A southern Italian priest who is
outspoken against the Mafia said gunshots fired at his car were likely
meant to show him and the public that members of organized crime are
still in charge of the area.
"I think it was just a serious warning," Father Giuseppe Campisano, the
pastor of St. Rocco Parish in Gioiosa Ionica, told Vatican Radio Aug.
31.
The shots were fired late Aug. 29, "not in the middle of the night, but
at a time when there were still a lot of people around, so I think they
wanted to be heard."
News reports said three or four shots were fired at the car, which was
parked outside the rectory. Father Campisano was not in the car at the
time.
For years, the priest has received threatening phone calls and letters
mailed with bullets in the envelope because of his commitment to
fighting the 'Ndrangheta, the organized crime ring of Italy's Calabria
region.
Father Campisano told Vatican Radio he thinks the shots were "tied to
the feast of St. Rocco, most likely because of the position both I and
the bishop took in trying straighten out the celebration a bit and give
it a religious sense because it's always been marked by the most
absolute paganism."
This year the feast was celebrated with events Aug.
16-28.
The celebration, he said, is "linked to a form of power and control
precisely because of the river of money" it brings in with an enormous
fair and dozens of stalls selling all sorts of food and trinkets.
Members of the 'Ndrangheta "systematically go to all the stalls for
extortion," the priest said.
During the city's celebration of the feast this year, he said, the
church sponsored four evenings of presentations and reflections on the
importance of the rule of law.
He said the town is made up of a large "gray zone," where people put up
with organized crime and the criminal mentality, and a small "black
zone," where the real criminals live and operate openly.
Some parishioners, he said, "are beginning to understand the Gospel
message and, sharing it, they are close to me and work with me. I count
on a 'small remnant,' to use biblical language."