In an annual ceremony held to remember hundreds of victims of the Italian mafia, Pope Francis made a plea to mobsters to change their ways or that they would “end up in hell.” This is the first time in 19 years, since the event is being held, that a pope attended the event against mafia. At the end of the ceremony in Rome, where relatives of those murdered read out the names of about 900 innocent victims of the mafia, the pope confirmed the mafia “has no pity even for a child.”
According to investigators local mafia heads often establish close ties with local priests to establish that their authority is recognized even by the church.
According to a United Nations estimate, the main crime groups in Italy – Sicily’s Cosa Nostra, Calabria’s ‘Ndrangheta, and the Camorra from Naples, have a joint annual turnover exceeding $159.89 billion. The mafia controls most provinces like Sicily, Calabria, Campania, Apulia, and now have become increasingly powerful in places like Milan and Rome.
A recently published report mentions threats against local government officials by the mafia has increased by 66 percent since 2010, at least forty one local administrators have been murdered over the past century for not cooperating with the mafia.
Even in 1993, Pope John Paul asked the Mafiosi to “repent, because one day you will face the judgment of God.” However, records show the mafia continues to ignore afterlife consequences, and since 1991, at least 243 city governments have been dissolved following infiltration and assumption of control by the mafia.
This time, Pope Francis took a stronger stand and said to the mafia, “You have power and money now from much dirty business and many mafia crimes – it is blood money and blood power, and you can’t take it with you to the afterlife … Men and women of the mafia, please change your lives. Convert. Stop doing evil … There’s still time to stay out of hell.”