{"id":13313,"date":"2014-03-22T09:06:38","date_gmt":"2014-03-22T09:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/pope-francis-denounces-evil-mafia\/"},"modified":"2014-03-22T09:06:24","modified_gmt":"2014-03-22T09:06:24","slug":"pope-francis-denounces-evil-mafia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/pope-francis-denounces-evil-mafia\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis Denounces ‘Evil Mafia’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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{{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.}}<\/p>\n

“Blood-stained money, blood-stained power, you can’t bring it with you to your next life. Repent,” he said.<\/p>\n

He was speaking at a prayer vigil for relatives of those killed by the mafia.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

‘No joy’
\nThe 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.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis (right) leaves the church in Rome with Father Luigi Ciotti of the Catholic Libera association.<\/p>\n

The vigil was filled with those who have suffered at the hands of the mafia, including people whose family members and loved ones had been killed.<\/p>\n

As the names of those murdered were read out, the Pope listened, deep in sombre thought.<\/p>\n

After expressing solidarity with the 842 people at the vigil, he said that he could not leave the service without addressing those not present: The “protagonists” of mafia violence.<\/p>\n

“This life that you live now won’t give you pleasure. It won’t give you joy or happiness,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There’s still time to not end up in hell, which is what awaits you if you continue on this path.”<\/p>\n

Our correspondent says there is a long list of brave priests in Italy who have stood up to the mafia, and some have paid with lives.<\/p>\n

But he says that the wider Church has been accused of not doing enough to confront the gangsters.<\/p>\n

Anti-mafia activists hope that the Pope’s words are a signal that he is on their side.<\/p>\n

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wirestory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000051108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-13313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000051108,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13313.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13313.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13313.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13313.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13313.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13313.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000051108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13313"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=13313"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=13313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}