Crusading Italian anti-Mafia magistrate Nicola Gratteri presents Acqua Santissima co-authored with Antonio Nicaso of GTA on often-close relationship between Mafia and church at International Book Festival
By: Peter Edwards Star Reporter, Published on Fri Nov 14 2014
There’s no small measure of irony in the title Acqua Santissima, the latest book by crusading anti-Mafia magistrate Nicola Gratteri and Toronto-based, internationally respected organized crime expert Antonio Nicaso.
It translates to “Holy Water,” but could also have been “Troubled Water” or “Polluted Water,” since it documents the often unholy alliance between the Mafia and the Vatican.
Nicaso and Gratteri presented their book Sunday at the Inspire! Toronto International Book Fair in a bilingual forum in English and Italian.
Gratteri made headlines a year ago when he warned that Pope Francis’s life might be in danger from the ’Ndrangheta crime group, the Mafia strain now considered more dangerous than the more famous Sicilian Mafia or American La Cosa Nostra.
In an interview Friday, shortly after Gratteri arrived in Toronto, the co-authors had profuse praise for the Pope and his plans to reform the Vatican bank.
“It made me believe that he was in danger,” Gratteri said, his comments translated into English by Nicaso.
Gratteri is no stranger to death threats himself. He was awarded the Civil Courage Prize in Washington this fall, after a quarter-century of putting hundreds of mobsters behind bars.
He and Nicaso found themselves intensely criticized by some members of the press and church before their book even hit the stands, although they’re quick to say they are not antichurch.
“Our criticism is like an act of love for the church,” Nicaso said.
“I was surprised,” Gratteri said. “Usually, people in the church are very reflective and do their homework.”
Acqua Santissima is the latest work the pair have co-written on the ongoing relationship between the Mafia and power, which they say runs even deeper than its lust for money.
“There is corruption without the Mafia, but there is no Mafia without corruption,” Gratteri said. “The Mafia is built on corruption. The ultimate goal is power.”
In their research for Acqua Santissima, they uncovered the story of how two priests were murdered in Calabria in 1862 by the ’Ndrangheta.
“Nobody was aware of the two murders,” Gratteri said. “It showed that the ’Ndrangheta never had respect for anyone.”
He and Nicaso note how mobsters love the parades, rituals and other trappings of the Roman Catholic Church, while missing its essential messages of love and peace.
“It’s a strange situation,” Gratteri said. “They show a devotion for symbols, processions. It’s not like an intimate relationship with God.”
“They don’t feel that being a Catholic and being a mobster is a contradiction,’ Gratteri said.
Gratteri said he’d like to see uniform rules in place for the Catholic Church when dealing with criminals.
He noted how John Papalia of Hamilton was denied a burial mass after his 1997 murder, while Montreal Mafia leader Nicolo Rizzuto received a full mass after he was slain in 2010, even though they had convictions for similar drug crimes.
They note how mobsters don’t feel remorse after murders, since they routinely blame their victims.
“They say that they are forced to kill because they tried to advise the victims,” Nicaso said.
“When you eliminate the sense of remorse, you can do everything.”
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