Pope Francis is taking a public stance against torture. He told an audience in St. Peter's Square on Sunday that he wants to reiterate his "firm condemnation of every kind of torture." He is seeking to end the practice and to garner support for victims and their families.

He said that it is a "mortal sin, a very grave sin, to torture people." The pope also recognized that Thursday is the United Nations day for supporting victims of torture.

He is calling for all Christians to come together and end torture.

Torture was used during the Dirty War under the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983 in Argentina. Francis has been crediting with saving the lives of political dissidents as a Jesuit priest during that time.

Also during that time, Catholic Church leadership in Argentina was on the side of the dictatorship, which often brutally punished opponents if it did not kill them. The Associated Press reported that the future pope conspired right under soldiers' noses and provided refuge and safe passage to dozens of priest, seminarians and political dissidents marked for death.

The BBC reported that "between 10,000 and 30,000 people were killed or disappeared" during the Dirty War.

One of those dissidents, Gonzalo Mosca, a leftist politician who was targeted, told the AP of a time when the future pope rode with him some 20 miles to avoid capture.

"He gave me instructions: 'If they stop us, tell them you're going to a spiritual retreat,' and, 'Try to keep yourself a bit hidden,'" Mosca said.

The Pope's denouncement comes just a day after he denounced organized crime syndicates in Italy during a Saturday Mass in which he said members of the Calabrian Mafia were excommunicated from the church.

The pope announced the excommunications on his visit to the southern region of Italy, which has had a string of mafia-related violence, including the killings of a priest and a child within the past few months, the Vatican reported.

The pope called the violence an "adoration of evil" and said, "Those who go down the evil path, as the Mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated."