Mafioso sees the light

last updated 8 January 2015

Rome

Convicted Mafia boss Benedetto Marciante turned himself in to police last week after hearing a televised speech by Pope John Paul II. Marciante, who had been on the run from the law since September, after receiving a 30-year sentence for murder, said the pope’s words about the importance of family touched his heart. Just a few hours after the speech, he knocked on the gates of a Roman prison. “I’ve realized that I have made many mistakes in my life,” he told the guards. “So here I am.” Marciante is not the first Mafioso the pope has transformed. Top Cosa Nostra strongman Nino Guiffre gave himself up last June on the day the pope beatified Padre Pio, an Italian priest.