Rome (NEV), May 29, 2020 – 23 May 1992 – 23 May 2020. Capaci massacre. The magistrate Giovanni Falcone and his wife Francesca Morvillo, together with the security agents Rocco Di Cillo, Vito Schifani and Antonio Montinaro, are killed by the mafia. In 1992, to be precise on July 19, the Mafia also killed the magistrate Paolo Borsellino and the five escort agents Agostino Catalano, Emanuela Loi, Vincenzo Li Muli, Walter Eddie Cosina and Claudio Traina in Via Mariano D’Amelio in Palermo.
For several years, the day of May 23 has been considered the “day of legality” and the day in which Falcone and Borsellino are remembered. In parallel with March 21, the National Day of Memory and Commitment to remember all the mafia victims (officially established on the date in which the “Libera” Association celebrates the memory of Mafia victims), this anniversary wants to be one of the shared moments of reflection and attention on the mafias.
Also this year there were many commemorative initiatives in Italy, on television, on the web, through events dedicated to the deepening and to the remembrance of those who lost their lives because of their service for justice and against all the mafias.
“Today the commitment of those who oppose the mafias be stronger and more determined, through the strength and the courage of reason together with the passion for others” – reads the Facebook page of the Christian Service in Riesi. The Christian Service was conceived by the Waldensian pastor Tullio Vinay. Built, starting from 1963, in the Sicilian hinterland, in the province of Caltanissetta, to contrast mafia, poverty and illiteracy through education, services for health and for economic development, it is still a point of reference for the territory with an international aim, thanks to volunteers and supporters from all over the world.
The commitment of Protestant churches against the mafias has been expressed in words and actions since the 1960s. To give another example, we remember the pastor Pietro Valdo Panascia (1927-2007). Courageous witness of faith and social commitment, he founded the diaconal center in the La Noce district of Palermo. Together with the community of the Waldensian church, he affixed the poster that recalled the commandment “do not kill” the day after June 30, 1963, when five carabinieri and two military men were killed in the massacre of Ciaculli, an agricultural suburb of Palermo, a fact that shook public opinion throughout Italy. At the time, it was the only Christian response against mafia. The poster, still preserved in the Waldensian church of Palermo, warns: “It is God who orders not to kill!”. A clear message addressed to the mafia and all its partners.
Today there is still a lot to do. The protestant journalist Maria Grazia Mazzola reminds this with the following words: “28 years ago the mafia massacres: honest Italians wants the names of the senders. Who were the presences outside ‘Cosa Nostra’? ”
At 17.58, as every year, but this time without the participation of citizens due to the CORONAVIRUS emergency, there was the traditional moment of “Silence” under the Falcone Tree played by a trumpeter of the State Police, in front of the Falcone house, where is the evergreen magnolia, a symbol of redemption.
, May 29, 2020 - 23 May 1992 – 23 May 2020. Capaci massacre. The magistrate Giovanni Falcone and his wife Francesca Morvillo,){kind=link}