Lifestyle must change in Mobland -bishop

(ANSA) - Vatican City, June 24 - 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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