ABUSE VICTIM Remember SCOTTISH named to SCIAF’s Lenten LABOUR decries Pontifical efforts this football bill, Commission. LAETARE SUNDAY. would scrap it. Page 7 Page 8 Page 3 No 5562 VISIT YOUR NATIONAL CATHOLIC NEWSPAPER ONLINE AT WWW.SCONEWS.CO.UK Friday March 28 2014 | £1 There is still time not to end up in hell, says Pontiff I Pope Francis urges mafia in Italy to repent. ‘Weep a little and convert,’ Holy Father said at prayer vigil By Ian Dunn back of the car, were physically unharmed. Every year since 1996, the Italian anti-mafia group POPE Francis has demanded that the ‘men Libera has observed March 21, the first full day of and women of the mafia’ denounce their spring, in memory of innocent victims of organised ‘evil, blood-stained’ lives of crime. crime. According to the group, the approximately Surrounded by the families of innocent people 700 people gathered with Pope Francis in a Rome killed by the mafia, the Holy Father made an emo- church this year represented the families of an esti- tional appeal to Italian gangsters to give up their lives mated 15,000 such victims across Italy. of crime and avoid eternal damnation. “Men and women of the Mafia, please change Scottish reaction your lives, convert, stop doing evil,” the Pope said at Ronnie Convery, director of communications at a prayer vigil last Friday in a church near the Vatican. Glasgow Archdiocese and secretary of the Italian “I ask on my knees and for your own good. This life Scotland charity, said it was difficult for non Italians you have now, it will not give you pleasure, it will to understand the scale of the problem. not give you joy, it will not give you happiness. The “Organised criminality is a massive blight on the power, the money you have now from so many dirty lives of ordinary people in southern Italy and Sicily, deals, from so many Mafia crimes, blood-stained the reality is not glamorous, it is an ugly culture of money, blood-stained power—you will not be able to fear, exploitation, threat and violence,” he said. “The take that with you to the other life. Church has had a major role in giving people the “There is still time not to end up in hell, which confidence to speak out against that culture.” awaits you if you continue on this road. You had a He went on to note that this latest intervention by papa and a mamma. Think of them, weep a little and Pope Francis was ‘very widely reported and mas- convert.” sively acclaimed.’ “Largely due to the simplicity and chilling words Anti-mafia efforts of his message: ‘If you go on like this you will go to The prayer vigil was the first time a Pontiff has taken hell,’” he said. “The problem will only be solved part in events tied to a day of commemoration held through a change of culture, the Church can play its annually by the anti-mafia organisation, Libera. Dur- part in that, but the Italian state also knows that it ing the event, the names of 842 victims were read needs to strengthen its presence and control in the aloud. In his address, the Pope made special refer- institutions in the south of Italy and Sicily.” ence to an attack on Monday in the southern Italian province around the city of Taranto, in which three Assassins of hope people—two adults and a toddler—were shot dead in At the vigil, the Pope listened as members of the an apparent mafia hit. congregation stepped up to the lectern and recited, in The victims, a convicted murderer on day release some cases with breaking voices, the names of peo- from prison, his partner and her young son, were ple killed by the Mafia. killed in southern Italy last week after the car they Fr Luigi Ciotti, founder of Libera thanked the were travelling in was forced off the road by gunmen Pope for coming to the vigil, saying: “We thought in a second car, who then fired more than 15 bullets we had found a father, we have also found a through the windscreen. brother.” In his greeting Fr Ciotti denounced the Investigators said the child had been riding on the Mafia as the ‘assassin of hope’ and recalled a range lap of his mother, Carla Maria Fornari, who was sit- of its victims, including Domenico Gabriele, an 11- ting beside Cosimo Orlando, 43, who had spent 13 year-old fatally shot while playing soccer in 2009, PIC: PAUL McSHERRY years behind bars for the murder of two drug traf- and Nicola Campolongo, a 3-year-old murdered in fickers in the Taranto region. Ms Foranari’s other two January, reportedly to avenge an unpaid drug debt. The Solemnity of St Joseph was a special day of celebration in Paisley children, aged 6 and 7, who were travelling in the Organised crime controls almost all economic and Diocese with the Ordination to the Episcopate of Fr John Keenan (above) criminal activity in