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Pope Francis’s crusade against corruption has made him a target for Italy’s all-powerful mafia clans, a leading anti-mob prosecutor has warned.
Nicola Gratteri, who has battled Calabria’s shadowy ’Ndrangheta mafia, told the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano on Wednesday that “Pope Francis is dismantling centres of economic power in the Vatican.”
“If the bosses could trip him up they wouldn’t hesitate. I don’t know if organised criminals are in a position to do something, but they are certainly thinking about it. They could be dangerous.”
Francis, who has called for “a poor church”, has backed reform at the Vatican’s bank, which has been suspected for years of being a channel for the laundering of mob profits.
According to NEWS EXPRESS, Francis had on Monday railed against corruption and quoted the Bible’s advice that practitioners be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck.
“The mafia that invests, that launders money, that therefore has the real power, is the mafia which has got rich for years from its connivance with the church,” said Gratteri. “These are the people who are getting nervous.”
“Priests continuously visit the houses of bosses for coffee, which gives the bosses strength and popular legitimacy,” he said, adding that mafia hideouts always contain religious images.
A survey of jailed mobsters had revealed that 88% were religious, he added. “Before killing, a member of the ’Ndrangheta prays. He asks the Madonna for protection.”
Gratteri said mobsters did not consider themselves wrongdoers, and used the example of a mafioso putting pressure on a business owner to pay protection money, first by shooting up his premises, then by kneecapping him. “If the person still refuses, the mobster is ‘forced’ to kill him. If you have no choice, you are not committing a sin.”
Nicola Gratteri, who has battled Calabria’s shadowy ’Ndrangheta mafia, told the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano on Wednesday that “Pope Francis is dismantling centres of economic power in the Vatican.”
“If the bosses could trip him up they wouldn’t hesitate. I don’t know if organised criminals are in a position to do something, but they are certainly thinking about it. They could be dangerous.”
Francis, who has called for “a poor church”, has backed reform at the Vatican’s bank, which has been suspected for years of being a channel for the laundering of mob profits.
According to NEWS EXPRESS, Francis had on Monday railed against corruption and quoted the Bible’s advice that practitioners be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck.
“The mafia that invests, that launders money, that therefore has the real power, is the mafia which has got rich for years from its connivance with the church,” said Gratteri. “These are the people who are getting nervous.”
“Priests continuously visit the houses of bosses for coffee, which gives the bosses strength and popular legitimacy,” he said, adding that mafia hideouts always contain religious images.
A survey of jailed mobsters had revealed that 88% were religious, he added. “Before killing, a member of the ’Ndrangheta prays. He asks the Madonna for protection.”
Gratteri said mobsters did not consider themselves wrongdoers, and used the example of a mafioso putting pressure on a business owner to pay protection money, first by shooting up his premises, then by kneecapping him. “If the person still refuses, the mobster is ‘forced’ to kill him. If you have no choice, you are not committing a sin.”