Judge killed by mobsters in 1990 put on path to sainthood by Roman Catholic church

A magistrate slain by mobsters in Sicily and praised by two popes has been beatified by the Roman Catholic church on Sunday in the last formal step before possible sainthood. Rosario Livatino was gunned down on a Sicilian highway outside Agrigento as he drove to work in 1990. 

Three years later, during a pilgrimage to Sicily, Pope John Paul II hailed him a "martyr of justice and, indirectly, of the Christian faith." Livatino was beatified in a ceremony in a cathedral in Agrigento. Hours later, Pope Francis at the Vatican said Livatino worked to judge "not to condemn, but to redeem." As an investigative magistrate, Livatino, 37, had been leading probes into the Mafia and corruption when he was slain. He was known for praying daily before entering court.