The governor of Campania defined the priest from Caivano, among the personalities chosen by the Prime Minister to promote the reform of the premiership, as “Pippo Baudo from the northern area of Naples, complete with bangs”. The prime minister’s response is harsh: “Fight the Camorra and give answers to respectable families where those like De Luca have failed to do so.” The priest defends himself: “Bringing me into question means putting my life at risk”
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“Pippo Baudo from the northern area of Naples, with relative bangs”. The words with which the president of the Campania Region Vincenzo De Luca defined the priest of Caivano Don Maurizio Patriciello, a personality among those chosen by the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, are causing discussion to promote the reform of the premiership. The prime minister herself intervened, criticizing what De Luca said: Don Maurizio Patriciello, she wrote on social media, is “a man who tries to fight the Camorra and give answers to respectable families where people like De Luca they were unable to do it, or they didn’t want to do it”. In doing so, added Meloni, De Luca “gives a frightening signal”. Even the priest himself – who speaks of a “stab in the heart” – returned to the president’s words of the Campania Region: “I am ready to embrace De Luca, I am a priest, but bringing up me, at this moment, I am under guard because the Camorra members put a bomb on me, means putting my life in jeopardy because he tells the Camorra members ‘ you did well’ and this worries me, these are completely out of place words.” De Luca replies: “Don Patriciello must be told with the utmost respect, but with absolute and definitive clarity, that we appreciate his battles, but that he does not have a monopoly on the fight against the Camorra”. Then he made the jab: “I would suggest to Don Patriciello, in a friendly way, to have a little more irony.” And to Meloni he says: “he obviously has nothing serious to talk about”.
Meloni: “Mocking Don Patriciello is a scary sign”
Meloni also recalled in his post on social media that “Father Maurizio lives under guard because he has become a target of the Camorra who do not like his tenacity in keeping young people away from drugs and crime”. And he added: “Instead of helping Father Maurizio, making him feel the support of the institutions, De Luca mocks him, and in doing so gives a frightening signal. I want to tell Father Maurizio that the State is there, at his side. Which is not alone. And that the men and women who have not exchanged the institutions for the stage of a cabaret, but carry out their task with discipline and honor, know and recognize the value of his sacrifices”.
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Don Patriciello: “Taken aback by De Luca’s words”
“I feel sorry for Pippo Baudo and I can’t do anything about the bangs. I was taken aback by De Luca’s words. The political problem between right and left doesn’t concern me much, I am the parish priest of this neighborhood and I turned to Meloni today, as in the past to Conte or Renzi, is keeping the commitments made and it is my duty not only to say it but also to thank”, said Don Maurizio Patriciello, speaking today at the microphones of Rainews24.
“I think I don’t deserve completely gratuitous insults”
Already yesterday the priest had responded to the governor of Campania. “Dear President, dear brother Vincenzo De Luca, your irony towards a poor priest from the northern area of Naples, the same one about which you said: ‘There is no State in Caivano. Stop’ has me so much grieved. If that’s what he wanted, he succeeded,” he wrote on Facebook. “I don’t allow myself – I wouldn’t be capable of it and I don’t think I have the right – to answer you in kind. What would be the point? The wounds must be soothed, not caused. However, I think, in full conscience, that I don’t deserve the completely gratuitous insults of the president of my region”, we always read in the post.
“I’ve been used to insults for a long time”
And again, in conclusion of the comment on social media, Don Patriciello wrote: “What can I say to you? I have been used to insults and threats – disguised or otherwise – for some time. It is no coincidence that I have been living under guard for two years. One thing, however , it is when they come from the Camorra, quite another thing, however, when it is a person like her who treacherously stabs you. I also offer this mortification to the Lord. I am a priest, I never forget that ‘if the grain of wheat fell into the earth does not die, the ear of corn is not born’. I greet you, President. I think that from tomorrow the bullies and the Camorra will start making fun of me by shouting behind my back: ‘Pippo Baudo is passing’ “.
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Salvini: “Courageous men should be praised”. Tajani: “Patriciello is a great example”
Many government officials have expressed closeness to the Don. Thus Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini: “Solidarity with Don Patriciello, incredibly insulted by Vincenzo De Luca, who has always been on the front line against degradation and crime. Courageous men should be praised, not tarnished”. The same goes for the other deputy prime minister, Antonio Tajani, who defined Don Patriciello as “a very good priest” and “a protagonist in the fight against the mafia”. On the sidelines of a series of commitments in Campania he then added: “This idea that the left decides whoever is fighting the mafia seems to me to be something that should be rejected, the fight against the mafia is done by people who believe in justice, in law. I believe that Don Patriciello is a great example. He has all my respect and consideration.”
Government solidarity
The words of the Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara are similar. “My solidarity goes to Don Patriciello. I am sure that his mission will continue. I want him to feel the human and concrete support of the entire government. Those who are truly committed to the fight against crime deserve all the esteem and appreciation of every honest citizen of our country”, he wrote on social media. Also in the chorus of solidarity was the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano: “Total and unconditional solidarity with the parish priest of the Parco Verde di Caivano, Father Maurizio Patriciello, shamefully mocked by the president of the Campania Region, Vincenzo De Luca. It is ignoble that a representative of the institutions insults a man, a courageous priest forced to live under guard, always on the front line against the Camorra and to solve the problems of honest people and families in the area”.
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