The Mafia Vs. Pope John Paul Ii

A Florence prosecutor says he suspects the Mafia bombed two churches in Rome to get back at Pope John Paul II.

The pope denounced the Mafia during a visit to Sicily two months before the July 27, 1993, bombings, which damaged St. John Lateran Basilica and San Giorgio in Velabro church.

The basilica is the pope’s church as bishop of Rome.

In remarks carried on state television Saturday, prosecutor Pierluigi Vigna indicated he backs the longstanding theory that the Mafia wanted to strike back at the Roman Catholic Church.

Vigna has been investigating the bombings as part of his probe of a car bombing in Florence in late May 1993, two months before the Rome bombings. Five people were killed in that attack, which badly damaged the Uffizi museum.