ITALY

Religious leaders in Cantina, Sicily, have issued a three-year ban on naming godparents at baptisms, claiming that many families enlist local power brokers to be their children’s compari because they are more interested in securing gold necklaces and networking opportunities for their family than spiritual leadership.

Bishops and priests also shared concerns that the now mainly secular custom can embolden organized-crime figures, as Archbishop Giuseppe Fiorini Morosini reportedly argued in a letter to Pope Francis in 2014.