Pope Francis denounces 'evil, blood-stained' mafia

[alp227]

Source: BBC

Pope Francis has launched a stinging attack on the mafia, warning gangsters that they will go to hell unless they repent and stop doing evil.

"Blood-stained money, blood-stained power, you can't bring it with you to your next life. Repent," he said.

He was speaking at a prayer vigil for relatives of those killed by the mafia.

The Pope has spoken out frequently about the evils of corruption and wrote a booklet on the subject in 2005 when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26693318

[freshwest]

1. Whoa! That's gonna leave a mark! n/t

[MADem]

2. Maybe he'll get through to them. I dunno, though. It's a pretty entrenched system.

I wish him luck, it's a pernicious organization.

Years ago, they used to have somewhat of a code--they wouldn't mess with families, and, in Italy, anyway, they were decent shots. They'd kill the person they were going to kill and that was that. They would do the Taliban-style/Brotherhood neighborhood leadership thing, where they'd provide social services where there were none.

Now, though, they all seem to think they're in a Tarantino film. Way too heavy on the blood and gore, no care for the civilian population. There's just no "value added" for putting up with their misery-inducing antics anymore.

[JDPriestly]

10. I find myself praying for this Pope even though I am not Catholic and never have been.

Really, I hope he stays safe. The world needs his voice, his warnings.

[MADem]

29. If he can clean up the corruption in Italy, that would be, well... a miracle!

I wish him luck. Maybe he get the people riled up enough to make a change. I hope so...and I hope he orders some papal robes from those ballistic clothiers in Colombia--can't be too careful!

[steve2470]

25. John Gotti actually did some good things in NYC

Too bad he was such a scumbag otherwise.

[MADem]

28. Organized crime in Italy is pretty brutal. There's no "romance of yore" associated with it.

None of that "men of honor" stuff. Just greedy, vicious crooks these days--they'd kill their own mother and rob her corpse if it was worth their while. Some stone cold types.

[Drahthaardogs]

33. There was a time in THIS country when the Mafia was a necessity

because of men like Rockefeller who had no problem killing men, women, and children to support his way of life. My grandfather worked the coal mines under Rockefeller. Armed militias, burning women alive, scrip, were all methods used by this "Man who Made America".

The mafia helped put an end to that shit. The problem is Rockefeller had a nice Saxon name. Those of us whose name ends in a vowel were vilified for fighting back. That prick got his own show on the History Channel.

Rockefeller was a thug who starved, tortured, and murdered children to make his fortune.

[steve2470]

34. yea Rockefeller was a first class sociopath nt

[CFLDem]

3. I wish I had a modicum of the courage this man has. n/t

[red dog 1]

5. + 1

Pope Francis is turning out to be the best Pope since John XXlll.

[Ken Burch]

4. This just in...

"horse head found in papal bed".

[red dog 1]

6. K&R....Thanks for posting.

I hope they beef up security for him after this...
He refuses to use the Pope-mobile, which is bullet-proof.

IMO, he's the best Pope since Pope John XXlll

[jtuck004]

7. And the bartender says "What'll it be, Senator Cruz?"

Oh, wait, sorry. Wrong thread.

[Archae]

8. If any of those gangsters off the Pope...

That gangster would be fucked.
Totally.

[steve2470]

24. The gangster would be torn apart before he or she got to the jail

You don't mess with the Pope in Italy.

[Archae]

26. Anyplace where there are Catholics would be lethal for a Pope-killer.

One Pope was murdered, actually beaten to death by the husband of a woman being screwed around with by that Pope.
(John something-or-other)

This Pope was so corrupt he stole the Vatican treasury to feed his gambling habit, and was having sex with a lot of women.

[alittlelark]

9. The Koch brothersvmay not take that lightly.....

[jtuck004]

11. The Little Boy Mowed Down By The Mafia

Tiny Domenico Petruzzelli got only three years of life on earth before mafia hitmen riddled his body with bullets this week, in an attack that also killed his mother and her boyfriend.

While three-year-old Domenico Petruzzelli was being riddled with bullets in the front seat of a car next to his 30-year-old mother, Carla Maria Fornari, and her 44-year-old boyfriend, Cosimo Orlando, his older brothers were “playing dead,” huddled down in the back seat. The horrific massacre happened Monday night on a lonely state highway in Puglia. When police first arrived on the scene, they told reporters they thought it was a bloody car accident. Then they saw the bullet holes. The assassins apparently first bashed the car Fornari was driving several times, finally pushing it into a guardrail. Then they sprayed the front seat with bullets. Orlando was able to open the passenger door and fall to the ground. He died as police arrived. Fornari and her son died immediately from their bullet wounds. “They were shooting at us and we heard screams and we saw Cosimo collapse,” one of the surviving children reportedly told police, according to the Italian press. “We were scared to death.”
...
The mayor of Bari, Michele Emiliano, has called for children to be removed from known organized crime families, whom he says know no other way but to pass down their twisted “mafia pedagogy”. One of the last videos of young Domenico uploaded to his mother’s Facebook site and downloaded by Pugliese press shows the child destroying a wall with a pickaxe while unseen adults cheer him on.
...

