ANDERSON: Right, you're back with us here on CNN. Pope Francis is excommunicating members of the Italian mafia from the Roman Catholic Church. Delia Gallagher joining us now from Rome with what is quite a remarkable story. Why is this important? What does it mean?</s>DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, excommunication is a word that will resound very loudly in southern Italy. It is important that the pope said it, said it in the heartland of the mafia area there. What it means essentially, Becky, is not so much for the individual mafia member who, frankly, might not be losing too much sleep over it, but it is a message to the community. These communities live between the Catholic church on the one hand and the mafia on the other. Priests and bishops in these communities are very important figures. There was a Calabrian priest on Italian television yesterday and he was saying these are small towns, 3,000, 5,000 inhabitants. Everybody knows who the mafia is there. And what these men tried to do is gain credibility with the local people by participating in religious processions, by going to mass, by trying to show themselves as upstanding Catholic religious men. So when the pope says no, actually, you're not part of this club. We are distancing ourselves from you, he's sending a message to the community to say, I'm distancing myself, you can too. These are areas, Becky, that also suffer from very high unemployment. And that is one of the key issues for the pope, that the youth there will not succumb to the temptation of the mafia to offer them jobs and so on, but will have the courage to say no as the pope did -- Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Delia Gallagher in Rome for you this evening. Delia, thank you. The latest world news headlines are just ahead, as you would imagine here on CNN at the bottom of the hour. Plus, Palestinians and the Israeli military going head to head as Israel searches for three missing teenagers. We're going to talk to the spokesman for Israel's prime minister up after this.
Pope Francis Ex- Communicates Mafia In Southern Italy