Pope Francis has strongly condemned the mafia's "adoration of evil" at a mass in Calabria, saying that the gangsters were effectively "excommunicated".
The Pope said that those who in their lives follow this path of evil, as mafiosi do, are not in communion with God.
Addressing a mass of hundreds of thousands in Calabria, the southern Italian base of the Ndrangheta crime syndicate, the Pope said the gangsters were effectively "excommunicated" - or banished - in the eyes of the Church, the BBC reported.
This is the first time that a Pope has apparently used the word "excommunicated" when referring to members of mafia.
The Pope recently visited a prison to meet the jailed relatives of "Coco" Campolongo, a three-year-old boy, who was murdered in Calabria along with his grandfather by the mafia.
The Pope also met hundreds of other inmates at Castrovillari prison, many of whom are serving time for mafia-related crimes, the report added.
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