Religions and Mafias. The clergy and organized crime between complicity and accusation. For a National Monitoring Body («Osservatorio Nazionale sulle religioni e le mafie»)
Progetto 4.1 Abstract The concept underlying this project is to combine historical, legal and digital humanities research by accepting a series of proposals that emerged from the work of the Roundtable 13 on “Mafia and Religion” of the Stati generali della Lotta alle Mafie (Estates General of the Fight Against Mafias) support group of the Italian Ministry of Justice. Cooperation has already begun with the support group, of which one of the associated investigators is a member. The project makes use of methods and gains in historical research and brings together interdisciplinary skills. It aims to: a) create a national and enduring monitoring body on Religions and Mafias (“Osservatorio nazionale sulle religioni e le mafie”); b) provide tools and services on a subject yet to be studied from a Christian and religious perspective (such as the collection, construction and development of an open access digital library on preaching
- not only in the Christian religion - either in favour of or against criminal organisations); and c) initiate a historical-critical contextualisation of the sources collected, and pave the way for comparative analysis with others religions (Islam, Judaism). The project will avoid easy conclusions and contribute a fundamental service to the country, designed to 1) facilitate research on the topic, 2) start new research threads, 3) understand and problematize the phenomenon, and 4) stimulate a public debate through public engagement actions. Through the monitoring of daily practices on certain occasions or events, often there emerges a more variegated and complex position than the offi cial one taken by churches and faith communities (e.g. the imposition of excommunication, which, in daily life, is more complex than one may imagine, or the persistence of the practice of “bowing”). The idea is in fact to bring out in a more systematic and decipherable way, and therefore observable in the long term on the basis of quantitatively important data, the duality of the relationship between
religions and mafias, as well as to try to understand the roots, origins, and effects of certain attitudes.
The collection of the corpora of sources will be done on the basis of tried and tested methodologies, but it will be supported by cataloguing, metadata and research tools, which will render the work useful to other study groups. For this reason, the scientific impact of the project, its international dimension and its sustainability in the long term, both in scientific and technological terms (in particular regarding data collection), will be guaranteed by the involvement of a fundamental actor in the structuring of the European Research Area: the European research infrastructure for religious studies based in Palermo, RESILIENCE (REligious Studies Infrastructure: tooLs, Innovation, Experts, con Nections and Centers in Europe). UNIMORE is already a partner of RESILIENCE, with which the three unit coordinators
already collaborate.