Pope Francis lashed out at organized crime and warned the Mafia, "They cannot do this, they cannot make our brothers slaves."  This, as the pontiff put on the road to sainthood a priest murdered by the mob.

The Pope over the weekend presided over the beatification of Don Giuseppe Puglisi, a priest killed by Mafioso criminals in Sicily in 1993.  The ceremony is the penultimate step on the path to his sainthood.

“I think of the great pain suffered by men, women and even children, exploited by so many mafias, who make them slaves, through prostitution, through many social pressures,” Pope Francis said, “we must pray to the Lord to make these Mafiosi convert to God.”

It is the highest public pressure that Vatican has placed on the Mafia in a very long time.

Puglisi was a priest from a rough neighborhood in Palermo, who began speaking out against organized crime in 1990.  With little support from the Archdiocese, he urged parishioners to give information about organized crime to police.  He refused donations from the criminals when they came around on Catholic feast days. 

But the mob struck back, threatening people who stood with Fr. Puglisi, and setting fire to their homes.  In three years, Puglisi was dead.  The Pope at the time, John Paul II, didn’t attend the funeral, although he later praised Puglisi.  The Cardinal did not mention the Mafia in Puglisi’s funeral mass, even though everyone knew who was responsible and a mob hit man eventually confessed.  The Cardinal’s replacement was the one who got the paperwork started for Puglisi’s beatification, which finally occurred this past weekend.