As though a lamb going into a lion’s den, Pope Francis journeyed
to Sibari in southern Italy on the Summer Solstice of 2014 to castigate the
Italian mafia, and more specifically the Ndrangheta crime group, as an example
of “the adoration of evil.” He added
that “(t)hose who in their lives follow this path of evil, as mafiosi do, are
not in communion with God. They are excommunicated.”[1]
Presumably so too are the mafia families in other European states, and in the
American states as well. As laudable as such excommunicating is, the fact that
such murderous thugs have regarded themselves as Catholics, and, more generally
as Christian, points to a more profound need for reform within the religion
itself. In this essay, I draw on The Godfather
saga to present this argument.
