Convert or go to Hell, Pope tells mobsters

Pope Francis last week launched an attack on the Italian Mafia, saying that mobsters adore evil and are excommunicated.

Speaking on Saturday at the end of a day trip to Calabria in southern Italy, home to the ’Ndrangheta, a Mafia-type ­criminal organisation, Francis said that mobsters had contempt for the common good and must be stopped. “This evil must be fought, must be expelled. It must be told no,” he said.

He urged the Church to expend itself and commit to turning ­people away from organised crime.

“Those who in their lives have taken this evil road, this road of evil, such as the mobsters, they are not in communion with God, they are excommunicated,” he added, in one of the strongest condemnations of Mafiosi since St John Paul II spoke out against the Sicilian Mafia in 1993.

In March, Pope Francis said that mobsters must convert or go to hell, during an emotional address to victims of gang violence at a vigil in Rome. During the 12-hour pastoral visit, he also addressed inmates and staff at the district prison of Castrovillari and met priests from the Diocese of Cassano all’Ionio. Speaking to inmates and staff of Castrovillari, Pope Francis said the journey towards reintegration into society demands an encounter with God who loves us, knows us, and forgives our sins.

While those in prison must always be treated according to their fundamental human dignity, the Pope said, efforts must also be made by the institution to ­facilitate reintegration. Otherwise the prison sentence becomes merely an instrument of punishment and retaliation.