«Today is a day of celebration for the community of Green Park – Don says beaming with joy Maurizio Patriciello, priest with the Gospel and the Constitution under his arm –. As many as forty young people from this neighborhood of Caivano they will receive from the bishop Angelo Spinillo the sacrament of Confirmation, and among those who were born and lived here, some will graduate in less than a year. Double joy.”
Don Maurizio, in the parish churchyard, a few minutes before the celebration, repeatedly hugs a swarm of shouting children, while the adults, on the other hand, calls them all by their baptismal names. And there are so many of them. The entire community of the Parco Verde is there, rallying around “their” priest, suddenly thrown into a controversy that does not belong to him, by Vincenzo De Luca, president of the Region, who in his monologue on Friday, defined the parish priest «The Pippo Baudowith bangs, in the area north of Naples”, for having participated at the invitation of the commissioner Fabio Cicilianoto the presentation by Giorgia Meloni of her project for the institutional reform of the premiership.
«What can I say – replies the parish priest – Pippo Baudodragged into this chatter in spite of himself, is a person respected and well-liked by the whole country. The bangs? It depends on the fact that I have a lot of hair.” Don Maurizio jokes. It will be a festive atmosphere. But those harsh words, as he reiterated, “were a stab in the heart.” And with a cool head, in the afternoon, commenting on the incident during an interview on Rai1, Don Maurizio declared that the reference to his haircut reminded him of episodes of verbal bullying. A lunge. Which makes you think. And that increases the rate of institutional tension.
So much so that in a note, on the sidelines of the visit to the Turin Book Fair, the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schleinsomehow distances himself, once again, from the president DeLuca. «We have always said, I have always said, that our language does not include any type of vituperation or mockery, it does not belong to us. Instead, we thank the strong contribution to the fight against the mafia that all our administrators and activists are giving every day.”
There are only a few minutes left until the bishop arrives, and Don Maurizio, a river in flood but always with grace, answering the question about a possible meeting with De Luca: «I’m a priest. I believe in forgiveness and acceptance. I would welcome De Luca like a brother. But unfortunately I don’t have his number, otherwise I would have already invited him in person and I hope to be able to do so soon.”
A joke against you to hit President Meloni? Don Maurizio responds instantly. «I don’t do politics. However, I want to remind the President of the Region that last September he declared that the State had been absent in Caivano. We at Parco Verde knew this and have suffered all the damage of this absence for decades. In August, after the story of the two raped girls, I sent a message to Giorgia Meloni
I asked her for help. I invited her to come here to realize, to see desperation in the face. She did it. And now a big change is taking place. Is saying this, which is the reality of the facts, playing politics, to the point of being attacked so harshly? I’m waiting for brother De Luca, and I am ready to stand with the 252 families facing eviction. If they end up on the street, I will stay with them on the street.”
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Read the full article at
The morning
