Pope Francis's life is in danger from 'ndrangheta, Italy's most feared crime group, a leading anti-mafia judge has claimed.It does appear that 'ndrangheta, a version of the mafia located on the toe of the Italian boot next to Sicily, has been the subject of a European crackdown. From the BBC, via the same visitor:Nicola Gratteri, a magistrate in the southern city of Reggio Calabria, near 'ndrangheta's heartland, has said the Pontiff's crackdown on financial corruption in the Vatican, has angered bosses in the brutal crime syndicate, which is thought to rule Europe's cocaine trade.
Members of the notorious 'Ndrangheta Italian mafia have been targeted in a simultaneous police sting in Europe.Well, as a true crime fan, I especially like mafia shows. I justify it to my wife by telling her it's Catholic history. But as far as I can see, at least so far, something doesn't fit. In 2009, Pope Benedict put Abp Viganò in charge of cleaning up Vatican finances. According to Wikipedia,Hundreds of police are understood to have been involved in the operation in Belgium, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.
At least 90 people were arrested, and more than three tonnes of cocaine and 140kg of ecstasy were seized.
Italian restaurants and ice cream parlours used to launder money were among the premises raided.
In 2009, Viganò was appointed Secretary General of the Vatican City Governatorate. In that role he established centralized accounting procedures and accountability for cost overruns that helped turn a US$10.5 million deficit for the city-state into a surplus of $44 million in one year.The letters were leaked as part of the Vatileaks scandal, which observers tend to connect in some way to Benedict's resignation.In 2010, Viganò suggested that the Vatican should drop out of the Euro currency agreement in order to avoid new European banking regulations. Instead, the Vatican chose to adhere to the Euro agreement and accept the new scrutiny that tougher banking regulations required. In late January 2012 a television program aired in Italy under the name of Gli intoccabili (The Untouchables), purporting to disclose confidential letters and memos of the Vatican. Among the documents were letters written to the pope and to the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, by Viganò, complaining of corruption in Vatican finances and a campaign of defamation against him. Viganò, formerly the second ranked Vatican administrator to the pope, requested not to be transferred for having exposed alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions in higher contract prices.
. . . On 13 August 2011, Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone informed Viganò that Pope Benedict was appointing him Nuncio to the United States. Reuters reported that Viganò was unwilling to take that assignment. Viganò stated that this decision was not what Pope Benedict XVI originally had manifested to him. One of the letters leaked by Benedict's butler in 2012 revealed that Viganò had gone over Bertone's head and complained in a letter to Benedict of corruption in the Vatican, for which Bertone arranged to transfer Viganò to Washington over Viganò's objections.
But in 2013, Francis appointed Msgr Battista Ricca, who appears to be a thoroughly corrupt individual, as prelate over the Vatican Bank. It's difficult to imagine Ricca cleaning anything up.
We'll have to see what develops, but Francis, in demanding a "loan" from the Papal Foundation that's caused problems in the US, doesn't so far seem to be on the side of cleanup. We'll probably have to see what falls out, but I can't imagine that the Outfit is all that unhappy with him, though the threat we see here could simply be a worthwhile reminder to the guy to stay with the program.
In fact, if we take Dutch Schultz, Bugsy Siegel, Albert Anastasia, or Sam Giancana as examples, the Outfit generally doesn't bluff and bluster before it whacks guys -- it simply does it and lets the world speculate for decades over who did it and why.
