DHAKA: Pope Francis has launched a stinging attack on the mafia, warning gangsters that they will go to hell unless they repent and stop doing evil.

‘Blood-stained money, blood-stained power, you can’t bring it with you to your next life. Repent,’ he said, reports the BBC.

He was speaking at a prayer vigil for relatives of those killed by the mafia.

The Pope has spoken out frequently about the evils of corruption and wrote a booklet on the subject in 2005 when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.

The meeting near Rome on Friday, organised by a citizens` group called Libera, was aimed at demonstrating the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to organised crime, rejecting historic ties with mafia bosses claiming to be good Catholics.

BDST: 1045 HRS, MAR 22, 2014