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Pope Francis leads new year mass at St Peter's Basilica. Photograph: Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images - Reuters

The service at St Peter’s Basilica marks the Roman Catholic church’s World Day of Peace. This year’s theme is No Longer Slaves, but Brothers and Sisters.

“All of us are called [by God] to be free, all are called to be sons and daughters, and each, according to his or her own responsibilities, is called to combat modern forms of enslavement. From every people, culture and religion, let us join our forces,” he said.

Last month Francis appealed to consumers to shun low-cost goods that may be the product of forced labour or other forms of exploitation.

That message was sent to heads of state and governments, international institutions and parishes throughout the 1.2-billion-member church.

The Argentinian pope has made defence of migrants and workers a central issue of his papacy. At a vespers service on New Year’s Eve, he condemned administrators and criminals in Rome accused of pocketing public funds meant to help poor migrants, urging a “spiritual and moral renewal“.

The second global slavery index released in November by the Walk Free Foundation, an Australian-based human rights group, estimated that almost 36 million people were living as slaves, trafficked into brothels, forced into manual labour, victims of debt bondage or born into servitude.

After mass, the pope delivered his traditional New Year’s Day noon address to tens of thousands of people, most of whom took part in peace marches to the Vatican.

Francis, who has made defence of the poor a trademark of his papacy, forcefully defended their rights in his homily at a New Year's Eve vespers service for thousands in St. Peter's Basilica.

He denounced situations where the poor were made to feel like criminals and "forced to behave like mafiosi" to defend themselves.

Earlier this month, police arrested 37 persons suspected of being part of a "mafia-like" organisation that guided public contracts to people close to the alleged boss of the organisation, a right-wing extremist with long-time ties to Rome's underworld.

Some contracts involved running migrant centres and camps on Rome's poor outskirts. Investigators said funds were pocketed by corrupt city administrators and their criminal cohorts instead of being used to improve squalid conditions.

Francis is also the bishop of Rome, which is both the Italian capital and the centre of Christianity. Calling it "our city", Francis said: "We have to defend the poor, not defend ourselves from the poor. We have to serve the weak, not use the weak".

In the current scandal, prosecution documents include transcripts of phone wiretaps that showed how those who won contracts often profited from serious social problems.

"Have you got any idea how much you can make out of immigrants?" one of those arrested says, referring to subsidies for providing services at temporary camps for migrants. "Drug trafficking brings in less".

After the arrests, Rome's mayor, Ignazio Marino, ordered a review of city contracts and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi proposed tougher national laws against corruption..

• 
  Associated Press
  

Pope Francis leads new year mass at St Peter's Basilica. Photograph: Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images - Reuters

The service at St Peter’s Basilica marks the Roman Catholic church’s World Day of Peace. This year’s theme is No Longer Slaves, but Brothers and Sisters.

“All of us are called [by God] to be free, all are called to be sons and daughters, and each, according to his or her own responsibilities, is called to combat modern forms of enslavement. From every people, culture and religion, let us join our forces,” he said.

Last month Francis appealed to consumers to shun low-cost goods that may be the product of forced labour or other forms of exploitation.

That message was sent to heads of state and governments, international institutions and parishes throughout the 1.2-billion-member church.

The Argentinian pope has made defence of migrants and workers a central issue of his papacy. At a vespers service on New Year’s Eve, he condemned administrators and criminals in Rome accused of pocketing public funds meant to help poor migrants, urging a “spiritual and moral renewal“.

The second global slavery index released in November by the Walk Free Foundation, an Australian-based human rights group, estimated that almost 36 million people were living as slaves, trafficked into brothels, forced into manual labour, victims of debt bondage or born into servitude.

After mass, the pope delivered his traditional New Year’s Day noon address to tens of thousands of people, most of whom took part in peace marches to the Vatican.

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