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Both England’s Tablet and the United States’ Commonweal incited debate last week with their accounts of an exclusive interview Archbishop Georg Gänswein granted the German television network ZDF. While the Tablet took more editorial liberties than Commonweal, Commonweal signaled tacit approval of the Tablet’s editorial stance.The bottom line: Gänswein’s interview indicates the Prefect of the Papal Household has come “unbound,” that he doesn’t much care for his new boss; and so, it is time for him to go, according to the Tablet. Perhaps, he should pack his bags and vacate Rome.The first round of comments came from the Tablet’s...

A year into the new Rule of Francis, the Pope has met almost every key Western leader, with one particularly glaring exception. That'll change first thing Thursday morning, as President Obama returns to the Apostolic Palace for his first meeting with Papa Bergoglio and second overall with a Pope after his July 2009 visit to Benedict XVI. Given its late afternoon scheduling to accommodate Obama's schedule – and the now-retired Pope's desire to meet with him – that earlier visit upended standard Vatican protocol, which invariably sees heads of state and government received from mid-morning until noon. This time, with...

Mafia killings don’t typically shock Italians—as disturbing as the occasional hit may be, the tragedy usually affects only friends and families of the victims. But a cold-blooded point-blank killing this month in southern Italy has a nation grieving—for a 3-year-old child. Nicola “Coco” Campolongo was shot in the head along with his grandfather, Giuseppe Iannicelli, and his grandfather’s 27-year-old companion—victims of an apparent mob hit over money. […] The killing even caught the attention of Pope Francis, who called Coco’s death “unprecedented.” He asked worshipers at his Sunday address to say a prayer for Coco and called on the boy’s...

Pope Francis (CNS) Pope Francis’s life is in danger from ‘ndrangheta, Italy’s most feared crime group, a leading anti-mafia judge has said.Nicola Gratteri, a magistrate in the southern city of Reggio Calabria, near ‘ndrangheta’s heartland, has said that Pope Francis’s crackdown on financial corruption in the Vatican, has angered bosses in the notorious crime squad.Gratteri said: “I don’t know if organised crime is in the position to do something, but it’s certainly thinking about it. It could be dangerous.”He said Francis was “on the right path” in attempting to clean out the stables at the Vatican.But Mr Gratteri, who has...

ROME (RNS) Pope Francis could be at risk from the ‘Ndrangheta organized crime organization, according to a leading anti-mob prosecutor who has himself been the target of threats from the mafia. Nicola Gratteri, 55, a state prosecutor in the southern Italian region of Calabria, where the ‘Ndrangheta is most active, said the pope’s effort to reform the church is making the ‘Ndrangheta “very nervous.” The organization is considered by experts in Italy to be the most dangerous, most unified and most difficult to penetrate mafia-type organization in the country. “I cannot say if the organization is in a position to...

The toughest guy in Sicily is a gay man. Nine months ago Rosario Crocetta was elected as Sicily's governor on an anti-Mafia platform, and his fearless campaign against the degenerate mobsters has so impressed an otherwise conservative electorate that his sexuality has become an irrelevancy as reported by Anthony Faiola for The Washington Post: "'Having Crocetta in Sicily is like having an openly gay man elected governor in Alabama,' said Ivan Scalfarotto, a member of the national parliament and a Milan-based gay rights advocate. 'But the most telling point is that his sexuality became a small detail for voters. This...

According to the European Union’s law enforcement agency handling criminal intelligence, Italy’s mafia has infiltrated the nebulous “Green Energy” industry, not only for traditional money laundering purposes, but also to capitalize on lucrative EU subsidies. On Thursday, Europol published a report suggesting that the mafia is making investments into the renewable energy industry, with a special focus on wind farms due to generous grants paid for by European Union member states. For an industry that is no stranger to scandals...

Matteo Messina Denaro, the so-called "boss of bosses" from Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia, has been a wanted man since 1993, and his days on the run may be drawing to a close as authorities seize the wealth -- $3.8 billion since 2009 -- that props him up as reported by Tom Kington for the Los Angeles Times: "investigators will not say whether they believe an arrest is imminent, but police have ramped up seizures of businesses they believe are fronting for Messina Denaro," and are hoping that he "could yet be betrayed by otherwise loyal entrepreneurs exasperated by...

Two senior members of the Canadian mafia have been murdered in Sicily and their bodies incinerated, victims of what police suspect is a vicious turf war in Canada which has spilled over into the Cosa Nostra's Italian heartland. After an anonymous tip-off, the bodies of Juan Ramon Paz Fernandez and Fernando Pimentel were discovered near a rubbish dump in the countryside outside Palermo on Thursday. Police described the double killing as an "old-fashioned" gangland hit. Spanish-born Fernandez, 57, a notoriously tough enforcer for Montreal's Rizzuto clan, was expelled from Canada last year for the third time after serving a 10-year...

