In Italian prisons, inmates question Pope's denunciation of organized crime

July 08, 2014

A bishop in Italy’s Calabria region has denied reports that inmates at a local prison had stopped attending Mass to protest the denunciation of organized crime by Pope Francis.

"There was a dialogue, but there was no mutiny nor was there a desire not to go to Mass," Bishop Gianfranco De Luca of Larino told Vatican Radio.

Bishop De Luca said that some inmates, who were affiliated with the “Ndrangheta crime syndicate, asked the prison chaplain to explain the implications of the statement made by Pope Francis during his trip to Calabria, saying that organized-crime figures were excommunicated

 

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Further information:

• Church denies inmates 'anti-Mass mutiny' (ANSA)