Archbishop Refuses Burial to Mafia Boss

In Agrigent in Sicily, the local Bishop has refused Church burial to a known mafia boss.  For the "number two" of the Cosa Nostra in the area of Agrigent provincial city of Siculiana, Giuseppe Lo Mascolo (73), whose memory has been kept by the Archbishop of Francesco Mongtenegro to prayers for the dead, only according to the Roman newspaper "Il Messaggero" on Thursday.  Mafia figures were refused Church burial for the first time in Agrigent said "Il Messaggero".  Lo Mascolo who'd died three days earlier had been in the custody of Italian Police the previous week.  Shortly thereafter he was brought to a hospital for a heart arrhythmia.

 In Agrigent Pope John Paul II had spoken 19 years earlier on the 9th of May in 1993 in a stirring speech condemned the crimes of the Mafia and called for resistance against organized crime.

From kath.net....

Cardinal Says: Communion in the Hand Increases Risk of Sacrilege

Edit: High ranking clergy are now saying things that certain Catholics have been attacking for years.


Italy's Churches Are Confronted With a Rash of Eucharist Theft

Rome (kath.net/pl) The Catholic Church in Italy has been confronted for months with the theft of Holy Eucharist.  It involves broken tabernacles, pilfered ciboria filled with consecrated Hosts as well as the abuse of communion in the hand, in which some put the Holy Eucharist in a handbag for unknown purposes.  The motives of the perpetrators are discussed:  deliberate sacrileges by Muslims?  Or for use by Satanic cults in black Masses?  This was reported by "Vatican Insider".

The Catholic community foresees itself as being forced to take countermeasures.   In some areas the tabernacle is emptied  and left open, in order to guard against theft. The almighty Himself will be kept in a more secure place, so in the meantime He must be stored in a safe, offers "Vatican Insider."  Salvatore Di Cristina, Archbishop of Monreale,. Sizily, has already favored a "hard line" against the criminals.

The Cardinal and canon lawyer Velasio De Paolis explained that sacrileges against the Eucharist are among the most serious of offenses and that these crimes receive the condemnation of excommunication "latae sententiae",  which can only be lifted by the Holy See.  De Paolis holds that even communion in the hand offers an increased risk that the Eucharist can be taken away, profaned or kept for a sacrilegious purpose.

The list of offenses is long.  Two Muslims received the Eucharist from a priest in Sondrio, but they didn't consume it, rather put it in their hand bags.  According to information from police reports, there is a boom in satanic cults.  Filled pyxes, for example, have been stolen in San Giovanni in Bosco/Vasto, filled ciboria in San Vio/ paestum, consecrated Hosts disappeared from the hospital Church of Biancavilla/Katania, the community of Santa Caterina dello Ionia was the target of a night-time attack.  Here and in many other Eucharistic thefts, empty tabernacles, which have been violently forced open with burglar's tools, is the order of the day.

Kath.net...