One of the most sickening things about the mob, and this was brought out in the widely scorned Godfather 3 movie that I loved totally, is the weakness of parish priests to the bribes in the form of big donations from the wiseguys. Then they are all buddy buddy, and the parish thinks they are great padrones.
I personally witnessed a funeral for a lethal mobster that was blocks long, cars and cars of flowers and mourners; whereas a few months later, one of the most distinguished and generous straight up patrons and great Italian-Americans—who had paid for a city park, helped hundreds of families, subsidized several city insitutions out of proceeds of his legitimate businesses like his father before him—had a funeral in the same parish attended by a couple of dozen people, and only one flower car. It made me sick.
“I personally witnessed a funeral for a lethal mobster that was blocks long, cars and cars of flowers and mourners———”
Sounds like Ray Patriaca’s funeral in R.I.——massive.
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I understand your point. I agree; it’s sickening. It’s the same thing for sports “heroes” and celebrities compared to combat veterans and just plain decent and upstanding citizens - parents who do a good job raising their kids, people with “unimportant” jobs, people who volunteer to do the non-glorious heavy lifting needed to help others. But I don’t think God counts the number of cars in our funeral processions.