Former mob man Rocco Morelli is in town, but he's not here as an enforcer.

The 48-year-old is visiting the Maritimes as a pastor and founder of the Rocco Morelli Ministries International. He has teamed up with Bridges of Canada founder Monty Lewis of Fredericton to reach into the lives and hearts of prison inmates.

He addressed the sold-out Bridges of Canada Partnership Banquet last week, spoke at services at the Smythe Street Cathedral and Sunset churches Sunday and addressed an overcomers Meeting at the Victory Centre, on Brunswick Street on Monday.

"Morelli and his wife Christine are an unbeatable Christian team trying to set a good example for the men and women who are in the criminal justice system," Lewis said. "You can make good of your life, even if you had a rough start.

"Morelli is proof it can be done, but Christ is the power behind it all."

Morelli grew up as a fourth generation mobster in Pennsylvania.

"The Mafia curse was passed down to me from my great-grandfather and I was doomed from birth to be an heir of the mob," he said.

©Richard Duplain

He wrote about his time in the Italian mob family in his book Forgetta 'Bout It. The book's message is there is a God and hope for everyone, including society's castoffs in prisons and jails.

"I had money, musical talent and a Christian family, and in the end it was the Christian aspect that delivered me from my former life as a gangster," Morelli said.

Bridges of Canada and Rocco Morelli Ministries are associated with the Coalition of Prison Evangelists.

"There is only one gospel and it should be heard by everyone, including those in our prisons and jails," Morelli said. "It freed me from my life of crime."

Morelli said he enjoyed his life of crime - pushing cocaine and collecting debts in an organization labelled by the FBI as the Pizza Connection. He spent 12 years in the mob until he "saw the light" at age 27.

"I was raised by church-going parents, went to Christian schools and enjoyed the undying love and support of my mother, who continues to pray for me daily," he said.

Morelli's transformation happened at a gospel meeting in a hotel in the late 1980s. A Mafia boss asked him to murder his crime partner, who was also a police snitch.

"This was going to put me in good stead with the crime family and I would have become a lieutenant, or under-boss, and my life would have been set from then on," he said.

"We attended this gospel meeting and just before the hit, I answered an altar call. The hit didn't happen."

Morelli and his partner were subsequently arrested in a police sting based on his partner's information. He served 15 months of a two-year jail sentence.

"I became a model prisoner and worked on my conversion from crime to Christianity," he said.

In 1995, Morelli became a licensed evangelist and earned a university degree.

"I saw the craziness around me, the broken dreams, the dashed hope and I decided I have to help prisoners and inmates break free of the chains of lawlessness and sin," he said.

For more information, visit www.roccomorelli.org

By Richard Duplain - The Daily Gleaner