Pope's message to the Italian Mafia

Pope Francis has told members of the Italian Mafia they will be welcomed by the Roman Catholic church if they repent their sins and give up organised crime.

The Pontiff told an audience of pilgrims and anti-crime activists at the Vatican that they would be free to join the church, if they promised to stop 'serving the cause of evil'.

Many of those gathered to hear the Pope had come from the diocese of Cassano allo Jonio in the southern Calabria region, home to the 'Ndrangheta, the mainland Italy equivalent of the Sicilian Mafia.

He told his audience: 'Open your hearts to the Lord. The Lord is waiting for you and the Church will welcome you if your willingness to serve good is clear and public as your choice to serve evil was.'

Last June, Pope Francis travelled to Calabria, where he accused organised crime groups of practicing 'the adoration of evil' and said Mafia members had excommunicated themselves from the Church by their actions.

His visit to the region last year came after he promised to meet the father of a three-year-old toddler, Nicola 'Coco' Campolongo who was shot dead alongside his grandfather in the town of Cassano allo Ionio.

The murders were apparent mafia assassinations over money and the discovery of their bodies in a burnt-out Fiat Punto sent shockwaves through Italy.

During his visit to Castrovillari prison, the Pontiff met Coco's father, who was serving time in prison alongside the toddler's mother for drug crimes when their son was killed.

It was here that he also denounced the 'Ndrangheta for what he called its 'adoration of evil and contempt for the common good.'

'Those who go down the evil path, as the Mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated,' he warned.

The 'Ndrangheta, which makes most of its money from drug trafficking, has spread from Calabria to northern Europe and North America.

A 2013 study by Demoskopia, an economic and social research institute, estimated the 'Ndrangheta's annual turnover at some 53 billion euros in 30 countries, equivalent to about 3.5 percent of Italy's total official economic output.

It has been much harder for investigators to combat than the Sicilian Mafia because its structure is more lateral than hierarchical and its tightly-knit families are harder to penetrate.

Last month 163 people were arrested in a major police crackdown on the 'Ndrangheta with 1,300lb of drugs also seized.