Deviated spirituality

A special task force has been operating for several weeks made up of members of the law enforcement agencies, anti-racket and anti-usury experts, prosecutors on the front line against Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Camorra and Sacra Corona Unita. And with them, men of the Church. Their challenge was "blessed" by the Pope: to free the figure of the Madonna from courting and mafia influences, starting with the "bows" of the statues of Mary in front of the houses of the bosses during the processions.

Francesco "learned with pleasure that this Pontifical Academy has promoted a conference to officially start the Department of analysis and study of criminal and mafia phenomena, to free the figure of the Madonna from the influence of criminal organizations … I wish to express my appreciation for the important initiative». These are the most intense passages of the letter that the Pontiff sent on August 15, the day of the Assumption, to Father Stefano Cecchin, president of the Pontifical International Marian Academy, and to the participants in the study day with which the task force was established. The letter was reported in the issue of Maria con te, the Marian weekly of the San Paolo, with a wide service to this initiative that aims to stop forever the dark underworld influences on religious events and places dedicated to the Madonna.

Cecchin explains: "Our action is ideally connected to the anathema of John Paul II in Agrigento in 1993 and to that of Pope Francis in Cassano allo Ionio in 2014". These are the excommunications of the mafia proclaimed by the two bishops of Rome after 21 years. The commitment of the new Department of Analysis and Study of Criminal and Mafia Phenomena is to combat the "deviant spirituality" that can be seen, for example, in the ignoble bows of the Virgin's effigies in front of the mansions of the chieftains.

Pope Francis warns: "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".


Domenico Agasso jr
NP August / September 2020