VATICAN CITY
Daily Star
VATICAN CITY: The Vatican has downplayed a warning that Pope Francis could be targeted by the mafia because of his reforms to Holy See financial bodies.
“There is no reason for concern, and there is no need to feed alarmism,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.
He added that the Vatican – and, by extension, the pope – was “extremely calm” regarding the alleged threat.
The warning was voiced by Nicola Gratteri, a respected state prosecutor in the southern Calabria region, who said the vicious local mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta, is “nervous” the pope is threatening its interests.
“Those who up to now have fed off the power and wealth coming directly from the church are nervous, upset,” he said in an interview published by the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano this week. The pope, Gratteri added, “is dismantling the Vatican’s economic centers. If the mafia bosses can trip him up, they won’t hesitate.”
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