Philippines and Italy

I will never claim to be a historian. I just have to make that clear. I was reading this article about PGMA's visit to the Fatima shrine and her subsequent private conversation with the Pope and I felt very uncomfortable when she mentioned that the Pope loves the Philippines a lot because we are a devout Catholic country. She also mentioned that Filipinos feel much at home in Italy since Italy is also a huge Catholic country.

And therein lies the irony. Two of the largest Catholic countries in the world just happen to be also two of the most notorious. I mean, it is no secret that the Philippines is one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Our past elections just proved that point. And Italy... I might be wrong here, but didn't the Mafia, one of the most notorious, if not the MOST notorious gangs in history originate from Italy?

It's weird. Our Filipino politicians claim to be acting in faith and they keep on praying in public and banking on their prayerful and pious images to help them win. But, they have no qualms literally killing their opponents in the political arena. Is that an action dictated by their "faith"? Now we go to the Mafia... Again, I am not much of a historian so movies will be my basis here. Even the most notorious Mafioso is usually portrayed as a church goer!

If you can't see what's wrong in this picture, then we have become more hopeless than I ever dared imagine.