By Ines A. Murzaku, The Catholic Thing - His visit made history: John Paul II became the first pope to ever to use the word mafia. Since that speech, the ambiguous relation between La Cosa Nostra and the Church was clarified (something not always clear in Southern Italy): the mafia and the Church were on opposite fronts. And those who fight and expose the mafia, including clergy and lay heroes like Judge Rosario Livatino, are the Church’s allies, fighting in the same trenches for justice ...