Pope to Sicilians fighting Mafia: do not fear
source: http://bit.ly/c74Ia6
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Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute Sunday to a priest slain by the Mafia and encouraged people in Sicily not to resign themselves to deep-rooted evil on an island where organized crime has held sway for centuries.
Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute Sunday to a priest slain by the Mafia and encouraged people in Sicily not to resign themselves to deep-rooted evil on an island where organized crime has held sway for centuries.
Sicilians had been hoping Benedict would use his words and presence during his first visit as pontiff to give a boost to efforts to try to rid the island of Cosa Nostra.
"The temptation toward discouragement, to resignation, comes to those who are weak in faith, to those who confuse evil with good, to those who think that, faced with often profound evil, there is nothing to do," Benedict told tens of thousands of faithful at Mass at a sunshine-drenched park alongside Palermo's waterfront.
The pope cited the Rev. Pino Puglisi, who stirred consciences with his anti-Mafia preaching in one of Palermo's poorest and most heavily mobster-infested neighborhoods. Since Puglisi was gunned down by the Mafia in 1993, his supporters have been clamoring for the Vatican to officially proclaim him a martyr, paving the way toward sainthood.
Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute Sunday to a priest slain by the Mafia and encouraged people in Sicily not to resign themselves to deep-rooted evil on an island where organized crime has held sway for centuries.
Sicilians had been hoping Benedict would use his words and presence during his first visit as pontiff to give a boost to efforts to try to rid the island of Cosa Nostra.
"The temptation toward discouragement, to resignation, comes to those who are weak in faith, to those who confuse evil with good, to those who think that, faced with often profound evil, there is nothing to do," Benedict told tens of thousands of faithful at Mass at a sunshine-drenched park alongside Palermo's waterfront.
The pope cited the Rev. Pino Puglisi, who stirred consciences with his anti-Mafia preaching in one of Palermo's poorest and most heavily mobster-infested neighborhoods. Since Puglisi was gunned down by the Mafia in 1993, his supporters have been clamoring for the Vatican to officially proclaim him a martyr, paving the way toward sainthood.
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