Piero Marrazzo

Corrupt to the Very Roots?

From yesterday’s newspaper:

Another carabiniere is being questioned in the Marrazzo blackmail case. His name is Donato D’Autilia, 42 years old, and in 2006 he was arrested in connection with a pedophilia investigation. He is suspected – together with about thirty others, among them  businessmen, priests, and military – of having forced numnerous Roma children into sexual encounters.

As we expected, the crime ring is widening. Just scratch the surface in this country and criminal behavior comes oozing out of the wound.

This thread began here.

Ora et Labora

Piero Marrazzo is on vacation, and he’s looking for a monastery in which to “find himself.” Only, after the recent scandal that forced him out of politics, he’s having a hard time finding a monastery that will take him. A few notes on monastic life, from Corriere della Sera:

Life in a monastery observes very strict rules and a rigid schedule: you get up at 5 a.m., spend the whole day in prayer, recited my the monks seven times a day. Prayer, but also work, according to the Rule of St. Benedict, Ora et labora. “Laziness,” says the saint, “is the enemy of the soul.”

Penitence? That sounds like torture to me.

Prostitutes. Cocaine. Blackmail. Italy, as Usual.

Life, like a friggin box of chocolates.

Italy is like one of those Whitman’s Sampler boxes of chocolates my mother used to buy at the Safeway. Only, instead of chocolate confections, here we have political scandals. As the world chortles at the Berlusconi affair, the (now ex-) president of the Lazio Region – where Rome is gently nestled- Piero Marrazzo, has stepped down. The details are succulent and confusing: corrupt Carabinieri involved in a cocaine ring, transsexual prostitutes, blackmail, payoffs and secret films. Sex, lies and iPhone video.

Of course, Marrazzo denied everything at first. This is a kneejerk reaction and I can understand it. But, of course, he soon realized he’d better start asking for forgiveness before he lost everything. A choice quote:

“I asked [my wife’s] forgiveness, I screwed up, maybe she understood. I’m a Catholic and I can now say I’ve sinned, but a very important monsignor said: ‘One may enter the Church even through sin.'”

So here we are, in Italy, where eveything circles back to sin and absolution. Just invoke your religious belief with a tiny tear in your left eye and cite some obscure church dogma. Nothing works like preying on people’s superstition. What does it matter that he deceived not only his wife and children, but his electorate as well? Presto!

Now repeat after me: You are absolved, the cocaine was really sugar, and the prostitute was really an angel in disguise.

Hey, it really works!