Detectives have asked the Vatican to help to decipher cryptic biblical messages published by the new Mafia Godfather in Latin.

Matteo Messina Denaro, a ruthless killer noted for his designer clothes and playboy lifestyle, is widely regarded as the new boss of Cosa Nostra after the arrest last April of Bernardo Provenzano, 73, who had been on the run for more than 40 years.

Messina Denaro, who has also been on the run for half of his life, represents the “new generation” of computer-literate Mafia bosses, running organised crime as an efficient multinational operation.

He was better known for his love of PlayStations, Porsches and glamorous women than his learning. But each year Messina Denaro places in a local newspaper a memorial notice to his father, Francesco, who died in 1998. Police noted that this time it takes the form of an amended Latin passage from the Old Testament.

The first part is a familar passage, very loosely based on Chapter III of Ecclesiastes. Investigators reading Il Giornale di Sicilia spotted that the second part, after the word “sed” (but), is not in the Old Testament at all. It means: “Only he who wants to will fly, and your flight has forever been sublime.”

Antonio Ingroia, the anti- Mafia prosecutor in Trapani, said that it was not known where Messina Denaro had learnt Latin, or why he used it to convey a message. “It might seem far fetched that a ruthless murderer should be apparently well versed in sacred texts,” he said. “But anyone who thinks today’s mafiosi are illiterate shepherds who sit in their huts making ricotta cheese is profoundly mistaken.”

Mafia bosses, many of whom profess to be good Catholics, have often used the Bible to construct coded notes, known as pizzini, that are used to communicate with underlings.

Police are re-examining Messina Denaro’s previous memorial notices for hidden clues. Denaro is wanted for at least 50 murders, the first of which was committed when he was 18. He was given a life sentence in absentia in 2002 for his role in the murders in Sicily in 1992 of the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

In memorium

“Spatium est ad nascendum et spatium est ad morendum

based on III Ecclesiastes 1-2

. . . sed solum volat qui voluit et perpetuo sublimes tuus volatus fuit”

Messina Denaro’s message

“To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die

. . . but only he who wants to will fly, and your flight has forever been sublime”