Catholics From Italy

"God loves us, but always through someone else."

"Each of us feels within ourselves a particular inclination, a charisma, a vocation, a project that makes each person unique and unrepeatable: journalist, teacher, priest, student, father, volunteer... This calling is the sign of the Holy Spirit within us. Only listening to this voice can give meaning to our lives. (p. 294)"

"The first duty in Brancaccio is to roll up our sleeves. And the first targets are children and adolescents: with them, we still have time, educational measures can be effective... But even at that age it is not easy, because many children are forced to work or steal. And many girls are forced to do worse, because there are also cases of child prostitution in the neighborhood."

"Be a witness, especially for those who harbor anger toward a society they see as hostile. The witness must instill hope in them by helping them understand that life is valuable when it is given freely."

"It is important to talk about the mafia, especially in schools, in order to combat the mafia mentality, which is any ideology willing to sell out human dignity for money."

"The Church has already excommunicated those who have committed atrocious crimes, such as the so-called men of honor. I can only add that murderers, those who live and feed on violence, have lost their human dignity. They are less than men; they degrade themselves, through their choices, to the rank of animals. (homily of 25 July 1993)"

"How can we talk about Christ? We must try to present the figure of Christ as someone we love, in the hope that people will listen to us."

"In the parish, all pastoral care should be guided by the vocational line together with the missionary line: “all called, all sent.”"

"(Last words) I was expecting that."

"It is very difficult to die for a friend, but dying for enemies is even more difficult. Christ, however, died for us when we were still his enemies. God always remains close to us; it is the constancy of love to the extreme limit, indeed without limits. This is the reason for our joy. (homily of 14 September 1993)"

"Twenty, sixty, a hundred years... life. What good is it if we go in the wrong direction? What matters is encountering Christ, living like him, proclaiming his saving Love. Bringing hope and not forgetting that all of us, each in our own place, even at personal cost, are builders of a new world."

"Holocaust means burning one's entire existence on the altar of the cross."

"Love for God purifies and liberates. This does not mean that we become depersonalized, but rather that our personality is exalted and enhanced, that is, our natural faculties and our intelligence are given new potential. Our will is given new light. (p. 512)"

"Saint Thérèse and the followers of the little way seem to perpetuate the words: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Mt 18:3)."

"Don Puglisi was proclaimed blessed on May 25, 2013. He who did not like celebrations, solemnities, or official rites, is consigned to history as the first martyr of the Church killed by the mafia in odium fidei."

"I think that our religions have the medicine to cure this sick world and restore it to health, harmony, and peace. (March 8, 1990)"

"O! how beautiful is Christian charity! How truly is it called Catholic! It makes no distinction of nation, language, or person; but takes all men into one family! And, not without motive, does it teach us to address all by the tender name of brother!"

"The awareness is slowly gaining ground that the regulation of the functions and careers of public prosecutors cannot be identical to that of judges, as their functions are different and, therefore, so are the aptitudes, mental habits, and professional skills required to perform such different tasks: the public prosecutor is an investigator in all respects, while the judge is the arbiter of the dispute. We must move in this direction, setting aside the specter of the prosecutor's dependence on the executive and the discretion of criminal prosecution, which is regularly touted whenever the differentiation of careers is discussed. To deny the specificity of prosecutorial functions as opposed to judicial ones, in an anachronistic attempt to continue to consider the judiciary as a single entity, paradoxically amounts to guaranteeing less independence and autonomy for the judiciary itself."

"Giovanni was prevented from conducting mafia trials in his city. So he chose the only possible route, the Ministry of Justice, to ensure that his project would be realized: a unified structure against the mafia. And it was a revolution."

"[During the commemoration of Falcone in the main hall of the Palace of Justice in Milan] You killed Giovanni Falcone. With your indifference. With your criticism... You slandered him. You distrusted him. And now some of you even have the nerve to attend his funeral."

"It pains me to say this, but if the institutions continue their short-sighted policy towards the mafia, I fear that their absolute lack of prestige in the lands where organized crime thrives will only further favor Cosa Nostra."

"I fear that the judiciary will return to its old routine: mafiosi doing their job on one side, magistrates doing theirs more or less well on the other, and, when all is said and done, the palpable inefficiency of the State."

"We followed Falcone closely; he was feared and admired by the mafia. He had the courage of his convictions. He was different from everyone else."

"People generally die because they are alone or because they have entered into a game that is too big. They often die because they do not have the necessary alliances, because they lack support. In Sicily, the Mafia strikes at the servants of the State whom the latter has failed to protect."

"We can always do something: a maxim that should be carved on the bench of every magistrate and every police officer."

"In moments of melancholy, I allow myself to think about the fate of men of honor: why are men like any other, some with genuine intellectual qualities, forced to invent a criminal activity in order to survive with dignity? (chap. II)"

"Joining the Mafia is like converting to a religion. You never stop being a priest. Or a Mafioso."

"Why do I recall this episode? Because it demonstrates once again how skilled, determined, and intelligent mafiosi are, and how much ability and professionalism is needed to combat mafia violence. My great concern is that the mafia always manages to maintain an advantage over us."

"The realistic picture of the State's commitment to fighting organized crime. Emotional, episodic, fluctuating. Motivated only by the impression made by a particular crime or the effect that a particular government initiative may have on public opinion."

"The same mechanism of expulsion, in practice, is found among the Eskimos and other peoples who abandon the elderly, the seriously ill, and the wounded because they hinder their progress in a hostile land, endangering the survival of all. In a group such as the Mafia, which must defend itself from enemies, those who are weak or sick must be eliminated."

