The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Beatification of Judge Rosario Livatino, assassinated by the Sicilian Mafia

2021-05-11T22:39:20.859Z


Judge Rosario Livatino was 38 when he was assassinated by mafia killers in Sicily on September 21, 1990. On Sunday he was beatified ...


Judge Rosario Livatino was 38 when he was assassinated by mafia killers in Sicily on September 21, 1990. On Sunday, he was beatified in the cathedral of Agrigento during a mass, homage to a "

martyr

" of Justice.

Read also: Father Hamel: a judicial inquiry soon to be closed and a beatification process on track

A reliquary containing the bloody shirt of the judge was placed in the cathedral at the time he was beatified, while in the Vatican Pope Francis paid homage to "

a martyr for justice and faith

". "

By serving the common good as an exemplary judge who has never succumbed to corruption, he sought to judge, not to condemn, but to redeem

", declared the Pope at the end of his Marian prayer Regina Caeli . “

His work has placed him under the protection of God,

” added Pope Francis. "

For this reason, he became a witness of the Gospel until his heroic death

."

The Italian magistrate, who refused an armed escort, was shot dead a few kilometers from his home, near Agrigento, in Sicily, as he was preparing to take house arrest measures against members of large families of the Sicilian Mafia, the Cosa Nostra.

When the police arrived at the place where he was lying, his head exploded, they found his diary, with the initials "

STD

" written on the first page, like all his files.

This is the ancient invocation “

Sub tutela Dei

” (Under the protection of God) used by magistrates in the Middle Ages before making official decisions.

"

What have I done to you, little ones?"

"

Rosario Livatino went to church every morning before going to court. He begged God for forgiveness for the risks he was exposing his parents to. “

To do justice

”, he wrote, “

is like praying and dedicating one's life to God

”. He had left his fiancée two years before, with her consent. A missionary of justice, he had let his sorry parents understand, cannot lead a wife and a family on his adventure. Visiting his parents in 1993, John Paul II described Rosario Livatino as "a

martyr for justice and indirectly for the faith

".

"

What have I done to you, little ones?"

Were his last words, staring at his two young assassins, revealed a repentant.

Then Rosario Livatino received bullets in the mouth to symbolically silence him.

It was "

the lament of a just man who knew he did not deserve this unjust death

," commented Pope Francis, in the recent preface to a book devoted to the judge.

Luigi Ciotti, a priest famous for his fight against the mafias, believes that the Sicilian judge died "

for his fidelity to a profession experienced as a true vocation, a service rendered and never an exercise of power

".

To read also: Tibéhirine: the delicate beatification of the martyrs of Algeria

He was among the first magistrates in Italy to implement measures of seizure and confiscation of property held by the Mafiosi. He understood that this would lead to the weakening of the clans, their loss of control and also of social prestige,

”he notes, in the preface to a biography published on Sunday. A youth cooperative still bears his name and cultivates land confiscated from the Sicilian mafia.

Since his election, François has attacked the Mafiosi, often benefactors of parishes. In 2018, he had traveled to Palermo to pay homage to the priest Giuseppe Puglisi, murdered 25 years earlier and beatified in 2013, for having sought to draw from the tentacles of Cosa Nostra the young people of a disadvantaged neighborhood. “

We cannot believe in God and be mafia

”, had launched the Pope.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-05-11

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-13T14:03:41.078Z
News/Politics 2024-03-01T09:15:05.174Z
News/Politics 2024-03-27T13:05:28.380Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.