Pope appeals to young people
in Sicily to resist the call of the mafia
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| Students in southern Italy at a rally to commemorate victims of the mafia.- ANSA |
Pope Francis has marked St. Pope John Paul’s visit to the
Sicilian town of Agrigento 25 years ago with an appeal to young people to
resist the call of the mafia.
By Linda Bordoni
In a telegramme addressed to the Archbishop of Agrigento in Sicily on
Wednesday evening, Pope Francismarked the 25th anniversary
of Saint Pope John Paul II’s visit to the town of Agrigento
where he denounced the mafia’s organized criminal activities and called on
‘mafiosi’ criminals to convert.
In his message the Pope recalled that St. John Paul II’s
prophetic appeal came at the end of Holy Mass on 9 May 1993, celebrated in the
famous archaeological site of the Valley of Temples in Agrigento, and said that
he too, on this important anniversary, has an appeal for young people today to
resist the call of organized crime.
On the day in which anti-mafia activists and ordinary
citizens honour the 40th anniversary of the murder of anti-Mafia activist
Peppino Impastato, Pope Francis encouraged the Church in Sicily and its flock
to continue on the path set by the Blessed Father Pino Puglisi (who
was killed by the mafia in Palermo in 1993 for his work to denounce mafia
activities and to help people resist organized crime) saying that evil is to be
fought, “gently and courageously as indicated by the Gospel, in everyday life”,
and especially by teaching young people to do so.
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