The entire way of life must
be changed in parts of Italy infested by the mafia, the
secretary-general of the powerful Italian bishops' conference
(CEI) said Tuesday, days after Pope Francis' visit to the
southern region of Calabria where he announced the
excommunication of all mafiosi.
"Our land has been touched by grace," said Nunzio
Galantino, bishop of Cassano allo Jonio, near where Francis
spoke out against organized crime over the weekend.
"But in order to have an impact, and to be sure that the
words of the Holy Father become more than an echo or a memory of
a beautiful day, we must internalize (his message) and make it
the cornerstone of a new lifestyle".
In Calabria, Francis accused criminal groups of the
"adoration of evil" during a Mass on the plains of the small
town of Sibari in Calabria, a region that has been racked by
violence, corruption and mafia activity.
Police have said that the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta has
become the most powerful of Italy's mafias for its virtual
stranglehold on the European cocaine trade.
Italians were particularly horrified this spring by the
murder of a three-year-old boy in an indiscriminate revenge hit
by one of its clan.
The charred remains of tiny toddler Nicola Campolongo,
nicknamed Coco, were discovered in a burned-out car in Cassano
allo Ionio.
Organizers of the papal Mass in Sibari suggested as many as
200,000 people gathered under a hot sun to hear the pope condemn
the violence around them.
"Your land, which so beautiful, knows the signs of the
consequences of this sin," said Francis during his Saturday
visit to the region.
"This evil must be fought, must be expelled".
He called on the local church to drive itself even more "so
that good can prevail".
"Our children ask this of us," he added.
Francis has previously warned the mafia that their power
and money are "dirty" and that hell awaits if they continue on
their criminal path.
"The power, the money that you have now from...mafia crimes
is blood money and you cannot take it to the next life," Francis
said in March during a memorial day for victims of crime.
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