“Let us pray for all the victims of the mafia, ask for the strength to advance, to continue fighting corruption.” This is the tweet of Pope Francis published only in Italian on July 19, 2017, for the 25th anniversary of the assassination of the anti-mafia judge Paolo Borsellino.
On 19 July 1992, less than two months after the murder of Giovanni Falcone, the 52-year-old judge was the victim of the “Via Amelio bombing” with the five policemen responsible for his protection.
The pope often raised his voice against the mafias, as during his visit to Cassano all’Jonio, in the province of Cosenza in Calabria, in June 2014: he had denounced the misdeeds of N’Drangheta, the Calabrian mafia, Asserting that those who practice organized crime do not worship God but “worship evil”, “they are not in communion with God, they are excommunicated.”
More widely, the Pope regularly denounces corruption, both in the Church and in society. Lately, signing the preface to Cardinal Turkson’s book: “Corrosione: Overcoming Corruption in the Church and in Society “, which was published last June.  Pope Francis has condemned the culture of death of mafia and other criminal organisations, citing corruption as “the worst of social wounds,” “blasphemy,” “cancer,” ‘’a death process that saps life.’’
At the end of the first “International Debate on Corruption”, organized by the Dicastery for the Integral Human Development Service in the Vatican, on June 15, 2017, participants resolved to deepen the issue of excommunication for corruption.
Translated by Anne Kelleher, RENATE communications Person.