Calabria, Sicily and parts of FLOCKING as the fifth Bishop of Paisley. The celebration took place at St Mirin’s Campania andApulia, and it has expanded in Rome Cathedral, with the congregation spilling over into a number of external and Milan. Italy’s main crime groups—Sicily’s Cosa halls, including the Lagoon Centre, all linked by live broadcast. Bishop Nostra, Calabria’s Ndrangheta, and the Camorra Keenan is seen here giving his first blessing as bishop to the congrega- from around the southern city of Naples— have a TO NEW tion in the cathedral before visiting the other halls to continue the joint annual turnover of £97billion, according to a process. The new bishop is flanked by Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of United Nations estimate. Glasgow (left), who ordained him as a bishop, and Archbishop Leo SHEPHERD Cushley of St Andrews and Edinburgh, who was a co consecrator along I [email protected] with Bishop Emeritus John Mone of Paisley. Full report, pages 4-5 SCO, 19 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6BT I tel 0141 221 4956 I fax 0141 221 4546 I e-mail [email protected] 2 WHAT’S ON SCOTTISH CATHOLIC OBSERVER FRIDAY MARCH 28 2014 Giving thanks to Sr Cecilia for 15 years of service to SPRED BISHOP Stephen Robson celebrated a PIC: PAUL McSHERRY What’s On Mass of thanksgiving at Sacred Heart of Jesus, Lauriston, Edinburgh, for Sr Cecilia Dowd, who has retired as director A weekly guide to upcoming Church events, of the SPRED spiritual programme in the more online at www.sconews.co.uk Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edin- burgh after 15 years of service. THURSDAY APRIL 3 Sr Dowd has been at the helm of the I West End Deanery Lenten organisation—which exists to nurture and station mass. Lenten Station nourish faith in those with learning disabil- Mass, celebrated by Archbishop ity—since it was established in 1998. Tartaglia at 7pm in St Under Sr Dowd’s leadership, SPRED has Columba’s, Hopehill Road, thrived across the Archdiocese. The organ- Glasgow. All welcome. isation’s first base was within the Gillis I Stories of Home and Home- Centre but as the members grew it became land—a SCIAF Lentfest evident that a dedicated SPRED Centre was Event. 7pm St Michael’s needed and it opened at 26 George Street, SUNDAY MARCH 30 Church, 1350 Gallowgate, Edinburgh, some years later. I Knights of St Columba Glasgow G31 4DJ. Please join Emma Robertson, the new director of annual business meeting. The us for an inspiring, moving SPRED, is looking forward to the task Beardmore Hotel, Clydebank. and uplifting evening of ahead as Sr Cecilia says her goodbyes. The March 29-30. The Supreme poetry, prose and music on the retired director is pictured (right) with Board of the Order meet will theme of ‘home and homeland.’ Archbishop Leo Cushley, Sr Marie Raw meet with the Grand Knights We will be sharing stories and (Sister Provincial) and Daughters of Char- from each of the Provinces, showing videos about the ity of St Vincent De Paul. which cover all of mainland people we work with in United Kingdom and the Colombia. You can also share Channel Islands. Plans will be your own poem, story or song Archbishop Leo made for the year ahead and reflecting on the theme on the Cushley was the there will be spirited discus- Open Mic stage. RSVP (and to principal celebrant sions on members’ activities book an Open Mic slot) email: as Holy Spirit and charitable efforts. [email protected] or call Parish, Stirling, I Foodbank collection. 0141 354 5509. commemorated its Collection for Maryhill Food- I Evangelisation Lent 50th anniversary. bank, St Aloysius Garnethill Lecture. 7.30pm-9pm (tea The archbishop after all Sunday Masses on from 7pm), Newmains was assisted by Fr March 29 and 30. Pastoral Centre, 50 Bonkle Joe Millar and the I Anniversary Mass for the Road, Newmains, Wishaw. Mass was Election of Pope Francis Lecture from Fr Damian followed by a finger buffet (above). Concelebrated by the Cassidy, vocation director for supplied and Bishops of Scotland and the The British Province of enjoyed by St Apostolic Nuncio. St Andrew’s Carmelites and currently Ninian’s Old Parish Cathedral, Clyde Street, 3pm. chaplain to Craig Lodge Com- Church Hall. munity in Dalmally. ‘Spirit- TUESDAY APRIL 1 Attendees gave filled evangelisers: Pope thanks to Rev Gary I Permanent Diaconate Francis and the new McIntyre and the Enquiry Night. Do you feel evangelisation.’ Entry free of faith community called to the permanent charge; donations welcome for hosting the diaconate? Are you interested reception in finding out more about the FRIDAY APRIL 4 PIC: PAUL permanent diaconate? Come I Monthly Holy Hour for PICTURE OF THE WEEK McSHERRY along to an Enquiry Night Mums.