By CAROLE BRESLIN
When a society is riddled with evil and corruption, the worst thing we can do is to remain quiet. If we truly believe in God, then it is our obligation to do all we can to save the souls in danger of being lost in such a society. The threats and dangers of this world are not to be feared if we look forward to living in the next. So lived the priest Fr. Giuseppe Puglisi in the past century, fighting evil by working with youth, and paying the ultimate price: with his life.
Giuseppe was born in a working-class neighborhood called Brancaccio, into a family of simple people. His father was a shoemaker and his mother worked as a seamstress. As a child he received the typical Catholic education of his peers and when he was 16 he began his training for the priesthood.
He was ordained by Ernesto Cardinal Ruffini on July 2, 1960, after seven years of preparation. Once Fr. Puglisi heard the cardinal remark to reporters that he doubted the Mafia even existed. This attitude stunned Fr. Puglisi and perhaps was the motivation behind his life’s work. He realized that not only did he have to fight the Mafia, but that he also had a challenge in engaging the Church hierarchy in the battle.
“We must criticize the Church — to seek to improve it. But we should always criticize it like a mother, never a mother-in-law,” he said.
After his Ordination, Fr. Puglisi was assigned to various parishes around Palermo, in one of which he witnessed a bloody vendetta by the Mafia. After this, Giuseppe engaged in less publicly visible activities by teaching the catechism in the schools, acting as vice-rector of the seminary, and serving in other remote and run-down parishes.
In one of these parishes, as Archbishop Salvatore Di Cristina testified during Fr. Puglisi’s beatification process, “When Fr. Puglisi arrived in Godrano, he arrived in the midst of a blood feud, something much deeper than a simple Mafia war.”
Families hid in their homes to escape the violence which led to empty churches even on Sundays. First, Father won over the children by circling the area in his red Fiat. Then he won over the parents, and slowly transformed Godrano.
His real challenges began when he returned to Brancaccio in 1990. He was 53 years old. Even though the bishop had offered him other, more favorable postings, Fr. Puglisi turned them down. Father knew that many of the families in the parish were connected with the Mafia, such as the Graviano family.
Remembering the previous conflict, Fr. Puglisi nevertheless spoke fearlessly against the Mafia that controlled Palermo. Frequently he boldly spoke out against the sins of the Mafia, their evil designs, corrupting influence, and grievous crimes.
As a parish priest he struggled to change the mindset of the Sicilians. They were cowed by fear, and closed their eyes to the horrible acts of the Mafia. They continued their self-imposed silence and ambivalence, ignoring the problems and doing nothing about them despite the suffering they generated, either directly or indirectly. Father begged the parishioners to work with the authorities to report suspicious activities.
Fr. Puglisi also refused the “blood money” of the Mafia dons. He refused their donations and also denied them the places of honor at the head of the feast-day processions which they traditionally had been given. When one Mafioso suggested a company to repair the collapsing church roof, Fr. Puglisi refused to use that contractor.
In this quest, he received no support from the Palermo Archdiocese in his efforts to change the parishes. However, he continued to urge his parishioners to assist him in the battle against evil.
He also targeted the youth who were the breeding ground for future Mafia members. He encouraged them not to drop out of school, to stop dealing drugs, and to stop selling contraband cigarettes. He even founded a youth home so that he could offer alternatives for them to break the cycle of crime.
Perhaps any one of these efforts would not upset the Mafia, but together they represented a threat it took seriously. His public spurning of their money also caused great animosity. Those parishioners who worked with him to reform Palermo received stern warnings from the Mafia. One group that worked for social improvement was attacked and the doors of the members’ homes were burnt.
Fr. Puglisi courageously continued his quest for peace in the community. As others testified, he was as much against the Mafia as he was for his vocation. He deeply loved his vocation of saving souls.
As he continued to wean the youth away from the lures of the Mafia, the state authorities also increased their pursuit of the criminals. So bold were the Mafia men that they had no fear of killing two prosecutors in 1992: Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. The Mafiosi did not fear the Church either. In 1993, after Pope St. John Paul II had visited Agrigento, Sicily, and made comments against the Mafia, bombs exploded at St. John Lateran and St. George in Rome.
Father was not one to organize rallies and protests against the Church’s enemies; instead he continued his work with the ranks of their prospects. Eventually, the Mafia realized just how big a threat he was and became more serious about stopping him.
They threatened him several times — a fact that Father kept to himself, not telling friends or Church authorities. He ignored the threats and continued his mission to save the souls of the youth.
On September 15 1993, his 56th birthday, Fr. Puglisi went to the front door of the rectory. Did he hesitate to say a quick prayer before leaving? He stepped outside into the fall air and turned to walk past the church. There a man confronted him. Father stopped and calmly said to the man, “I’ve been expecting you.” The executioner then raised his weapon and shot the man of God at point blank range, killing him.
The murder had been ordered by local Mafia bosses Filippo and Giuseppe Graviano. The hit man, Salvatore Grigoli, revealed the last words of Fr. Puglisi. Years later, on April 14, 1998, the leaders who called for Fr. Puglisi’s death were given life sentences.
When Pope St. John Paul II visited Sicily in 1994, he praised Fr. Puglisi’s courage in trying to save the youth from crime. He urged the Sicilians to continue the fight against the Mafia. He begged them to not let the priest’s death be in vain, adding that passivity and silence were the same as complicity.
In 1998 the cardinal of Palermo opened Fr. Puglisi’s cause for canonization. He was beatified on May 25, 2013 at a Mass attended by more than 50,000 persons. His feast day is on October 21.
Dear Fr. Puglisi, how well you understood the threats to so many souls as evil spread through your parish and society. Obtain for us the grace not only to recognize the evils of our time so readily ignored by so many, but also to join the battle against those seeking the ruin of souls. May we fearlessly join the fight as we look forward to our eternal reward! Amen.
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(Carole Breslin home-schooled her four daughters and served as treasurer of the Michigan Catholic Home Educators for eight years. For over ten years, she was national coordinator for the Marian Catechists, founded by Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)
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