Pope condemns organised crime group for destroying fabric of society

Pope Benedict has condemned “ferocious” organised crime groups in the southern Italian region of Calabria, where lawlessness, corruption and underdevelopment have resulted in one of the country’s highest unemployment rates.

By The Newsroom

Published 10th Oct 2011, 01:11 BST

The Pope, in a homily yesterday for tens of thousands of people from all over the region that forms the “toe” of Italy, said the area seemed to be in a constant state of emergency and that he wanted to encourage the people’s efforts to improve their condition.

“This is an area … where problems exist in acute and destabilising forms, where crime groups that are often ferocious tear at the social fabric, a land that seems to be in a constant state of emergency,” he said.

Calabria is home to the Ndrangheta, considered among the most dangerous and powerful crime syndicates in western Europe. Investigators believe the highly secretive Calabrian group has overtaken the Sicilian Mafia to dominate drug trafficking and extortion rackets.

Pope Europe