A suspected hitman from the Camorra or Neapolitan Mafia has been arrested after police obtained a security video which seemingly shows him gunning down a rival mobster last December in a cheese factory as reported by ANSA: "the 20-second security-camera footage allegedly shows Gianluca Troise pursuing a member of a rival Naples mafia clan, Luigi Felaco, bringing him down with a shot, racing after him after he gets up, and finishing him off with four shots to the head." [Video] A turf war for control over drug markets in Naples, Italy between the rival Scissionisti and Di Lauro clans has...

Italian authorities have seized a record $1.7 billion in assets from a Sicilian green energy entrepreneur with alleged ties to the Mafia.

Italian anti-Mafia prosecutor Vincenzo Macri says that the 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia "certainly" is behind the 1989 killing of Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Colin Winchester as reported by Richard Guilliatt for The Australian: "he said he believed the Winchester murder was carried out by the same organisation that murdered Griffith anti-drug campaigner Donald Mackay in 1977 and federal police officer Geoffrey Bowen in 1994." In recent years Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia has been eclipsed by the Calabrian Mafia as Italy's most powerful crime group due to its obscene profits from the cocaine trade in Europe. The Calabrian...

Willie Sutton, a notorious theif from the 1930's, was once asked why he robbed banks. "Because that's where the money is," he replied. So where's the money today? Government subsidies for renewable energy - massive subsidies with little oversight. In Europe, this means easy pickings for organized crime. And the Sicilian mafia is cleaning up. Washington Post: The still-emerging links of the mafia to the once-booming wind and solar sector here are raising fresh questions about the use of government subsidies to fuel a shift toward cleaner energies, with critics claiming huge state incentives created excessive profits for companies and...

People around the world have embraced the local food movement as a way to support local economies, eat healthier and reduce their carbon footprint. Residents of Naples, Italy, however, are doing just the opposite. Napolitanos like Antonio Trotta read grocery store labels to avoid eating local fruit and vegetables, meat, even the region’s famed buffalo mozzarella produced in eastern Campania, outside Naples. The area north of Naples* was once an important agricultural center. But the local mafia, the Camorra, has been dumping waste from European factories and hospitals on the land for decades—an environmental problem compounded nightly when dozens of...

It's not your grandpa's Mafia anymore. The Charbonneau Commission is conducting hearings to confront allegations that wise guys and dirty politicians are in bed together in the award of public works contracts in Montreal, QB Canada, and yesterday veteran detective Mike Amato from neigboring Ontario testified about the reach of the Italian Mafia in his province as reported by CBC News: "the veteran officer says the modern-day Mafioso is dressed in business suits, works 9-to-5 hours and holds jobs ranging from banker, to accountant to bus driver," and "Mafia-controlled legitimate businesses in his region include everything from garden centres to...

ROME, - An Italian journalist and author known for exposing the Naples mafia was honored by having an asteroid named after him, officials said. Roberto Saviano had asteroid No. 278447 named after him Friday, Italy's ANSA news agency reported. Saviano was given the honor by the International Astronomical Union for exposing "the Camorra's organized-crime activities in his 2006 best-seller 'Gomorrah.'" Saviano received death threats for his novel and was placed under round-the-clock police protection after its publication. "Gomorrah" was later turned into a film and won second prize at Cannes and five European Film Awards in 2008. "Thank you Dr....

Struggling banks in the EU and beyond are becoming more willing to launder dirty cash for organized crime. Italy's anti-mafia prosecutor Pietro Grasso drew attention to one of the lesser known aspects of the crisis at a hearing in the European Parliament's new anti-mafia committee on Tuesday (19 June). He told press: "The current economic crisis is making criminal groups even more powerful because they've got liquid cash, they've got ready money ... and not just in Europe, but in other countries where there are fragile economies and they can influence politicians." His line was echoed by Jean-François Gayraud, the...

The EU special envoy for Somalia is looking into a fresh report that pirates are in business with Italian gangsters on toxic waste. The Paris-based criminologist, Michel Koutouzis, who carries out investigations for the UN and for EU institutions, described the problem in a new book—Crime, Trafficking and Networks—published in May. He said organized crime groups in south Italy—the Camorra, 'Ndranghetta and La Sacra Corona Unita—supply Somalian warlords with black market small arms from the Western Balkans in return for permission to dump waste. "Tonnes of waste are discharged every year off the coasts of Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea under...

Over the week Italy remembered those courageous souls who gave their lives in challenging the Mafia. Placido Rizzotto, a union leader killed sixty years ago by Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia, received a state funeral yesterday after his remains recently were discovered in a cave as reported by Alan Johnston for BBC News: "Italian President Giorgio Napolitano was in attendance to see him being buried in the place where he made his stand - in Corleone." And on Wednesday, in marking the 20th anniversary of the assassination of anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, Prime Minister Mario Monti urged the country's...

Village of Corleone lives