Planned Mass in Italy for reputed Montreal mobster is scrapped after outcry

MONTREAL — Rocco Sollecito, a reputed Mafia leader in Montreal who was murdered last May, was denied a public commemoration Mass in Italy on Tuesday due to his infamy.

An archbishop and a local police chief forced the cancellation of the mass in Grumo Appula, a small town of Sollecito’s roots, part of the larger metropolitan area of the city of Bari, in southern Italy.

Sollecito, 67, was assassinated while driving his car in Laval, just north of Montreal. He was a childhood friend and later a close associate of Vito Rizzuto, the reputed leader of a large crime syndicate in Montreal who died in 2013 shortly after his release from prison.

A priest in the small town posted notices inviting parishioners to mass Dec. 27 at 6:30 p.m. But the police chief ordered the mass held at dawn instead to avoid drawing a big crowd.

Bari-Bitonto Archbishop Francesco Cacucci also opposed the evening public mass as a “great scandal.” He called it inappropriate for someone who didn’t live a Christian life.

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In the end, no mass at all was celebrated.

Italian media reported the church was closed Tuesday evening and had a significant police presence.

A retired Montreal police investigator familiar with the Mafia told The Canadian Press Sollecito was Vito Rizzuto’s “right-hand man” and was blamed by some in the Rizzuto clan for not doing enough to protect the family when Vito was in prison.

Sollecito reportedly had been making money on his own and had fallen out with the Rizzutos.

— With files from The Associated Press

The Canadian Press

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