A Catholic priest in southern Italy narrowly avoided being poisoned when the communion wine at a service he was giving was spiked, he said this week. Local media outlets reported that Father Felice Palamara immediately suspended the Mass and summoned police after noticing that his chalice smelled strange, with laboratory tests subsequently revealing that the wine contained bleach. Palamara claims the poisoning was no accident—rather, according to The Telegraph, it was an attempt to assassinate, or at least intimidate, him for speaking out against organized crime. The parish priest’s town of Cessaniti is a refuge for the ’Ndrangheta, a powerful crime network in the region. “I’m sure that this act of intimidation has nothing to do with my parishioners because I have been here for 10 years and I have always had good relations with the people of the parish,” Palamara told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. On social media, he added that he wasn’t daunted. “My revenge is called love, my shield forgiveness, my armor mercy,” he wrote, The Guardian reported. “I will not dwell on obstacles, nor will I be frightened by the darkness.”