«Pope Francis would have done better to go and visit the children of the City of Hope». For Paolo Noventa, the meeting that took place on Sunday 28 April between Pope Francis and Emanuela Cacco, an accomplice of the murderers of his sister Isabella, is news that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. “I can’t criticize the Pope – she explains – but now I see that her political correctness reigns supreme, Francis will be able to forgive… not me.” It must be said that the Pope not only met Emanuela Cacco, but all the inmates of the Giudecca women’s prison and did not utter words of forgiveness “ad personam”, speaking instead, more generally, of a place of moral and material rebirth. But for Paolo the image of Emanuela Cacco handing the skullcap to the Pope has nothing edifying, nothing undermines the pain of the murder of her sister. Cacco, who collaborated with the police in the reconstruction of the crime, allowing the arrest of the two responsible for the murder, the brothers Freddy and Debora Sorgato, has now obtained semi-freedom: he has exceeded half of his sentence (over sixteen years), and good conduct now allows her to leave prison twice a week to carry out community work. A decision that did not please Paolo Noventa, the brother of the woman killed on the night between 15 and 16 January 2016. For him, who is not a man of the church, the word “forgiveness” is unpronounceable.
What did you think when you heard that Cacco showed up moved before the Pope?
«I imagine there was emotion, I don’t doubt it, but I know well that that woman didn’t regret anything, it’s all a farce, I remember well the attitude of Manuela Cacco in prison, while she spoke with her daughter and she didn’t know she was being intercepted.”
What did he say?
«He kept talking badly about my sister. And her daughter, who had gone to visit her in the cell, at a certain point said to her “well mum stop it, think and if I were there in Isabella’s place, what would you say?”. She has proven to be much more intelligent than her mother, I’m sorry, I can’t forgive and move on from her.”
But Manuela Cacco is paying a price for what she did.
“From life imprisonment with two years of solitary confinement to sixteen years old and now he’s already with one foot outside, it’s too little.”
The Pope’s visit to the prisoners hurt her…
«Yes it hurt me, surely Pope Francis will deem it appropriate to visit these people with a view to hope… but what about our hope? I am not a victim but I am the brother of the victim, this desire to be on the side of the least I understand that it can make sense, but not for me, which is why I say that Francesco would have done well to go to the City of Hope, there are people there truly innocent.”
Do you believe in God?
“No, I’m Buddhist.”
