Free Republic

Thirty years ago Wednesday, shots rang out in front of Sparks Steak House in Midtown, leaving then-Gambino crime boss Paul Castellano dead in the gutter, and signaling the rise to power of John Gotti who would soon become the most famous gangster in America. It was also a development, according to mob experts, that ultimately speeded up the demise of the five mob families in New York City. "It was one of the most singular acts that altered the existence of the New York Mafia," said Phil Scala the retired head of the FBI squad that investigated the Gambino family....

The Mafia is a degenerate organization which exploits human misery for criminal profit, and even children are not beyond the reach of its dirty hands. For decades the Mafia has been the principal producer and distributor of kiddie porn, and among the key figures in this racket was Gambino capo Robert DiBernardo who was a top lieutenant to family boss Paul Castellano. The pair would meet each Friday at Castellano's Staten Island mansion to gloat how filthy rich they were getting from their ungodly crimes. In 1986 federal postal inspectors discovered cartons of magazines seemingly depicting underage boys "engaged in...

When duty called and the world was watching the pirate hostage situation unfold, Cmdr. Francis X. Castellano performed his job with honor and distinction. As the commander of the destroyer USS Bainbridge, Castellano was on the front line of the rescue operation that freed Capt. Richard Phillips from the grips of the Somali pirates, who had boarded his merchant ship Maersk-Alabama, and taken him hostage four days earlier. The rescue on Easter Sunday, April 12, involved Navy snipers who killed three of the pirates holding Capt. Phillips on a covered lifeboat after they left the recovered Maersk-Alabama. “We all worked...

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 21, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Jesus was a liturgist -- in the sense that he made his whole life a liturgy, says a theologian-consultor to the Vatican. Discalced Carmelite Father Jesús Castellano recently published a book, "Liturgy and Spiritual Life: Theology, Celebration, Experience," through the Library of Barcelona's Center of Liturgical Pastoral Care. Father Castellano is a professor at the Teresianum Faculty of Rome and consultor in the Vatican congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith; for Clergy; and for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. He shared some ideas about the liturgy in this interview...

There has been only one libel trial of note in the borough of Brooklyn in the past two millennia. The reason is that it is impossible to libel people in Brooklyn. ..... The libel trial was over a shooting on Second Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets in Manhattan. I think the bartender lived in Brooklyn, which is how the case got there. ........... The morgue people arrived. The space was so narrow and the dead guy so big and fat that they had to tilt the body like a couch to get it out the front door.