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Pope Francis used the e-word against the mob for the first time this weekend.
The Holy Father was celebrating mass on Saturday in Calabria, a mob-heavy region in southern Italy, when he deviated from his prepared remarks and announced that the mafia are excommunicated.
“Those who go down the evil path, as the Mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated,” he said.
The thousands who had gathered underneath the hot sun cheered.
Calabria is home to the ‘Ndrangheta, a global drug trafficking syndicate.
Reports suggest that the group turns over $72 billion per year in the cocaine trade and uses that wealth to entice young people in the region—where the unemployment rate is 50% or higher—to work for it.
Last week Pope Francis also reaffirmed his position against recreational drug use and the drug trade.
Francis has condemned corporate financial sins throughout his papacy, particularly for their socio-economic consequences.
His pronouncement on Saturday yet again shows how seriously he takes those consequences.
“When adoration of the Lord is substituted by adoration of money, the road to sin opens to personal interest…Your land, which so beautiful, knows the signs of the consequences of this sin,” Francis explained.
“The ‘ndrangheta is this: adoration of evil and contempt of the common good. This evil must be fought, must be expelled. It must be told no.” Continue reading.
Source: Time
Image: VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images
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