© 2024 Blaze Media LLC. All rights reserved.
Pope Francis Excommunicates Mobsters From Catholic Church
COSENZA, ITALY - JUNE 21: Pope Francis holds his omelia as he attends a mass during the feast-day Mass of Corpus Domini on the plains of the small town of Sibari on June 21, 2014 in Sibari Cosenza, Italy. Pope Francis concluded his one-day trip to the southern Italian region of Calabria with strong words against the Calabrian mafia, calling it 'adoration of evil and contempt for the common good, mafiosi are excommunicated, not in communion with God'. Franco Origlia/Getty Images

Pope Francis Excommunicates Mobsters From Catholic Church

"Those who go down the evil path, as the Mafiosi do, are not in communion with God."

CASSANO ALL'JONIO, Italy (TheBlaze/AP) — Pope Francis journeyed Saturday to the heart of Italy's biggest crime syndicate and declared that all mobsters are automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

During his one-day pilgrimage to the southern region of Calabria — the power base of the 'ndrangheta, a global drug trafficking syndicate that enriches itself by extorting businesses and infiltrating public works contracts there — the pope made the stark announcement.

Pope Francis holds his omelia as he attends a mass during the feast-day Mass of Corpus Domini on the plains of the small town of Sibari on June 21, 2014 in Sibari Cosenza, Italy. (Image source: Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

"Those who go down the evil path, as the Mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated," he warned during his homily at an outdoor Mass.

In addition Francis denounced the 'ndrangheta for what he called its "adoration of evil and contempt for the common good."

Also during the trip the pope comforted the jailed father of Nicola Campolongo, a 3-year-old boy slain in the region's drug war several months ago.

In January the boy was shot, along with one of his grandfathers and the grandfather's girlfriend, in an attack blamed on drug turf wars in the nearby town of Cassano all'Jonio. The attackers torched the car with all three victims inside.

The boy's father and mother already were in jail at the time on drug trafficking charges. The pope had expressed his horror following the attack and promised to visit the town.

Francis embraced the man in the courtyard of a prison in the town of Castrovillari. He asked the pope to pray for the boy's mother, who was permitted to leave prison following her son's slaying and remains under house arrest. The pope also met two of the boy's grandmothers.

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said Francis told the father: "May children never again have to suffer in this way."

"The two grandmothers were weeping like fountains," Benedettini added.

Francis greeted about 200 other prisoners during his visit there.

Want to leave a tip?

We answer to you. Help keep our content free of advertisers and big tech censorship by leaving a tip today.
Want to join the conversation?
Already a subscriber?