Criminal baby gangs grow up without values says Cardinal

PHOTO CREDIT: Voce di Napoli

ROME - The Archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Sepe, often makes headlines for his efforts in combating the young members of the camorra. Most recently, in an interview with La Stampa, Cardinal Sepe has hit out at the morality of the families raising violent “baby-bosses.”

These boys have become the most active members of the gang rampant in the coastal city since the 17th century. According to the Cardinal, the boys’ education in the criminal world is due to “growing up in the void.”

 “The origin of these evils is in the family, in the void [sic] of values, in the lack of a sense of good community. A serious problem for which we have put in place all that we can.” La Stampa writers referred to Naples as enduring the “umpteenth weekend of blood” by the baby bosses.

 The Cardinal has appealed for a grand task-force. He cited a 2012 proposal, a permanent roundtable to discuss the baby gang problem. Calling upon magistrates, local law officials, universities and parents’ associations, the Cardinal believes the Church can work with these groups to lift the veil of violence. In his eyes, the battle to combat violence is not yet lost.

 Archbishop Sepe has masterminded and expanded on a variety of methods to restore order to the region, and rid the community of the youth gangs. He heads an initiative where the camorra lay down their pistols and weapons “at the foot of the Crucifix, as a renouncement of violence.”

 The baby gang has also been accused by the Cardinal of deliberately burning toxic waste around the city, polluting the air. In response, Cardinal Sepe reportedly refused the youths communion.

 And yet, the wounds from the baby bosses still run deep. A 17 year-old boy attacked last year in the narrow streets of the city still speaks huskily, injured from his throat wound. Last week he was finally dismissed from the hospital.

Sadly, the Cardinal’s words are not much changed from his appeals in September 2006, a few months after taking his post in Naples. As reported by the Chiesa Express Online, the Cardinal referred to the baby gang crime problem as “enough to distinguish Naples as a battleground. It is a terribly corrupt city. But what is worse is that its citizens often do not have a sufficiently strong conscience to react to the degradation.”

“The young people grow up without a proper civic education. Instead of supporting those who do good, solidarity coalesces around those who do evil.”

Whilst the Archbishop appears to be riding on wave after wave of new challenges from the baby gang, it may come as some comfort that the problem is not being ignored.

hl