Pope Francis decries Italian Mafia ‘adoration of evil’
Pope Francis blasts organized crime during a mass in southern Italy, saying that people who choose an “evil road” including mobsters are “not in communion with God.”
Pope Francis claims that Mafiiosi and the like are "adorers of evil".
Pope Francis blasted organized crime during a mass late Saturday in southern Italy, saying that people who choose an “evil road” including mobsters are “not in communion with God.”
“They are excommunicated,” he said at an outdoor mass in Sibari, in Italy’s Calabria region.
“Your land, which is so beautiful, knows the signs of the consequences of this sin. The ‘Ndrangheta (as the Calabrian mafia is known) is this: adoration of evil and contempt of the common good. This evil must be fought, must be expelled. It must be told no.”
The Ndrangheta is considered one of the most powerful organized crime syndicates in the world, with connections reaching to Northern Europe, South America and the United States.
Francis delivered a homily for the feast of the Corpus Christi.
“When adoration of the Lord is substituted by adoration of money, the road to sin opens to personal interest,” he said. “... When one does not adore the Lord, one becomes an adorer of evil, like those who live by dishonesty and violence.”
