Father Puglisi, Italian priest murdered by Mafia, remembered by Pope Francis

Father Puglisi, Italian priest murdered by Mafia, remembered by Pope Francis, Pope Francis greeted his followers today, May 26, for his Sunday Angelus remembering Father Giuseppe Puglisi, the Italian priest and martyr who was beatified on Saturday. As he spoke in Italian of the priest killed by the Mafia in Sicily in 1993, Pope Francis asked God to convert their criminal hearts and those they exploit.

I thinks about the sorrows of men and women, even children, who are exploited by the many mafias, who make them do a job that makes them slaves, like prostitution, with so many social pressures. He then prayed that the Lord would convert the hearts of these people.

Pope Francis was speaking of Father Giuseppe ‘Pino’ Puglisi, who is now one step closer to sainthood. He was murdered on his 56th birthday after publicly challenging the Mafia in the rough neighborhood they controlled of Brancaccio in Palermo, Sicily. He is most notably remembered for his youth ministry and his life story has been retold in the book, “Don Puglisi” and in the film, “In the Sunlight.”

In 1994, Pope John Paul II pleaded with Sicilians not to let Father Puglisi’s death be in vein, calling the Italian martyr “a courageous exponent of the Gospel.” The Cardinal of Palermo at the time began the beatification process in 1999. Pope Benedict XVI designated Father Giuseppe a martyr on June 28, 2012, the first step to beatification and then signed a decree stating that Puglisi had been killed “in hatred of the faith,” the final step before canonization without a miracle being accredited.

Father Giuseppe Puglisi’s favorite rhetorical question, “And what if somebody did something?” is memorialized on the walls of the city where the Mafia murdered the Italian priest, martyr and soon to be saint.

Sources: Vatican News and Wikipedia

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Father Puglisi, Italian priest murdered by Mafia, remembered by Pope Francis 2013-05-26T23:54:00-07:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: My Videos Tube