An offer you have to refuse: A city in Sicily has banned godfathers

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “It’s an experiment,” said Monsignor Salvatore Genchi, the vicar general of Catania, as he held a copy of the ban in his office behind the city’s basilica. open image in gallery Families have been accused of using the tradition to improve their fortunes But Morosini said he kept bringing the issue up with Francis, who “showed himself very attentive” to it, and, in a meeting in May, told him, “‘Every time I see you, I remember the godfather problem.’” The Rev Angelo Alfio Mangano, of the Saint Maria in Ognina church in Catania, welcomed the ban, especially because it gave him a rest from spiritually questionable characters using “threats against the parish priest” to pressure him and others into naming them godfather. “It’s shocking,” said Jalissa Testa, 21, who celebrated her son’s baptism at the Catania basilica by dancing as her husband serenaded a crowd of women waving white napkins. “In our hearts we know, and they will know, that he has a godfather.” Marco Calderone carried his 6-month-old son, Giuseppe, past a newspaper clipping on the wall of the Saint Maria in Ognina church reading, “Baptisms and Christenings: Stop to Godfathers and Godmothers.” open image in gallery The vicar general of Catania has called the three-year ban ‘an experiment’ “For them it might be abolished,” Calderone said.