Pope decries ‘unscrupulous’ polluters at deadly, mafia-linked dumping ground

Key Takeaways

• Pope Leo has met Italian families whose loved ones have died or have cancer as a result of illegal toxic dumping linked to a multi-billion-euro criminal racket run by the mafia.
• Leo’s visit to the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, near Naples, came on the eve of the 11th anniversary of Pope Francis’ big ecological encyclical, Laudato Si (Praised Be), and indicates Leo’s commitment to carry on his predecessor’s environmental agenda.
• “I have come first of all to gather the tears of those who have lost loved ones, killed by environmental pollution caused by unscrupulous people and organisations who for too long were able to act with impunity,” Leo said in remarks to family members and clergy inside Acerra’s cathedral.
• The pontiff recalled that the area was once called “Campania felix”, Latin for blessed or fruitful countryside, “capable of enchanting for its fertility, its produce and its culture, like a hymn to life.
• And yet – here is death, of the land and of men.” The European court of human rights last year validated a generation of residents’ complaints that mafia dumping, burial and burning of toxic waste led to an increased rate of cancer and other ailments in the area of 90 municipalities around Caserta and Naples, encompassing a population of 2.9 million people.