats, without victims! May there be concord! This harmony, this peace to which every people and every human person and every family aspire! After so many times of suffering, you have a right to finally live in peace.”

The saint then added that “those who are guilty of disturbing this peace, those who bear so many human victims on their consciences must understand that they’re not allowed to kill innocent people!”

“This people, the Sicilian people, so attached to life, people who love life, who give life, cannot always live under the pressure of an opposing civilization, a civilization of death,” he continued. “We need a civilization of life!”

Sadly, the intersection between organized crime and veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not only confined to Italy.

Adapted from Crux Now, August 2020