‘Organized crime causes deep wounds in society’

Pope Francis sends a message to participants at a conference focused on using assets seized from the mafia to benefit society.

September 20, 2024

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni lays a wreath at the grave of Giovanni Falcone, an Italian judge who was murdered by the Mafia in 1992 (ANSA)

By Devin Watkins
“Organized crime targets millions of men and women who have the right to live their lives and raise their children with dignity, without hunger and without fear of violence, oppression or injustice.”

Pope Francis gave this assessment on Thursday in a message to a conference organized by the association “Libera”.

The event was titled ‘Conference on the Social Use of Assets Confiscated by the Mafia’.

The Pope noted that organized crime is inflicting wounds on societies worldwide and called for a global response to this transnational problem.

He said the fight against the mafia is one of the greatest challenges facing the international community.

National police forces must work together across borders to identify and recover the assets of organised crime groups, he said.

“However,” he added, “it must be borne in mind that asset recovery should not be limited to this criminal policy objective, but should be inspired by the recovery and reconstruction of the public interest.”

Pope Francis said the brutality of organized crime is an attack on the common good and that it targets “socially marginalized groups that are particularly vulnerable.”

“It is impossible and unacceptable to forget these victims, because only by thinking about them can one understand the damage caused by organised crime,” he said.

The Pope praised the Italian model of using confiscated criminal proceeds to repair damage to victims and society.

He invited the conference participants to “focus on the urgency of restoring the good of all people, men and women, the good of each one of us, where everyone counts and no one is thrown away, where the common project, in the service of human dignity, transcends the individual sum of each of us.”

Pope Francis closed the meeting with an appeal to everyone to never lose sight of the victims and the community in their quest for a better world.–Vatican News