"For twenty years, Italy was ruled by a Fascist regime in which all democratic debate was abolished. Subsequently, a single party, the Christian Democrats, monopolized power, especially in Sicily, albeit with occasional allies, from the day of Liberation onwards. For its part, the opposition, even in the fight against the mafia, has not always proved equal to the task, confusing the political struggle against Christian Democracy with the judicial proceedings against Cosa Nostra affiliates, or feeding on prejudices: “Nothing can be done against the mafia as long as this government with these men is in power.”"

"The vultures and hyenas that Giovanni knew, and that I also know, pounced on Falcone's corpse."

"Maierovitch, a man with a soft voice and owl-like features, became a prominent figure in the early 1980s when he collaborated with Giovanni Falcone in his successful efforts to track down fugitive mafia members. Together, the two convinced Tommaso Buscetta to return to Italy and become a state witness in the so-called maxi-trial of the Sicilian mafia leadership. In January 1992, thanks to his testimony, some 350 mafia bosses were convicted. Falcone and his colleague, magistrate Paolo Borsellino, are the titans of the anti-mafia struggle worldwide. They were assassinated in Sicily two months apart in 1992, shortly after the maxi-trial verdict was confirmed, and their deaths shook and ultimately dismantled the Italian political system. Both had (rightly) assumed that the most important figures in the Sicilian mafia enjoyed the protection of the highest political hierarchies in Rome. Maierovitch tells me about his dinners with Falcone and how they worked to protect the great turncoat Buscetta from possible murder or suicide. (He almost succeeded in attempting suicide while under the protection of the Brazilian judge.) At first, Maierovitch smiles as he remembers his Italian friend, but after a while he begins to shed silent tears: a fitting tribute to Falcone (after whom Maierovitch named his Institute for the Fight Against Crime), whose charisma and commitment to justice, in the face of Rome's corrupt ruling class, made him a popular hero throughout Italy and among all those who fight crime around the world."

"I believe we need to realize that this is not a personal battle between us and the mafia. If we understood that this must be a commitment—extraordinary in its ordinariness—by everyone to combat a phenomenon that is unworthy of a civilized country, things would certainly be much better."

"The important thing is not to determine whether one has fear or not, but to know how to live with one's fear and not be influenced by it. That's what courage is, otherwise it's no longer courage, it's recklessness."

"Interviewer: But why would they do that? Giovani Falcone: Only the spirit of service."

"This is the happy country where, if someone plants a bomb under your house and it doesn't explode, it's your fault for not detonating it."

"(About Antonio Agostino) I owe my life to that boy."

"The mafia [...] has long served as a model for organized crime. It follows that this substantial uniformity of organizational structure allows the term mafia to be used in a broad sense for all major criminal organizations."

"It's all theater. [Falcone was referring to the sirens blaring and the heavily armed police officers protecting him during his meeting with Spanish writer Juan Arias.] When the Mafia decides to do it, they'll kill me anyway."

"Orlando now needs the “temperature” to rise even higher. He will be forced to make bigger and bigger claims every day. To achieve this, he and his friends are ready to do anything, even walk over their parents' dead bodies."

"Even in the most heinous of criminals, I must see the man."

"You confuse independence with arbitrariness, that's the problem: those who are independent must always be accountable. Lawyer Alfredo Galasso: “Magistrates are not.” Giovanni Falcone: Oh no? How come? There is a wonderful law on civil liability and you say no?"

"The Mafia is by no means invincible. It is a human phenomenon and, like all human phenomena, it has a beginning and it will also have an end. Rather, we must realize that it is a terribly serious and very grave phenomenon and that it can be defeated not by demanding heroism from defenseless citizens, but by committing all the best forces of the institutions to this battle."

"I believe that the Mafia is involved in all the important events in Sicilian life, starting with the Allied landing in Sicily during World War II and the appointment of Mafia mayors after the Liberation. I do not presume to venture into political analysis, but I will not be made to believe that certain political groups are not allied with Cosa Nostra—due to an obvious convergence of interests—in an attempt to influence our still immature democracy by eliminating figures who are inconvenient for both. (p. 170)"

"He only talked about the Mafia. He never showed the slightest interest in my life. He never asked me where I came from, what I had studied, nothing at all. He was single-minded, which is where his proverbial efficiency and professionalism came from."

"It is difficult to dispute that mafia organizations (the Sicily Cosa Nostra and the Calabria Ndrangheta) are probably much more closely linked than is officially acknowledged, and that they not only have a thorough understanding of how the State apparatus works, but also have no qualms about targeting anyone they deem appropriate."

"Bruno [Trentin] said to me, “Let's invite Giovanni to dinner, we have to celebrate.” He accepted. We talked about current political events, South Tyrolean irredentism, Mahler, who had had a house there, and Giovanni shrank into his chair: he was bored. At one point, I mentioned a news story about Stefano Bontate's son, and at that moment he suddenly perked up, sitting up straight in his chair."

"Of course, we will still have to deal with organized crime of a mafia nature for a long time to come. For a long time, but not forever: because the mafia is a human phenomenon and, like all human phenomena, it has a beginning, an evolution, and therefore it will also have an end."

"Falcone is praised without being studied. Anyone who talks about the Mafia mentions him, often inappropriately. When he was alive, he was very lonely. The magistrates who supported him could be counted on the fingers of one hand, while most criticized him for his alleged media protagonism."