Archbishop Cacucci of Southern Italy Cancels Commenmoration Mass for Canadian Mafia Figure

Map of Italy with the City of Bari (in the middle, lower right)

Map courtesy: maryrosaries.com

Archbishop Francesco Cacucci of Bari-Bitonto of southern Italy and a local police chief have forced the parish priest of Grumo Appula town to cancel a publicly-called commemoration Mass for a slain Canadian mafia figure Rocco Sollecito, 67. Grumo Appulia is the ancestral home of Mr. Sollecito.

The archbishop called it a "great scandal" and said it was inappropriate for someone who didn't live a Christian life, reports CBCnews. 

Pope Francis in June of 2014 excommunicated all Mafia from the Catholic Church and he is the first pope ever to do so. The mafia, an organization that depends on financial profits and gains made from serious criminal activities and does not hesitate to kill its opponents, has been in an unholy alliance for centuries with a section of priests and bishops in Italy and elsewhere. Mafia members are usually Roman Catholics, most of whom attend Masses, receive holy communion, make substantial financial contributions to the churches, and have their baptisms, confirmations and marriages in the church. The mafia are also called 'mobster' or 'mob.'

To know more on the subject, you may click on the following:

• Mass in Italy for reputed Canadian mob boss is scrapped (Dec. 27, 2016)
• Church mass for murdered Canadian mafioso Rocco Sollecito kiboshed by Catholic authorities (Dec. 27, 2016) 
• Origins of the Mafia
• Sicilian Mafia 
• THE BASICS; Church, Mafia: Why the Link? (June 22, 2003)
• Encounters with the Calabrian Mafia: Inside the World of the 'Ndrangheta (January 4, 2012)
  
• The Catholic Church and the Mafia (March 23, 2014)
• All mobsters are automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church, Pope Francis says (June 21, 2014) 
• Pope Francis Declares Mafia Excommunicated During Mass in Calabria (June 21, 2014)
• The Pope Excommunicates the Mafia, Finally (June 24, 2014)
• What the excommunication of Italian mafia members could mean for Francis, his Catholics (June 24, 2014)
• Pope Francis May Be Risking His life by Taking on the Mafia (June 23, 2014)
• Pope Francis Excommunicated the Mafia, but the Mobsters Don't Give a Damn (July 10, 2014)
• Excommunicating Mobsters Is Not That Simple (July 12, 2014)
• "The Italian Church must stop carrying out mafia funerals" (August 24, 2015)
• Crime experts document unholy alliance between Mafia and Vatican (Nov. 14, 2014) 
• Pope to mafia: repent and be saved (Feb. 22, 2015)
• Pope Francis Takes On Mafia, Corruption in Naples (May 21, 2015)
• Italian Catholic Church scrambles to explain its role in lavish Mafia boss funeral (Aug. 24, 2015)
• The Pope and the Mafia (May 7, 2016)
  
• Catholic Church was 'inconsistent' with Mafia (Nov. 12, 2016) 
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