The deliberate connection to religion on the part of Mafiosi is also evident in the fact that many vendettas and murders are planned to coincide with religious feasts or to be carried out at sacred sites and places (cemeteries, sanctuaries, and the like). As mentioned in the first chapter, a famous vendetta slaying occurred on St. Valentine’s Day in 1929. Seven members of the George “Bugs” Moran gang were assassinated in a North Clark Street garage of Chicago as part of an internecine gang war for control of the lucrative illicit liquor trade. Police suspected the Al Capone gang of carrying out the execution, but they were never able to prove it. Interestingly, the primary target, Moran, was not among the dead for the simple reason that he had slept in. The fact that it took place on St. Valentine’s Day speaks volumes about how the Mafia does such things. It may be coincidental in this case, but it is nonetheless emblematic of how Mafia operations unfold—symbolically and brutally at once.
What does the Church think about all this? The position of the Church on the Mafia has been vague in the past. Being the center of social activities in rural areas, a tacit acceptance of clan members was a practical reality. They belonged to the community and were practicing Catholics, even though everyone knew who they were. In many cases, the Mafiosi were held in high respect by both the community and clerics. A convenient eye was closed. In the last few years, all this has changed, in part because the Church is no longer the center of social life, and in larger part because of the changes in Church philosophy, for instance, ecumenism. In many regions, parishes have joined the anti-Mafia movement that sporadically surfaces in southern Italy. This development traces its origins to 1993, when the late Pope John Paul II turned to Mafiosi while visiting Agrigento in Sicily and implored them publicly to abandon their criminal ways. It is no coincidence that the Pope was not Italian and, thus, did not fully grasp the nuances of the Mafia–Church connection. In 2009, the Church proclaimed that there was no need to excommunicate alleged members of the Mafia, the ’Ndrangheta, and the Camorra because their criminal activities in themselves put them automatically outside the Church. But the Church is ultimately powerless in excluding the Mafiosi from attendance and devotion, no matter how immoral they may be judged to be, because of its theology of forgiveness and all-inclusiveness.
Together with threats and intimidating gestures made toward individual priests by Mafiosi, the Church is, and has always been, powerless in doing something about the Mafia. All a Mafioso has to do to make sure that a knowing priest will keep his silence is to confess the relevant act to him in a confessional. The seal of confession is binding on the priest who hears the confession not to divulge criminal acts. There is also the constant intimation of conspiracy that surrounds the uneasy relation between the Mafia and the Church, as The Godfather, Part III insinuates. In the movie, we can see snippets of this suggestion when, for example, Michael Corleone makes a deal with the Vatican’s finance minister, whom he is paying for a loss of funds, in exchange for a controlling share in a European mega company.
Some would claim that, because of historical links to the Church, the Mafia is little more than a branch of the Church, but this is incorrect. The Mafia borrows from Church symbolism and creed, but it distorts them to its own requirement of self-justification, in the same way that it distorts the code of chivalry. As Dickie aptly puts it,
Like Mafia honor, Mafia religion helps Mafiosi justify their actions—to themselves, to each other, and to their families. Mafiosi often like to think that they are killing in the name of something higher than money and power, and the two names they usually come up with are “honor” and “God.” Indeed, the religion professed by Mafiosi and their families is like so much else in the moral universe of mafia honor, in that it is difficult to tell where genuine—if misguided—belief ends, and cynical deceit begins. Understanding how the Mafia thinks means understanding that the rules of honor mesh with calculated deceit and heartless savagery in the mind of every member.[14]
It came as little surprise to Mafia historians and critics when Italian police found a list of “Ten Commandments” in the hideout of a Mafia boss in 2007. The comparison of these to the Ten Commandments of the Bible was clearly deliberate. They are commandments for the made man:
No one can present himself directly to another of our friends. A third person must do it.
Never look at the wives of friends.
Never be seen with cops.
Do not go to pubs and common clubs.
