Pope Francis heads deep into mafia territory Saturday with a one-day trip to Naples to visit jailbirds and the poor, amid heightened security against a possible attack by Islamist militants.
Up to 800,000 people are expected to gather in the southern Italian city to welcome the Argentine pontiff, who declared war on organised crime last year by “excommunicating” all mafiosi from the Catholic Church.
Security will be tight: apart from risks posed by gangsters with a grudge, the pope has been threatened by the Islamic State group and trips outside the Vatican are considered prime opportunities for assassination attempts.
After a massacre at a Tunisian museum this week claimed by the IS group, all eyes with be on the elderly pontiff’s safety, with 3,000 extra policemen deployed along the route he will take, including snipers on the rooftops.
Francis will begin the day at the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, before taking a helicopter to the violent, poverty and crime-ridden Scampia neighbourhood in Naples, where he will meet with local residents.
He will then hold mass in the Piazza del Plebiscito in the historic centre, a stone’s throw from the Gulf of Naples, before visiting the city’s overcrowded Poggio Reale jail, where 2,500 prisoners are squeezed into a space for 1,400.