Editor’s Note: Being myself half-Sicilian by descent, I am keenly sensitive to how the Sicilian Mafia often works through family ties, though none of my relatives were ever part of it. For this reason, it is deeply concerning that when the grandfather of Cardinal Prevost emigrated into the U.S.A. he added to his surname that of his mother, Maria Alioto, and declared himself as Salvatore Giovanni Riggitano Alioto.
What was the purpose of adding her surname? Sicilians did not do that, as a custom. However, when my colleague A. J. Baalman just discovered that there was a famous Sicilian Mafioso from Milwaukee, born in 1888, just 12 years younger than the Cardinal’s grandfather with the surname Alioto, I had to pay attention.
Because if you were emigrating with the help of anyone from the Alioto family, putting that name on your entry papers would certainly declare it and ingratiate you with the Alioto family already in the USA. Grandpa Riggitano emigrated in 1904, after the hunt for Mafia had begun 6 years earlier in Sicily. And John Alioto emigrated about the same time or soon thereafter.
Indeed, Grandpa Riggitano also went by the name John, in the United States, so ostensibly both he and this mafioso shared the same name, John Alioto.
And while it may be objected that the mafioso was born at Santa Flavia, near Palermo, on the other side of the Island of Sicily, the truth is, that many persons from Palermo had relatives at Milazzo, the home town of Riggitano, not to mention that, Alioto, the surname comes from Ali, in the province of Messina. — I know of this link between Palermo and Milazzo, because my mother’s, maternal grandmother has a surname which is more frequently found at Palermo, even though she was born at Milazzo.
As for the claim that John Alioto, the Mafioso, was born at Santa Flavia, one geneologist disputes this. And indeed, as we have seen that Grandpa Riggitano lied several times about his name, it is not incredible that upon entering the United States of America, a mafioso might lie about his place of birth, date of birth or parentage.
However, having studied physical anthropology, my suspicion that the Cardinal is related by blood to the Mafioso is heightened because they both share the same cranial structure.
The relationship between these two men who shared the Alioto surname is a connection that needs to be further investigated, simply because it would explain so much about who the Cardinal is and who he represents, really.
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The Book on the Trinity, every faithful Catholic priest would love as his next present
This is Br. Bugnolo's English Translation, of Saint Bonaventure's encylopedic book of theology on the Trinity: With this book, your priest will always have something intelligent and awesomely inspiring to preach to you about
God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit!
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This fund was started by Ordo Militaris Catholicus, an international relief organization founded by Br. Bugnolo and AJ Baalman. Click the image for more information.
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Explosive!!!