CarloRizzo- Yeah it's a cultural thing more so for the younger generation and though I know lots of Catholics very few I would describe as choirboys so I don't doubt that most criminals full stop let alone mob guys are not exactly going to be upstanding pillars of the Catholic faith.

Funny you should mention the Sopranos cos religion played a big part in the plot and with the priest staying over with Carmela okay Tony was not much into religion but anybody but a priest spends the night with Carmela they gonna get their ass kicked.

In all the mob flicks it's always there. The priest in 'On The Waterfront' was based on a real life priest fighting corruption on the west side docks and then of course the James Cagney and Pat O'Brien playing the priest in the flick 'Angels With Dirty Faces' where he squeals going to the chair in order to save the deadbeat kids.

In practically every mob flick or TV show there is always a scene in the Church at the wake and the priest is always there. In the Irish mob flicks they always seem to be guzzling the altar wine or drowning someone in a pool of Bushmills in the fountain (or Dennis Leary do anyway) and it is always there in the background.

Yeah it is an aspect thats always there and the point I was drivin at is that the older you get the more you are likely to take check of your life and wonder about the things you did and how they gonna impact on your fate. Most of us most likely do even if we ain't no stone cold gangster so carrying this burden must weigh heavily before any criminal as they come to meets their end.

How much sympathy I wonder is there for guys who repent not to save their ass but to save their soul?