Always being available for Cosa Nostra is a duty, even if your wife is about to give birth.
Appointments must be absolutely respected.
Wives must be treated with respect.
When asked for information, the answer must always be the truth.
Money cannot be appropriated, unless it belongs to others or to other families.
Anyone who has a close relative in the police, anyone who has a two-timing relative in his family, anyone who behaves badly and immorally, cannot be a member of Cosa Nostra.
The Mafia clearly sees the modern world to be “unnatural” and “immoral.” By adopting commandments, the made man can see himself to be above the herd mentality of others and express his superiority freely over them by the use of violence. This justifies their activities by putting them on the side of “the right.”
The first commandment is consistent with an ancient chivalric rule of conduct. A man of honor cannot be so brutish as to introduce himself to another man of honor. This must be done through a third member who knows both and will thus introduce one to the other. In this way, the honor of both is guaranteed. As part of the introduction protocol, the presenter utters the following: “Lui è come noi oppure lui è la stessa cosa” (“He is like us or is the same thing”).[15] This ritual is intended to confirm and strengthen omertà. The individual has no worth without espousing this code. After the first encounter, Mafiosi of the same clan often greet one another with a kiss. It is a sign of recognition and brotherhood.
The third and fourth commandments impel Mafiosi to set themselves apart from outsiders. The third requires no comment—simply put, being seen with cops is a capital sin. The Mafia has its own vigilante means to carry out a vendetta against anyone who has perpetrated some injustice against its members or their families. As the fourth commandment implies, not being seen at social club venues and pubs implies that the Mafioso must stand apart from the riffraff who socialize in indiscriminate ways. The only friends that the Mafioso is allowed to have are other Mafiosi—other men of honor. The second and ninth commandments define relations among the members, paralleling the content of two biblical commandments related to adultery (“Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife”) and stealing (“Thou shalt not steal”). The difference is, of course, that the real commandments refer to adultery and stealing in general, while these refer to adultery and stealing within the clan. The seventh commandment informs the Mafioso always to treat his wife with respect. The fifth, sixth, and eighth commandments inform a Mafioso how to act and behave with regards to his superiors. A Mafioso must always be on alert and prepared to act on a moment’s notice for the Mob.
The tenth commandment incapsulates the essence of what omertà is about. A Mafioso must behave morally, never using foul language or obscene gestures in public. He is a “knight in shining armor.” Silence is golden.[16] He also cannot have a “two-timing” relative, implying guilt by bloodline association. Violation of any of these commandments is punished accordingly. For minor offenses, a common form of reprisal is the sfregio sulla guancia (cheek cut), which permanently marks the offender as a transgressor. For serious offenses, like going to the police, it is death.[17]
Oftentimes, the vendetta is announced in some symbolic way. In the movie I cento passi (2000), directed by Marco Tullio Giordana, sending a tie to a transgressor is a sign of disloyalty, indicating a hangman’s noose. It has the following message: “If you do not shape up, you will find yourself hanging from one of these.” Needless to say, the command
ments never refer to homicide or death directly, since these would raise awareness as to what the Mafia is fundamentally all about—terror, power, and murder.
The Yakuza have developed a strikingly similar set of six principles by which members are expected to live and abide. They are as follows:
Never reveal the secrets of the organization.
Never violate the wife or children of another member.
No personal involvement with narcotics is allowed.
Do not withhold money from the gang.
Do not fail in obedience to superiors.
Do not appeal to the police or the law.
Another principle adopted by the Yakuza is that a member must never use foreign words. Yakuza slang is fanatically chauvinistic and tribal. Even the youngest Yakuza recruits are expected to avoid using trendy American words. It would dishonor the Yakuza code to import into the clan foreign rubbish that relates to the impure secular world of global culture.
