With the anointment of the new Pope announced just got me to thinking how much a role religion has played on the mob guys and how things have changed over the years.

We know the Catholic religion played a deep role in shaping the morality of guys like O'Banion and Bugs Moran who looked down on pimps and hated em with a passion. They was really looking down their nose at the likes of Torrio. "I really rubbed that pimps nose in the mud" he said after one altercation with Torrio.

Rose O'Keefe who done the book 'The One That Got AWay' about the Bugs Moran life story also said she heard that Bugs Moran went to a priest in the clink to confess his sins to the father before he died.

John Francis is also said to have confessed his crimes in a bid for absolution before he died and Sheeran didn't think he was a rat for doing so. Sheeran, an old man looking back on his life also obviously had regrets and maybe he felt the need to unburden himself before he passed through to the other side who knows? He indicates that was somethin to do with it.

How important was religion to the older generation of mob guys? How important is it today? When Lou Ferrante converted he says in the book that a coupla old wiseguys says "2,000 years of superiority down the drain' but the thing with that Lou fella he even looks Jewish. lots of Jews and Italians look alike and they worked better together than most ethnic groups at one time you could argue.

Also how would someone be viewed for confessing their sins before the end, like Corleone in the Godfather 3? I spose if it's a priest it's one thing but to the law it's another.

Oh and how would it go down a made guy announcing "Hey skip, I'm changing my religion". Would anyone give a shit? I'm thinking joining the muslim brotherhood wouldn't go down so well but how about the Jews? That wouldn't be so bad, right? Would that much be acceptable in these rainbow days of love, unity and togetherness?