Pope Francis has launched a scathing attack on the Italian mafia and paid tribute to a brave priest that was murdered by the Sicilian mobsters.
Rev. Giuseppe Puglisi was a priest in Palermo who was killed in the city 20 years ago by mobsters because he preached against the Mafia in a neighbourhood where they were particularly powerful.
Puglisi was killed only months after Pope John Paul II had traveled to Sicily and asked mobsters to “convert” their hearts from their evil ways. Only two months earlier, the Cosa Nostra blew up Italy’s top anti-Mafia magistrates building with a series of bomb blasts.
The area where he worked was one of the poorest and toughest neighborhoods in the country, with the city overrun by the mob’s illicit activities.
Francis told the crowd that had gathered in St. Peter’s Square that the Mafia killed the priest because he looked to keep youths away from the mafia, as they tried to recruit them.
Francis made remarks a day after the beatification of Puglisi and called him a martyr whilst criticising the mafioso for their evil endeavours, especially their attempts to exploit people through prostitution.
Francis said, ” Educating young people according to the Gospel, he took them away from organized crime, and thus it [the Mafia] tried to defeat him by killing him.”
He then added, “I think of the great pain suffered by men, women and even children, exploited by so many mafias. Behind this exploitation and slavery are the mafias.”
The Pope then stated, “They cannot make our brothers slaves. Let us pray that these Mafiosi and Mafiose convert to God.”
Francis then launched an attack on the syndicates for “making them do work that makes them slaves, prostitution.”
What do you think of Francis’ words? Do you think he’ll be able to take on the mob?
[Image via: presidencia.gov.ar / Wikimedia Commons ]
