Wednesday 13 November 2013
By Nick Squires, Rome

Pope Francis is at risk of mafia retribution as a result of his determination to clean up corruption and cronyism within the Catholic Church, one of Italy’s best known anti-mob prosecutors said.

Nicola Gratteri, who has lived under police protection for nearly 25 years, said the Jesuit Pope’s campaign to tackle graft was upsetting powerful crime organisations in Italy, which have in the past enjoyed a cosy relationship with the Catholic hierarchy.

“Those who have up until now profited from the power and wealth deriving from the Church are now nervous, agitated. The Pope is dismantling centres of economic power in the Vatican,” said Mr Gratteri, 55, who has spent his career fighting the ‘Ndrangheta mafia of Calabria in the far south of Italy.

"I don't know if organised crime is in a position to do something, but certainly they are thinking about it. It could be dangerous. If the godfathers can trip him up, they would not hesitate to do so,” he told Il Fatto Quotidiano, an Italian daily.

The Church had often turned a blind eye to the activities of mafia groups like the ‘Ndrangheta said Mr Gratteri, who earlier this year was appointed by Enrico Letta, the prime minister, to a national task force which was ordered to come up with new ways of combating organised crime.

“For years the mafia has laundered money and made investments, taking advantage of the connivance of the Church,” he said.

He gave a few examples, including “a bishop of Reggio Calabria who refused to criticise a mafia godfather even after he was definitely convicted by the Supreme Court” and the daughter of a known mafia boss who was allowed to marry inside the city’s cathedral.

“She even got a papal blessing,” he said. “And there are the priests who go to the homes of mafia leaders to drink coffee, giving them strength and legitimisation ... even as they continue to kill and to import cocaine.”

For all their brutality and disdain for the law, the vast majority of mafiosi regard themselves as Catholics.

“We did a survey of prisoners in jail and 88 per cent of mafia guys said they were religious. “A gunman from the ‘Ndrangheta will pray before killing someone.”

Allegations of collusion between organised crime and elements within the Catholic hierarchy extend back to the early 1980s when Roberto Calvi, who was nicknamed “God’s banker” for his links to the Vatican, was found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.

One of the prevailing theories about his death in 1982 was that Calvi, who was the chairman of an Italian bank, was murdered by Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia, as punishment for losing money entrusted to him by mobsters.

On Tuesday, police in Rome placed under state control a hotel on suspicion that it was owned and run by the ‘Ndrangheta.

The four-star Grand Hotel Gianicolo was formerly a monastery that was bought from the Church in the 1990s with allegedly dirty money.

On Monday the Pope gave a fiery sermon against corruption, quoting a passage from the Bible in which Jesus said sinners deserve to be tied to a rock and thrown into the sea.

In May, during an address in St Peter’s Square in Rome, he strongly criticised Italy’s four mafia organisations for “exploiting and enslaving people”, calling on gangsters to repent.

“I think of all the pain of men, women and even children who are exploited by many mafias,” Pope Francis told thousands of people during his weekly address.

“They are forced to do work that makes them slaves, like prostitution. Behind all this slavery there are mafias.”

He was speaking a day after the beatification of Don Giuseppe Puglisi, a Catholic priest who was murdered by Cosa Nostra in 1993.

↓http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religio ... mafia.html

how quickly would a worldwide hammer come down on italian LCN if there was an attempt, and it was successful, on the pope's life?

I think it could go either way:

1. The people realize the Italian Mafia groups are just as strong as they have ever been and become more afraid, OR
2. The Italian people stand up and go after the Mafia Organizations like Los Pepes did to Pablo Escobar (That would be some crazy shit to think about, 99% unlikely though)

Didn't I see this in Godfather III?

I was gonna post the same thing, Ivy!!

I think it's much ado about nothing.

I wouldn't put anything past those criminal parasites. They'll go after anything or anyone that threatens their thiefdom. Real shame what those assholes have done to that country...just slowly bleeding it dry.

