Pope: ‘Organized crime inflicts a deep wound on society’

By Devin Watkins

“Organized crime strikes against millions of men and women who have the right to live their lives and raise their children with dignity and free from hunger and fear of violence, oppression, or injustice.”

Pope Francis offered that assessment on Thursday in a message sent to a conference organized by the "Libera" association.

The event bore the title “Conference on the Social Use of Assets Confiscated from the Mafia.”

The Pope noted that organized crime inflicts a wound on societies across the globe, calling for a global reaction to this transnational problem.

He said the fight against mafias represents one of the most important challenges facing the international community.

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

“However,” he added, “it is necessary to bear in mind that asset recovery should not be limited to this criminal policy objective but should be inspired by the repair and reconstruction of the common good.”

Pope Francis said the brutality of organized crime attacks the common good, assaulting “socially marginalized groups that are especially vulnerable”.

“It is neither possible nor tolerable to forget these victims because only by thinking of them can one comprehend the damage caused by organized crime,” he said.

The Pope praised the Italian model of directing confiscated criminal gains toward repairing the damage caused to victims and society.

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

Pope Francis concluded the audience by inviting everyone to never lose sight of the victims and the community as they seek to build a better world.