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CASSANO ALL'JONIO, Italy (AP) — Pope Francis has traveled to the heart of Italy's biggest crime syndicate and declared that all mobsters are automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
At an outdoor Mass in Calabria, Francis denounced the syndicate for what he called its "adoration of evil and contempt for the common good."
The pope said, "Those who go down the evil path, as the Mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated."
Calabria is the power base of a global drug trafficking syndicate that also enriches itself through extortion of local businesses and infiltration of public works contracts.
Francis also visited with the imprisoned father of a 3-year-old boy who was killed in the region's drug war, and spoke to about 200 other inmates.
The pope had lunch with poor people and drug addicts in a rehabilitation facility and visited with residents at a hospice. While he was there he asked one of the doctors to remove a bothersome wooden splinter from his finger.
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APPHOTO ALT126: Pope Francis celebrates a Mass in Sibari, southern Italy, Saturday, June 21, 2014. Pope Francis paid a one day visit to Castrovillari, Sibari, and Cassano allo Jonio, in the Calabria region of Italy. Pope Francis comforted the imprisoned father of a slain toddler during a visit Saturday to a southern Italian region infested by one of the world's most powerful crime syndicates. During his one-day pilgrimage to Calabria, Francis met separately with the father and two grandmothers of Coco' Campolongo in the courtyard of a prison in the town of Castrovillari. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) (21 Jun 2014)
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APPHOTO OSS106: In this picture made available by the Vatican newspaper L' Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis poses with personnel of an hospice he visited in Cassano allo Jonio, southern Italy, Saturday, June 21, 2014. During his trip, Francis also comforted residents in a hospice. There, local organizers said, one of the doctors, at the pope's request, removed a bothersome wooden splinter from one his fingers. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano) (21 Jun 2014)
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APPHOTO OSS102: In this picture made available by the Vatican newspaper L' Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis delivers his message during his meeting with inmates and personnel of the prison of Castrovillari, southern Italy, Saturday, June 21, 2014. Pope Francis has offered words of sympathy to a slain toddler's inmate father during a visit to prison to a southern Italian region infested by one of the world's most powerful crime syndicates. Local organizers of the pope's one-day pilgrimage to Calabria said the pontiff first spoke to some 200 male and female inmates in the prison in the town of Castrovillari, then spoke separately with the father and two grandmothers of Coco' Campolongo. The 3-year-old boy was shot, along with one of his grandathers and the grandfather's companion, in a car in an attack in January blamed on drug turf wars in the nearby town of Cassano all'Jonio. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano) (21 Jun 2014)
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