It's said that the best anti-clerical studied by the priest.
I tell the truth I'm a Catholic, but not practicing. If the Pope Francis really wanted to scare the criminal organizations that would be enough to issue an excommunication "against all those who are part of the 5 mafias: the Camorra, Ndrangheta , Mafia, Sacra Corona Unita and Stidda "you'll say How do the priests on the streets,not the ones that stink of sacristy, to know who the criminals are and don't let them to go in the churches ? simple, the mafias seeking popular support,in the cities are know who are the criminals . This gesture suffices to erode the grip of the mafias in the territories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excommunication

So much for Pax Mafiosa! hehe

Seriously though, I doubt the pope has to worry. The reaction to the Falcone murder was bad enough, imagine if they did it to (arguably) the most powerful religious leader on the planet?

Out of curiosity, is excommunication really even that big of a deal now? I mean, the pope could excommunicate me and it would literally have zero impact on my life. Then again, I'm not an Italian Catholic, so...

I agree, that woud be like dropping a bomb

'Frankie says relax': Pope cool under Mafia threat.' Read this on Twitter and it made me smile.
But I totally agree with Furio. Why has no pope done that before: too much interference in worldly affairs? Too much meddling with Italian politics?

slumpy I don't know you, but I can say that the excommunication in your life would have no effect, as it would haven't on mine, but it is a symbolic gesture, the mafias try to legitimize on the territory, and to prove to be Christians as the Ndrangheta, which has the its annual summit on the anniversary of the Madonna of Polsi, it would suffice that the priest forbid to the ndranghetantisti to enter the church, would be a clear and plateale gesture that the Church has distanced itself from the mafias.

The hypocrisy here is pretty thick. The Catholic Church and the Italian state have no moral high ground from which to condemn anyone.

iceman I agree with you on the Italian State, but as for the Catholic Church,the proverb says dead a Pope,make it another one, and another Pope may very well change course to the Church, perhaps this Pope who comes on the other side of the world can really change the Church, are almost optimistic about this, hopefully good, I am still of the opinion that the excommunication of the mafias members will be a sensational gesture, but maybe it's still too early for that.

Just came back from Rome and went to a Papal audience. This Pope is the real deal. I'm not a believer in conspiracy theory but this stuff is scary.

what exactly scares you, Lara?

Pope cold calls Italian nun on her cell phone
Sister Teresa sent Francis postcard from Mafia-ridden town
18 November, 20:02
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(ANSA) - Naples, November 18 - Pope Francis on Monday caused a huge commotion among school kids in the poverty- and Mafia-ridden town of Casal di Principe when he called a nun who was teaching class there on her cell phone.

Sister Teresa, from the order of the Daughters of Saint Anne, teaches school in the run-down, crime-infested town lying in the midst of the so-called Land of Fires, where the Mafia custom of burning piles of illegally dumped toxic waste at night has caused the cancer rate to spike.

She was among 150,000 people who sent the pontiff a postcard with a photo of the kids who have died of cancer in this area, and Francis responded by calling her on her cell phone, while she was in the middle of class.

Sister Teresa immediately got on the phone to Father Maurizio Patriciello, who is the pastor of Saint Paul the Apostle parish in the town of Caivano, near Naples, and who personally prepared the 150,000 postcards.

''We now expect him here. I hope he will heed our call for help, as I also hope for a phone call from him'', said Father Maurizio.

''Sister Teresa said the kids in her class got incredibly excited as soon as she mentioned the Holy Father was on the other end". Francis has called a number of people out of the blue since becoming pope in March.

he should address this issue.


Naples rally against mafia's toxic waste dumping

The demonstrators demanded an immediate clean-up of the contaminated land, as Tim Allman reports.
Continue reading the main story
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Italy army clears Naples rubbish
Tens of thousands of people have protested in Italy's southern city of Naples against illegal dumping of toxic waste blamed on the local mafia.

