What about those Mafia funerals?
by Kenneth Bagnell
Some days — including relatively recent — it almost seems that, to modify the ancient saying of the poor, the Mafia will always be with us. Television series are made about it, movies are produced about it, books are written about it, all apparently with no end. (In fact, here’s full disclosure: one of my own books, (Canadese: A Portrait of the Italian-Canadians) touches on it, I hope for just reason. Why? Because the Canadian community should not take the heat for it. The proof? Because some years back, when statistics were gathered on criminality in Canada’s “ethno-cultural communities” Italian-Canadians were (and probably still are) among Canada’s most law-abiding citizens at every level.
But the problem with the Mafia remains because (a) it’s an historic, colorful legend and (b) its criminality is highly appealing to media, and (c) the media is but a reflection of the public’s interest. Why is the public so interested? Well, as a late friend of mine, a federal cabinet minister -– Charles Caccia, of Toronto, who led in creating a fine and enduring social program for all citizens regardless of ethnicity — once sadly said to me: “Unfortunately when Mafia guys do it, they do it in rather colorful ways.” That’s it.
Their inclination toward the colorful was revealed in recent weeks, as the whole world knows, in Montreal. One afternoon, at the ornate Church of the Madonna della Difesa, in the heart of the city’s Little Italy, nine stretch limousines glided to a stop. So did other open funeral vehicles piled high with elaborate floral arrangements, many blood red roses. Pallbearers, all wearing identical fedoras and coats, carried a casket the color of gold up the steps to the sanctuary. Inside the ornate casket was the body of a legendary man of the Mafia, Vito Rizzuto, a Mafia leader whose son and father had been gunned down in Mafia executions. (His own death, of natural cause, made headlines in Europe, a major paper, running a story under the heading: “Death in Canada: Vito Rizzuto, the last ‘don’ of the Mafia.”) The sanctuary of the Montreal Church was packed but only by those with permission to enter. The service, presided over by a Catholic Monsignor, was mostly prayer and contemplation. Perhaps most interesting and significant were the comments made by the people who came but were not admitted thus having to stand outside in bone chilling air. One woman told a journalist she was drawn by “the mystery”. Another called the death, “the end of a dynasty”. A man went so far as to say: “He was like the Pope….” These expressions are revealing. The officiating priest said afterward, among other things, that when asked by the family, he as priest of the church provided the service: “The church doesn’t refuse anybody.” This may be morally correct but not historically. It recalled for me the last Rizzuto funeral, a few years ago, at the same church when the priest was asked by journalists as to the propriety of giving Christian burial to a known Mafia criminal. His reply, as I recall it was: “I did it for the family and because God is the ultimate judge.” That’s plausible but more can be said.
Obviously the allure of the Mafia -– a culture of murderous criminals in silk suits and linen shirts — has been ingrained in society by numberless films and books. It’s appealing to the world’s imagination like a magnet, like a moth drawn to a flame. Hence the predictably wide coverage of the theatrical funeral of a Mafia leader who, to uncritical minds in our 20th century mass consumption, is a major celebrity. Except for one fact that must be faced: he’s a criminal in a fancy suit with, just maybe, a revolver in his inside shoulder holster, or in the holster of a hovering lieutenant. So the relevant spiritual and moral issue is this: the propriety of opulent Christian ritual for a highly questionable man. This aspect has been raised for me by two comments: one, a courageous opinion expressed publically by a Catholic prelate in Italy, the other a Protestant theological scholar in Canada.
The Italian: Antonino Raspanti, a Sicilian Bishop, is a member of the inner circle of Pope Francis so his stern comment may be a reflection of the Vatican. “Things have changed,” Raspanti told The Religion News Service, admitting the church had been too silent too long. Then, displaying considerable courage — given assassination of past journalists, prosecutors and priests — he added this strong condemnation: “The Mafia is anti-human and anti-religious.” He has gone further still by being quoted as saying they should be denied the funeral Rizutto received in Quebec for the simple reason that being a member of the Mafia is incompatible with being a Christian. Raspanti’s sentiments are reflected, if a bit more gently, in the recent statement made by progressive Pope Francis.
Francis did it around the date of a beatification ceremony for a brave priest whose ministry was in the heart of the Mafia, the Sicilian city of Palermo, virtually owned by the Mafia. There, roughly 20 years ago, Rev. Giuseppe Puglisi regularly spoke condemning the Mafia and emphasizing one ugly evil: their effort, not just to run the drug and prostitution business, but maybe worse to recruit young people to its ranks. For that he was murdered. (The Mafia men who did it are now serving life.) In St. Peter’s square, Francis called human trafficking a field the Mafia is now exploiting. He called it “one of the most terrible of all evils”.
This does not necessarily translate into a rejection of the generous funeral service the Canadian Rizzuto family has received generation after generation in our midst. The case can and is made by some Catholic clergy and lay people, that Catholicism doesn’t refuse anybody. Maybe, maybe not. I’ve been told by a Catholic friend years ago that her father was denied a funeral by his priest because he hadn’t done his “Easter duty”, usually communion and confession. Also in past years, suicide victims were rejected as were war criminals and some others. So the question remains: should the murderous Mafia given its dreadful immorality be accorded, by any faith group, an implicit Christian benediction. Doing so is thereby seen -– at least by me — as almost accepting, maybe endorsing, its existence and violence.
I’m doubtful but still a bit uncertain. So I asked a friend — a sophisticated Protestant scholar and former Principal of Emmanuel College at Toronto’s School of Theology — Dr. Peter Wyatt. He’s against so-called Mafia funerals and says so publically. But he also admits that as a minister while in Port Hope, a small historic Ontario town, he officiated at a biker’s funeral. (The man had been “executed” by other and competing bikers.) That’s the nature of not being certain. But he’s now more convinced: “God is the ultimate judge of course, and all churches conduct funerals for sinners some of whom may not be repentant…. However, the Rizutto clan, along with others is still notorious for its violence. The Mafia is committed to violence as a way of ‘doing business’. It’s the most evident face of evil in our world. There is understandable compassion for families in many cases of those who have done wrong. But Mafia funerals do seem egregious and do bring scandal on the gospel. What would Pope Francis say? I wonder.” So do I.
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