Posted on 06/24/2014 1:13:36 PM PDT by mojito
Pope Francis has declared a sort of holy war on the Mafia. And it's not unreasonable to believe that the Mafia may fight back.
On Saturday, the pope traveled to Calabria, the heartland of one of Italy's biggest organized crime enterprises, the 'Ndrangheta, and, in front of a crowd of more than 100,000, blasted the 'Ndrangheta as example of "the adoration of evil and contempt of the common good." Then he dropped the hammer:
Those who in their lives follow this path of evil, as mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated. [Pope Francis]
This is a big deal. Southern Italy's mobsters are a pietistic bunch — an overwhelming majority are active Catholics, and religious celebration is an important part of their public image and local legitimacy.
"During the making of a recent documentary for Italian television, I visited many of the fortified bunkers that 'Ndrangheta bosses have built in case they need to go to ground," Mafia researcher John Dickie told CNN last November. "Not one was without its crucifixes, its statuettes of saints, its paintings of the Virgin Mary.... Religion offers the Mafias a way to bind their organizations together, and gives them the feeling that they are extorting and killing in the name of a cause more noble than their own greed."
When Dickie was writing that, a prominent anti-Mafia prosecutor, Nicola Gratteri, had just told an Italian newspaper that the 'Ndrangheta was "getting very nervous" about the pope's push for financial transparency at the Vatican Bank, and "will seriously consider" taking him out. That was for potentially damaging changes to Mafia money laundering operations — it was business. Excommunication — barring the mobsters from membership and participation in the church — is personal.
(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i96VS_z8y7g
Sometimes Mafia justice is a little more...........
pragmatic?
As Bugsy Siegel said “we only kill each other....”
Mob, at least American faction, has rule against killing
cops, judges, civilians as doing so generates lot of heat
on the mob
Yes, given an excuse they would. They hate Christ.
Now, if he could/would do the same for Pelosi and her ilk.
It would be a possibility. Neither priests nor, if I recall correctly, bishops have been off-limits to them. But whereas with those other two categories, it can remain a local or country-wide outrage, they’d have to deal with a worldwide outrage.
The pope didn’t actually name names, did he?
My sense of it is that most mafia have legitimate businesses serving as fronts.
More importantly, would the robot mafia put a hit out on the Space Pope?
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