Church and mafia function as parallel associational career options in villages

Evidence

Prominent mafiosi not only are allowed to sponsor processions in honor of a variety of saints but also are regularly married in and buried by the church. For some young men it is normal to hesitate between a career in the clergy and one in the mafia, since in small villages the two institutions appear to be plausible associative options. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 130

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels Gambetta’s private protection framework — both church and mafia are alternative associative structures offering ‘protection’ of a sort; connects to the reader’s mapping of institutional substitute-for-state networks. — connects to: The church implicitly licenses mafia use of its sacred symbols
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 130