A secret daybreak wedding service and the celebration of Mass, both for mafiosi on the run, were just two of the favours allegedly performed for Cosa Nostra by 57-year-old Carmelite priest, Father Mario Frittitta, who was arrested in Palermo, Sicily, yesterday on charges of Mafia collusion. Father Frittitta (58) was one of seven people detained in a police swoop. Wearing brown robes, he held his arrest warrant with handcuffed hands as he left a police station in central Palermo. He had been ordered there for questioning when he was arrested.
The priest's parish was in the tough Kalsa neighbourhood of the Sicilian capital.
Palermo investigators first became suspicious about possible contacts between mafiosi and Father Frittitta earlier this year. They were alerted during an investigation that culminated with the June arrest of the mafia "godfather", Pietro Aglieri, wanted for his part in the 1992 car bomb assassination of anti-Mafia magistrate, Paolo Borsellino. Aglieri was head of a Mafia family known as the "Saint Mary of Jesus" clan after the Palermo neighbourhood it controlled.
Asked about his apparent contacts with Aglieri, Father Frittitta admitted that he had met the fugitive godfather but claimed that he had done so only to give him "spiritual help" and to persuade him to change his ways.
Commenting on Father Frittitta's arrest yesterday, magistrate Alfonso Sabella told reporters that the Carmelite priest had been arrested on charges of aiding and abetting a fugitive from justice. Mr Sabella added: "He helped Aglieri when he was on the run by telling us that he didn't know where Aglieri was. Yet, in fact, he had contact with Aglieri for at least six months."
Father Frittitta is alleged to have said mass for Aglieri last Christmas and Easter in a tiny, ad-hoc chapel that Aglieri had built for himself in the Bagheria, Sicily, hideout where he was arrested in June.
Father Frittitta is also alleged to have presided at the wedding of another mafioso on the run, Giovanni Garafolo. The marriage service took place in secret on December 23rd in the Church of St Teresa in Kalsa; it was held at dawn so as not arouse the curiosity of local residents.
Commenting on the arrest yesterday, Palermo police chief Antonio Manganelli seemed to suggest that Sicilian church authorities had helped with investigations. "This (arrest) shows that the church is against the Mafia and every other criminal organisation," he said.
While details of the church cooperation are not clear, it is known that $6 million (around £4 million) worth of real estate and bank holdings were confiscated during the investigation that led to Father Frittitta's arrest yesterday.
The Mafia has for long had a curious relationship with the Christian faith. Cynical godfathers such as "Toto" Riina, Leoluca Bagarella, Michele Greco and Aglieri all profess to be believers.
Riina often wears a golden crucifix, Bagarella was a regular mass goer, while both Greco and Aglieri were found with bibles and religious texts when they were finally arrested.