His years of commitment at the Santa Chiara center in the Ballarò district of Palermo they were truly tormented. His complaints against a ring of ogres in Ballarò and the Albergheria cost him dearly. The neighborhood turned against him, to the point that some went so far as to say that there was no case of pedophilia. Those were the years in which Don Baldassare Meli suffered greatly. He moved away from Palermo, taking refuge in Tindari and then was welcomed in Mazara del Vallo, after leaving the Salesians, when his Salesian priest friend Monsignor Calogero La Piana was Bishop. Don Baldassare Meli, parish priest of Santa Lucia di Castelvetrano until 27 June 2021 when he died, left a mark in this parish community which today in Palermo – at 4.30 pm in the Cathedral – on the fourth anniversary of his death, will remember him with a holy mass concelebrated by three Bishops, Monsignor Corrado Lorefice (Palermo), Angelo Giurdanella (Mazara del Vallo) and Domenico Mogavero (emeritus of Mazara).
From Castelvetrano the parish community (led by the priest Don Giuseppe Pipitone) will leave by bus at 2:30 pm from the Santa Lucia square. After the holy mass in procession we will move on foot towards the center of Santa Chiara a Ballarò, where the immigrants’ party will be held and tasting of typical dishes and testimonies of friends of Don Meli.
