The church never seriously opposed the mafia before World War I
Evidence
Until after the First World War there is virtually no record of church intervention or complaint against the mafia (for one exception, see Marino 1986: 235). Even under the Fascist regime, when the state became actively more sympathetic toward the church, the attitude of the clergy remained ambiguous. A few bishops in Sicily, after considerable delay, finally in 1927 gave formal support to Cesare Mori’s fierce antimafia campaign, even though a number of priests were implicated in the ensuing trials — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 129
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
Related
- The Sicilian church remained silent about the mafia until the late 1920s (similarity 0.92)
- Even the Church accommodated the mafia and avoided naming it for decades (similarity 0.81)
- Church-state conflict pushed the Catholic church into alliance with local Sicilian power networks (similarity 0.81)
Broader Connections
- Church-state conflict after 1861 pushed the church toward local mafia alliances
#corroborates(0.85) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 127