During a press conference in 1989 the cardinal of Naples, Michele Giordano, implied that the church was about to excommunicate all those defined by a court verdict as mafiosi (or camorristi). The news, widely reported in the media, was subsequently denied on the grounds that, according to canonic law, they had been excommunicated already, automatically, as it were. What is interesting about this episode is not so much that this radical measure was being considered so late but that it was considered at all. It reveals how well the church understands what excommunication would mean to mafiosi, possibly damaging their reputation by amounting to a withdrawal of the "advertising copyright" on saints and ceremonies. Excommunication is meaningful only to those close enough to the church to mind. The average criminal would laugh at such a measure.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 137