More here.

[Feral Child]

12. Is he kidding?

Does he expect us to believe his hands are clean?


Pffft!

[NaturalHigh]

13. Is there some reason we should think they aren't?

Do you have some sort of evidence you'd like to offer, or is this just one of those "look at me" posts?

[Feral Child]

16. Evidence?

He's the fucking Pope.

He's the Front Man for a corrupt organization that perpetuates a climate of protecting child predators.

His Holiness continues the patriarchal oppression of women. He's cynically "softened" the rhetoric condemning gays as abominations, but has done nothing to actually support the right for folks to love one another.

And have you forgotten the money-laundering ties the Vatican has with the same organization that he publicly "denounces"?


Perhaps you feel that he's "infallible". I'm not that naive.


BTW, your sly suggestion that I'm motivated by narcissism is passive/aggressive whinery. Try actual debate instead of a simpering argumentum ad hominem.

[NaturalHigh]

20. So you offer no actual evidence of collusion...

but demand debate.

I get it. You don't like the Pope or the Church. And you want to make sure everybody knows it.

[Feral Child]

21. I demanded nothing.

I laughed at a corrupt charlatan and the suckers that give him legitimacy.


When confronted by a sophomoric attack, I mentioned how flawed the technique was.

Then you piped up with another sad little attempt at shaming dissent.

You don't really get it, but that's no surprise. This particular confidence-gamer has quite a fan-following and more than one cheerleader at this progressive forum.

You're statement was meant to be condescending in an attempt to undermine the message: he's pretending to castigate his business partners. More bad debate technique. More passive/aggressive deflection.

I never was trying to convince, I was just picking at a scab; therefore, I need not produce evidence. Realistically, it would be impossible to produce any evidence the faithful would find acceptable. They believe because they must. They are incapable of disbelief.

This man is no better nor any worse than any other Pope, and they are, historically, notoriously scurrilous men. Because he presents an appearance that's less vile, some embrace him as if he were an honest man.

You would laugh yourself if we were discussing a similar Janus-like pronouncement by Pat Robertson or any Protestant snake-oil huckster, but the infallibility of the Pope is unquestionable. Because he says he's infallible, so he must be. 'Cause he wouldn't lie because he's so infallible...

[NaturalHigh]

22. I'm not Catholic.

Just because I respect the Pope doesn't mean that I he's without flaw or above criticism. It just interests me that you hate him so much that you accuse him of being in bed with the mafia.

[Feral Child]

23. You didn't read my posts, did you.

Too busy cherry-picking.


I didn't suggest once that you're Catholic. If you read that in, you were looking for something to object to. You'd like to make this about my "hatred" for Catholics.

I don't hate Catholics. For those who treat it rightly as a social club, just as for other sects, what they do is their business. For the Catholic fundamentalists, and they're as obnoxious as any other thumping teabagger, I'll work against them. I view them more with amused contempt than hatred.

I didn't accuse the Pope of being in business with the Mafia because I "hate" him. You want to believe I hate him, it gives you something to object to. Again, you want to script this discussion to cast me as a "hater". More attack on the messenger, no refutation of the message.

I correctly reported that he's in business with them because it's a published fact that the Vatican Bank has been caught laundering money for them.

Perhaps you can find something respectable about him but I suspect you've just been tricked by his marketing and PR campaign.

He still seeks to disenfranchise women and gay people, he's just softened the rhetoric. He pretends to be concerned about the poor, but still lives as a 1%er. He's no better than any of his predecessors, he just has a more capable press corp.


This discussion has gone beyond tedious. You've yet to defend the man, you just try to steer the sub-thread to indict me rather than address the very legitimate concerns I've cited.

You don't want to discuss this, you want to pick a fight. I can't be baited into an internet fight, so, have a blessed day!

[NaturalHigh]

30. Wow...you managed to come up with a lot of ideas...

that I never stated nor believed. Anyway, you take care.

[Scootaloo]

27. Now there's a funny one

Try actual debate instead of a simpering argumentum ad hominem.

Might I suggest learning what an ad homimen is? Tell you what, look up tu quoque as well. Once you've figured it out, come back and edit your initial post to reflect your newfound learning.

[Feral Child]

31. Took you people off ignore too soon.

Last edited Mon Mar 24, 2014, 01:08 PM - Edit history (1)

Ignore.

[Scootaloo]

32. Your loss n/t

[olegramps]

15. Really, why the hatred?

[Feral Child]

17. See Post #16.

[olegramps]

35. Yes, I see that you are consumed with hatred.

[fredamae]

14. Did he just Warn

most of the world's governments also?

[treestar]

18. Interesting, a lot of them may consider themselves Catholic

But then they would not take this seriously.

[Democracyinkind]

19. This is an important development. Combined with his honest efforts at cleaning up...

... the Vatican Bank, this might really affect the Mafia.