Pope Francis Takes on the Mafia

By Rod Anderson, CP Cartoonist Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Speaking to a gathering of tens of thousands of people at the power base of a highly dangerous organized crime group in Italy, Pope Francis Saturday condemned the mafia's "adoration of evil" and declared all mobsters as effectively excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

The pope traveled to, and held a mass in, the southern region of Calabria, the power base of the global drug trafficking syndicate 'Ndrangheta, to comfort the family of a 3-year-old boy who, along with his grandfather, was gunned down in a January shootout involving the mafia.

"Those who in their lives follow this path of evil, as mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated," Reuters quoted Pope Francis as saying in impromptu comments at the mass.