Posted on 11/21/2013 6:15:25 AM PST by Renfield
The anti-corruption stance of Pope Francis has riled Italy’s powerful mafia groups, according to a prosecutor who specializes in mob cases.
State prosecutor Nicola Gratteri – who works in the southern Italian region of Calabria, where the ‘Ndrangheta mafia is active – told the Italian daily Fatto Quotidiano that Francis’ statements on transparency and dismantling economic power in the Vatican are making mobsters “nervous and agitated.”
“I cannot say if the organization is in a position to do something like this, but they are dangerous and it is worth reflecting on,” Gratteri said. “If the godfathers can find a way to stop him, they will seriously consider it.”
“Those who have up until now profited from the influence and wealth drawn from the church are getting very nervous,” he added. “For many years, the mafia has laundered money and made investments with the complicity of the church. But now the pope is dismantling the poles of economic power in the Vatican, and that is dangerous.”
Church officials have had a cozy relationship with ‘Ndrangheta in the past, lending the mafia legitimacy, said Gratteri, who has himself been under police protection from the mafia since the 1980s.
He told of one bishop in Calabria’s Locri who excommunicated mafia members after they damaged fruit trees owned by the church. “But before that episode, the bosses had killed thousands of people” without the church doing anything substantive, he added...
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
Good for the Pontiff! Logic suggests that you can have suggestions and forgiveness, but not commandments and forgiveness.
The Mafia may be that last line to stand against the Muslim invasion of Italy.
“Si, si. Checcio. Si....”
Damaging fruit trees is deserving of excommunication???
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.