Meet the Priests Who Risk Their Lives Defying the Mafia

Father Antonio Aguanno was due to prepare for mass one Sunday last month when he discovered a donkey's head in a plastic bag at the church's entrance. The priest's appeal for peace in Vita in the north-west of Sicily after a series of violent incidents was not welcomed by the local mafia and they had responded with a stereotypical warning

Police say that the priest was previously visited by two men who attacked him for the language he had used in sermons but he has not commented further.