Demonstrators carried photos of relatives who they said had died of cancer as a result of the pollution.

Locals call the area between Naples and Caserta the "Triangle of Death" because of toxic fumes after waste burning.

Some 10 million tonnes of industrial waste has reportedly been dumped in the region over the past 20 years.


Environmental group Legambiente, which organised Saturday's protest, said nearly 440 businesses in central and northern Italy had been taking part in the illegal activity.

"It is essential that in addition to waste we find also the truth about who is responsible," Legambiente's director Rossella Muroni was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

The demonstrators also demanded an immediate clean-up of the contaminated land.

As more and more illegal dumps are found, the Italian government says it is starting an extensive project of cleaning the contaminated area.

The local mafia, the Camorra, is suspected of securing lucrative contracts to dispose of waste and then dumping much of it illegally.

Two decades ago doctors noticed that incidences of cancer in towns around Naples were on the rise.

Since then, the number of tumours found in women has risen by 40%, and those in men by 47%.

Weren't they in some sort of deal with the Nigerians or some African country where they gave them weapons in return for dumping toxic waste in Africa?

IMO, with this day and age, if it were to ever happen i'd be almost willing to bet they(italian lcn) would be labeled some sort of terrorist organization and then squashed like bugs.

Then you have groups like anonymous out there that could catch wind of this and make their lives a living hell. IDK, i don't think it would be as hard as it was in the 60's/70's/80's.

one little girl in pakistan took a bullet in the face and captured the world. imagine if this was the pope? or heck...even the nun in the village who brought the pope in?

no offense to anyone but the catholic church seems more sadistic than the mafia

i have no clue why nobody tries to cleanse the church of pedophiles

For the same reason you can't clean up government, the level of corruption is systemic.

That they might off thePope!

Well, there you have it: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...pe-Francis.html
Good for him

I think it was "Foul Play"!

Although the Catholic Church in itself is a continuing criminal enterprise btw.

Sounds like the same system the unions in Jersey use.

Vatican considers ban on Godfathers to curb Mafia

By Associated Press

July 3, 2014 | 2:15pm

VATICAN CITY — A southern Italian archbishop has proposed a 10-year moratorium on the naming of godfathers in a bid to stem the way mob bosses use the “padrino” system to spread their influence and authority to the next generation.

Monsignor Giuseppe Fiorini Morosini, archbishop of Reggio Calabria, spoke with Pope Francis about the proposal last weekend while he was in Rome.

In a statement Monday, he said the pontiff asked the bishops of Calabria to discuss the idea and send him a written proposal.

Godparents are named when a baby is baptized and they promise to help raise the child in the Catholic faith.

Fiorini Morosini has argued that, in Calabria at least, godparents are less theological role models than “points of reference” and mob friends.

Calabria is home to the ‘ndrangheta organized crime syndicate, considered the most powerful mob in Italy.

As in “The Godfather” films, which depicted the influence of “padrini” in the Sicilian Mafia, ties of blood, marriage and godparents help weave the tight, clannish bonds that keep the ‘ndrangheta almost impenetrable to outsiders.

Fiorini Morosini said he wrote Francis a proposal asking to abolish the naming of godparents for 10 years “to prevent the exploitation of the church and her sacraments by the ‘ndrangheta.”

Initially Francis rejected the proposal, but he appeared to have rethought the matter after visiting Calabria last month and seeing the reality of the land, the archbishop said.

During Francis’ June 21 visit, he issued his strongest denunciation yet of organized crime, excommunicating all mobsters for their “adoration of evil.”

It wasn’t his first outburst: During a March meeting with victims of the Mafia in Rome, Francis warned mobsters they risk going to hell if they don’t repent.

http://nypost.com/2014/07/03/vatican-considers-ban-on-godfathers-to-curb-mafia-influence/

I doubt the Vatican will do anything.

Or the mafias in Italy and the USA don't care what the pope and Vatican say or claim.