VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has launched a stinging attack on the mafia, warning gangsters that they will go to hell unless they repent and stop doing evil.
“Blood-stained money, blood-stained power, you can’t bring it with you to your next life. Repent,” he said.
He was speaking at a prayer vigil for relatives of those killed by the mafia.
The Pope has spoken out frequently about the evils of corruption and wrote a booklet on the subject in 2005 when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.
The meeting near Rome on Friday — organised by a citizens’ group called Libera — was aimed at demonstrating the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to organised crime, rejecting historic ties with mafia bosses claiming to be good Catholics.
The vigil is held every year, but this was the first time that it was attended by the Pope. The Pope told told Italy’s mobsters to relinquish their “blood-stained money” which “cannot be taken into paradise”.
About 1000 people attended prayers with The Pope at a church near the Vatican. The meeting was an attempt to draw a line under the church’s historic ties with mafia dons claiming to be God-fearing Catholics.
