Church procession detours its route to honour convicted Mafia crook – in defiance of Pope Francis who has excommunicated the mobsters
- Procession in 'ndrangheta stronghold detoured to pass mobster's home
- The 82-year-old convicted murderer was inside under house arrest
- It's less than a month since Francis excommunicated 'ndrangheta members
Less than a month after Pope Francis excommunicated members of the mob, a church procession has apparently defied him by changing route to honour a convicted gangster.
The procession through Oppido Mamertina, a Calabrian town and stronghold of the 'ndrangheta crime syndicate, detoured to pass the home of an 82-year-old convicted murderer.
The mayor, local clergy, parents pushing baby strollers and dozens of local men carrying an ornate Madonna statue marched past the home of the killer who, because of his age, was allowed to serve out his life sentence under house arrest.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano on Sunday denounced the tribute as 'deplorable and disgusting' and praised three Carabinieri policemen who abandoned the procession in disapproval.
Carabinieri officer Andrea Marino said he and his fellow officer walked away from the July 2 procession after the detour and headed to the church to complain about what happened.
One of Calabria's anti-Mafia prosecutors, Nicola Gratteri, told The Associated Press that the detour to the mobster's house appeared to be a 'challenge to the diktat' of Francis.
The 'ndrangheta, a global cocaine trafficker, is one of the world's most powerful crime syndicates. Religious rituals hold an important place in the mobsters' mentality.
On June 21, Francis, visiting Calabria, had denounced the 'ndrangheta for its 'adoration of evil' and said its members were excommunicated.
Oppido Mamertino's bishop, Monsignor Francesco Milito, said he would take undescribed 'measures' against those exploiting the church procession to pay homage to the local boss.
Elsewhere in southern Italy, other 'ndrangheta members appeared to have paid attention to the pope's words but perhaps not in the way he intended.
Another bishop, Monsignor Giancarlo Bregantini, told Vatican Radio Sunday that some 200 inmates in the maximum-security section of Larino prison told their chaplain they would boycott Mass.
They reasoned that if they had been excommunicated it made no sense for them to attend anymore
No, Pope Francis did not officially excommunicate the mafia
By now, the news is everywhere: the Pope has declared the mafia excommunicated from the Catholic Church: "Those who in their life have gone along the evil ways, as in the case of the mafia, they are not with God, they are excommunicated," he said on Saturday in the Italian city of Calabria. But did Francis really excommunicate the entire mafia from the Catholic Church?
Here are some things to consider.
Francis made the remarks during an outdoor mass in Calabria, the power base of the notorious mafia crime syndicate known as the 'Ndrangheta. Francis was in the area to meet with the family of a three-year-old boy who was gunned down last year by the mafia. Nicola "Coco" Campolongo, along with his grandfather and another adult, were shot in their heads. The car they were in was then doused in gasoline and set on fire.
Though his comments were harsh, they really shouldn't come as a shock. One of the defining themes of Francis' papacy has been his consistent call for economic justice, which, on many occasions, has manifested itself in his indictment of economic exploitation — something the mafia is known for. As Eric J. Lyman reported for USA Today, the 'Ndrangheta, with a reach extending stretching as far as Germany and Austria, amasses a revenue of around $75 billion — about 3.5 percent of Italy's gross domestic product. According to CNN, much of this profit comes from the global cocaine trade. The 'Ndrangheta, which number around 6,000 members, specialize in drug trafficking, murder, bombings, counterfeiting, gambling, frauds, thefts, labor racketeering, and loansharking, according to an FBI profile. It makes sense, then, that such a corrupt organization would receive condemnation from the Pontiff of the poor.
But Francis' critique of the mafia should not be seen as an official excommunication, according to Chad Pecknold, an assistant professor of theology at Catholic University of America. In Roman Catholicism, an official excommunication is a strict censure that deprives the excommunicated of fellowship with the rest of the Church body. When a Church member is excommunicated, she is not allowed to take communion. Excommunication, though severe, is not irreversible. According to Canon Law, the censure is "medicinal," meaning it's given to a Catholic in the hopes of urging him to repentance.
As Pecknold explained it to me, the Pope's comment was "just something he said in a homily — which is not a vehicle for disciplinary pronouncements." Further, excommunication is "only for individuals," and not entire organizations. Rather, said Pecknold, what Francis was doing was simply describing the "self-excommunication" the 'Ndrangheta is already experiencing because of their "serious sin."
Chris Haw, author of Jesus for President, and PhD student in theology at Notre Dame, told me to think of excommunication like a flashlight: "It just illuminates what's already the case." In other words, rather than officially shutting out mafiosi from the Church, Francis was describing their own self-alienation from "the common good."
So Francis did not officially kick the mafia out of the church. What he did was describe what he imagined to be the spiritual state of those who engage in the kind of behavior that results in the death of children and the exploitation of the poor. Those people, said Francis, are "not with God."
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed some quotes by Chad Pecknold to Chris Haw. We regret the error.
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