Pope Francis called on members of organized crime to turn away from violence and exploitation and stop the “tears of the mothers of Naples” after he visited one of the city’s most violent and drug-infested neighborhoods on Saturday.
Francis, on a day-long trip to the southern city, also spoke out against political corruption in a morning address to a crowd in the notorious Scampia neighborhood, a stronghold of clans of the Camorra, the Naples version of the Sicilian mafia.
He was speaking in the shadow of a dilapidated sail boat-shaped housing project known as Le Vele, so dangerous that even police are sometimes afraid to enter, residents say.
He urged residents of the blighted area, which has often been the battleground of Camorra clans fighting each other for control of drug trafficking and extortion rackets, not too let criminals rob them of their hope.
Later at a Mass in the city center, Francis urged Neapolitans to “react firmly to organizations that exploit and corrupt young people, that exploit the poor and the weak with cynical drug trafficking and other crimes”.
He added: “To the criminals and all their accomplices, I, today, humbly and as a brother, repeat: convert yourselves to love and justice. It is possible to return to honesty. The tears of the mothers of Naples are asking this of you.”
Since his election two years ago, Francis – who renounced the spacious papal apartments used by his predecessors and lives in a small apartment in a Vatican guest house – has made the defense of the poor and weakest members of society a key plank of his papacy.
He has also said members of organized crime excommunicate themselves from the Church and that it would welcome them back if they repent.