The Triads of China have a similar set of oaths, which an initiate is required to recite. There are thirty-six in total. These are inscribed on sheets of paper in the lodge where the initiation ritual takes place. In one of these, the new member swears loyalty to his fellow members and declares that he will never deceive or be disloyal to them. In another, he promises to help the families of other members if asked to do so and always be courteous and friendly toward them. In another oath, he pledges never to betray the secrets of the organization to outsiders. Once a member, there is no turning back, as the oath stipulates: “If I should change my mind and deny my membership of the Triad I will be killed by myriads of swords.” One oath in particular encapsulates what outlook on life the new member is supposed to adopt: “I shall be loyal and faithful and shall endeavor to overthrow Ch’ing and restore Ming by coordinating my efforts with those of my sworn brethren. Our common goal is to avenge our Five Ancestors.” The Ch’ing and Ming were dynasties in China, and this allusion to the past is intended to connect the Triads to Chinese history.
Criminal societies have created for themselves covert cultures complete with rituals and symbolism. The initiation rites of these groups require the prospective member to undergo a symbolic death and rebirth—“dying” from his previous life to be “reborn” into a new life. By taking oaths, the member knows full well that disobedience will mean reprisal and even death. As in a religious cult, the initiate is expected to follow the commandments until his dying day. He must always obey the leader’s orders; ask permission on all important matters; never lie to another member; and, above all else, take an oath of silence.
Initiation and Passage Rites
Perhaps the most crucial of all rituals in criminal organizations are those that bring a new member into the fold. These mark his entry into a new life, helping him understand and accept his new role. A preinitiation trial period is often required. To be eligible for initiation into the Mafia, the prospective member might have to participate in a killing, known as “making bones.” The candidate will then wait to be asked to attend a special meeting of the clan that he has decided to join. Clan members sit around a table. After answering the clan’s questions, the process of being “made” in the mold of a Mafia knight begins for the candidate. Significantly, the ritual involves holding the burning image of a saint and reciting an oath of secrecy and obedience. The clan leader will then take a knife and cut the candidate’s trigger finger. The blood from the finger symbolizes both his own death and that of those that he will eventually have to kill. Death in the case of the candidate is both metaphorical (leaving behind his previous life to be reborn into the new one) and literal (since if he breaches trust he will end up dead). The burning part of the ritual is also symbolic of metaphorical death.
It was Joseph Valachi’s testimony before a Senate subcommittee (chapter 1) that uncovered this aspect of Mafia culture. Later, another informant, Tommaso Buscetta, gave more explicit testimony to the Italian authorities. Both emphasized the critical importance of the initiation ritual, since, as Paul Lunde notes, it binds the initiate to the clan for life:
Initiation consisted of a blood oath and an oath of obedience. The aspiring member had to be presented for initiation by at least three “men of honor” from the family. Blood was drawn from the initiate’s finger and sprinkled on the picture of a saint, which was set on fire and passed from hand to hand while the initiate swore to keep the code of Cosa Nostra, which he was bound to for life. His cosca was his new family, and he could not switch allegiance.[18]
Most initiation rites involve three stages. First, a participant is temporarily separated from the rest of society and his former roles within it. During the transitional stage of the ceremony, the participant is expected to pledge allegiance to a set of principles and beliefs that he is expected to adopt and enact in his life. After this, he is formally admitted into the clan. Participants in most rites don or utilize special symbols to emphasize their temporary separation from society and represent the changes they are expected to undergo. Incantations and oaths are also often used to bring about emotional responses.
