“This evil must be fought against, it must be pushed aside. We must say no to it!”

Pope Francis made the remark on Saturday while travelling to the hometown of a toddler murdered in a clan drug war in the southern heartland of the Italian mafia. He condemned mafia violence against children on his trip to Italy’s south, saying no more children should die at the hands of mafiosi.

Calling the practices of Italian ‘Ndrangheta crime group the “adoration of evil,” Pope Francis said the Mafiosi “are excommunicated” from God and the Catholic Church, in his address to tens of thousands of people in Calabria, southern Italy.

“Those who in their lives follow this path of evil, as Mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated,” Pope Francis said as cited by Reuters. He condemned ‘Ndrangheta as the “adoration of evil and contempt of the common good.”

“Repent! There is no time to avoid ending up in hell, which is what awaits you if you do not change course,” the Pope stated after holding a vigil as he visited Castrovillari prison in Calabria, a region infested by organized crime, Il Sole 24 Ore reports.

“This evil must be fought against, it must be pushed aside. We must say no to it,” Francis said, promising that the Vatican would apply all efforts to combat such activity.

Pope Francis ‘excommunicates’ Italian mafia

Pope Francis condemns mob violence against children