The ancient popular festivals of Barra, Ponticelli and San Giovanni a Teduccio, in the eastern area of Naples, face the risk of bearing the costs of the work of the municipal police in the many events organized on the occasion of religious celebrations and traditions. The Municipality of East Naples tries to “save” the anniversaries by recognizing their public interest and asking the municipal council to protect them.
In particular, these are the celebrations dedicated to Saint Anna in Barra, at Madonna of the Snow to Ponticelli and others St. John Baptist to San Giovanni a Teduccio, “particularly heartfelt and loved anniversaries by the population”, we read in the resolution of the Council of the VI Municipality which was approved unanimously this morning. The thorny issue specifically concerns the payment of operators local police who intervene to ensure safety in events connected to the three very popular religious holidays.
In fact, according to the regulation recently approved by Palazzo San Giacomo – which excludes charges for events of religious importance and patronal celebrations – the payment falls on the private organizers unless they are “events and initiatives […] organized or promoted by private individuals, associations, foundations and/or non-profit entities to promote and enhance the historical, artistic and cultural heritage and/or the territory and its traditions […] for which the Municipalities have recognized the public interest”. These may be events that have no influence on the vehicular traffic and those which, having a local character, have minimal impact on the normal circulation of vehicles.
«I sincerely find it peculiar that we need to intervene with a resolution to ensure that parish priests do not have to pay for the services of the municipal police: parties with collateral events, to which the administration also offers direct or indirect support, obviously without profit», highlight Sandro Fucitopresident of the VI Municipality of Naples, who specifies: «Even considering religion as something very different from public administration, I believe that the Council did well to define popular participation, the active interest of thousands of people, as being in the public interest».
The Parliament of Naples East has decided to recognize the public interest also to all those events connected to the religious celebrations of the three neighborhoods which enhance the local tradition and the historical, artistic and cultural heritage of the entire city. Likewise, the representatives of the neighborhood body asked the council led by Gaetano Manfredi to protect all the events that take place on such occasions during the summer period.
«With the proactive spirit towards this obvious recognition I proposed an amendment to the resolution in which all the parish realities ofthe municipal territory the same treatment when the parishes themselves request it from the municipality and the offices when they have to hold their patron saint festivals which we always remember to be a moment of union, aggregation and sharing for each individual community”, highlights Generous Olivierimunicipal councilor of the Napoli Libera group.
«The resolution highlights the particular public interest of some religious manifestations in our territory which have assumed, over time, an important means of promoting our cultural heritage and, moreover, determines which are the Religious Festivals of our territory which are exempt from such expenses”, explains the municipal councilor Stefano MarzaticoMaresca group, who insists: «In this way, imaginative interpretations about events, sometimes improvised, which claim the qualification of patronal festivals but which in reality are not, are also eliminated: let it be clear that it is always the religious institutions that determine which whether or not the events take on this guise.”
The issue of the burdens on the shoulders of the parishes was brought to the attention of the mayor and councilors in the last municipal council through the intervention of Gaetano Nino Simeonecouncilor of the mixed group, who highlighted the need to exempt events included in the entire religious festival program from paying for the local police service and asked the council to Palazzo San Giacomo to respond to the parishes as also requested by the Curia.
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The morning
