Sicilian Catholic diocese bans godparents. Yes, it's partly due to Mafia godfathers.


Earlier this month, the Roman Catholic dioceses of Catania, in Sicily, put a three-year pause on godparents, Jason Horowitz reports at The New York Times. "Church officials argue that the once-essential figure in a child's Catholic education has lost all spiritual significance," and that god-parenting has "fallen to earth as a secular custom between relatives or neighbors — many deficient in faith or living in sin, and was now a mere method of strengthening family ties. And sometimes mob ties, too."
"It's an experiment," Msgr. Salvatore Genchi, the vicar general of Catania, told the Times. He estimated that 99 percent of the diocese's godparents were not spiritually fit for the role. Fr. Angelo Alfio Mangano at Cataina's Saint Maria in Ognina church said he hopes the pause on godparents will also halt threats "against the parish priest" from questionable characters trying to pressure the priest into naming them godfather.
Catania isn't the first diocese to experiment with doing away with godparents. The next-door diocese of Acireale has made godparents optional, for example, and in Reggio Calabria — home to the 'Ndrangheta mob — Archbishop Giuseppe Fiorini Morosini petitioned Pope Francis in 2014 for a 10-year pause on godfathers, the Times reports. That effort was stopped by Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, "now on trial in the Vatican on money laundering charges," who insisted all of Calabria's bishops had to agree to the move.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Italian prosecutors have tracked baptisms to map out how underworld bosses spread influence, and mob widows in court have saved their most poisonous spite for 'the real Judases' who betray the baptismal bond," Horowitz writes. "But church officials warn that secularization more than anything led them to rub out the godparents, a Sicilian thing that's been going on for 2,000 years, or at least since the church's dicey first days, when sponsors known to bishops vouched for converts to prevent pagan infiltration." Read more, including from the former Sicilian president who insists there are no Mafia godfathers, at The New York Times.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Scientists want to fight malaria by poisoning mosquitoes with human blood
Under the radar Drugging the bugs
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Crossword: March 31, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
Sudoku medium: March 31, 2025
The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
By The Week Staff Published
-
Pope returns to Vatican after long hospital stay
Speed Read Pope Francis entered the hospital on Feb. 14 and battled double pneumonia
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Texas megachurch founder charged with sex crimes
Speed Read Robert Morris, former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, is accused of sexually abusing a child
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Pope Francis suffers setback with respiratory episodes
Speed Read The 88-year-old pope continues to battle pneumonia
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US Christianity's long decline has halted, Pew finds
Speed Read 62% of Americans call themselves Christian, a population that has been 'relatively stable' for the past five years
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Pope Francis hospitalized with 'complex' illness
Speed Read The Vatican says their leader has a respiratory infection, raising new concerns about his health
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The Aga Khan, billionaire spiritual leader, dies at 88
Speed Read Prince Karim Al-Hussaini's philanthropy funded hospitals, housing and schools in some of the world's poorest places
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Biden awards Pope Francis highest US civilian honor
Speed Read President Joe Biden awarded Pope Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Pope seeks inquiry on if Gaza assault is 'genocide'
Speed Read In a book for the Jubilee 2025, Pope Francis considers whether Israel's war in Gaza meets the legal definition of 'genocide'
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published