VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Francis has long railed against corruption and the mafia, but now the Vatican is considering developing a whole doctrine around excommunicating corrupt and mafia-tinged Catholics.
The Vatican this week hosted its first conference on corruption and organized crime, inviting 50 prosecutors, U.N. officials, bishops and victims of organized crime for a day of talks.
Organizers said in a statement Saturday that the time had come to develop a new legal doctrine for the Catholic Church around "the question of excommunication for corruption and mafia association."
Excommunication is one of the most severe penalties in the Catholic Church, with the guilty party forbidden from participating in the sacraments and effectively excluded from the "communion" of the church.
"Our effort is to create a mentality, a culture of justice, that fights corruption and promotes the common good," said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican's retired ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, who participated in the conference. (more...)
In some boroughs, you'll see massive parish closures.
Well, they have never enforced the automatic excommunication for plotting before or during a conclave, nor for sex abuse by clergy, nor for....etc
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