The ’Ndrangheta, for example, uses an invocation ceremony, alongside the use of hand gestures that resemble those in prayer. These are meant to impart to the new recruit a sense of spiritual rebirth in the transition from his previous life to his new one. Called a “baptism,” the ceremony involves assigning the epithet of picciotto to the neophyte, who invokes Santa Liberata and the Archangel Gabriel. The recruit pledges his undivided loyalty to his new family, sealing it with a prayer. The ceremony is called taglio della coda (“cutting the tail”) because the picciotto is viewed as entering the clan as an animal with a tail, an appendage that only serves to stir up dust as he walks. After the cutting of the tail, he will no longer make dirt, since he will from then onward walk on a tappeto di erbe e fiori (“a carpet of grasses and flowers”).[19] This liberates him symbolically from his previous state of ignorance, introducing him into one of furbizia (“wise-guy-ness”). The former state was devoid of sangue e onore (“blood and honor”), which is precisely what the participant is supposed to seek in his transition from his previous life to the new one.
The choice of Santa Liberata is hardly arbitrary. She is a widely venerated saint who is often depicted with two children in her arms and considered to be the patron saint and protector of children. She is the protector of the new child, the picciotto, who has been born again into the new church of the Onorata Società. The born-again feeling that this imparts is immeasurable, since it is not rational, but emotional. As George Bernard Shaw once put it, “The great danger of conversion in all ages has been that when the religion of the high mind is offered to the lower mind, the lower mind, feeling its fascination without understanding it, and being incapable of rising to it, drags it down to its level by degrading it.”[20] Invoking the Archangel Gabriel as a witness to the rebirth is also emotionally strategic, since in the New Testament it is he who announces to Mary that she is to be the mother of Jesus (Luke 1:26–1:31). Significantly, the Annunciation is also summoned during a subsequent passage rite to the higher echelon of camorrista in the clan hierarchy. The picciotto’s index finger—the trigger finger—is pricked so that a few drops of blood will fall on an image of Mary. A candle is lit to burn the image so that it can be destroyed by fire, as the picciotto’s protector and supporter during the previous apprenticeship period speaks the following words, warning him that if he does not keep the code of honor he will be similarly destroyed:
Come il fuoco brucia questa immagine sacra così brucerete voi se vi macchierete di infamità. Se prima vi conoscevo come un picciotto da ora in poi vi conosco come un camorrista. (“As the fire burns this holy image so too will you be burned if you become sullied with infamy. If before I knew you as a picciotto from now on I will know you as a camorrista.”)
Fire represents purification and the attainment of wisdom. It makes the picciotto worthy of being called an ’Ndranghetista. It also implies taking risks, for the init
iate is expected, symbolically and literally, to show his courage and allegiance by putting up with fire burning in his hand. He cannot show any signs of suffering, which would show him to be unmanly and thus unworthy of belonging. Blood has always been a symbol of rebirth in Mafia rites. It also represents sacrifice, being part of a consecrated offering made to the other clan members to establish and perpetuate a sacred bond between them.
During the passage rite to the role of sgarrista in the ’Ndrangheta, an image of the head of Saint Michael the Archangel is shredded as it is being burned. Then, a cross is carved out on the participant’s right thumb with a knife. This symbolizes the fact that Michael was the leader of the angels (Daniel 10:13, 10:21, 12:1) and guardian angel of Israel. He is also considered to be the immediate lawgiver to Moses on Mount Sinai (Acts 7:38). The sgarrista is expected to be a leader of other clan members. Moreover, like Michael, who slew a dragon (Revelation 12:7–12:9), he is expected to become a fearless warrior. The leader of the clan consecrates the member to the new role by uttering an oath that makes reference to three knights who cut off Michael’s head:
A nome dei tre cavalieri Minofrio, Mismizzu e Misgarro che hanno tagliato la testa a San Michele Arcangelo, perché è stato molto severo nella sua spartizione, e il suo corpo è stato sepolto sotto due pugnali incrociati e la sua testa è stata bruciata. Con la sua cenere di battezzo e ti consacro sgarrista. (“In the name of the three knights Minofrio, Mismizzu, and Misgarro who cut off the head of Saint Michael the Archangel, because he was so severe in his partition, and his body was buried under two crossed daggers and his head burned. With his baptismal ashes I consecrate you to the order of sgarrista.”)
Made Men Page 9
