Judge Rosario Angelo Livatino

  • Rosario Livatino, 9 May the beatification in Agrigento

  • Pope: Judge Livatino, martyr 'in odium fidei' will be blessed

  • Livatino, Mattarella: "It is necessary to resist the intimidation of the mafia"

  • Mafia, the stele in memory of judge Rosario Livatino damaged

  • Mattarella remembers Saetta and Livatino, judges killed by the mafia

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06 May 2021 Sunday 9 May Rosario Angelo Livatino, a young magistrate killed in a mafia ambush on 20 September 1990, will be proclaimed blessed in the Cathedral of Agrigento. The celebration will start at 10 and will be followed live by Rai1.



Among the various initiatives linked to this event, this morning there was a preview screening, in the Palazzo dei Marescialli, of the docufilm made by Tv2000, entitled "Picciotti, what have I done to you?". Present were the Head of State,

Sergio Mattarella

, the Minister of Justice,

Marta Cartabia

, the President of the Italian Bishops' Conference, Monsignor

Gualtiero Bassetti

and 

David Ermini

, vice president of the High Council of the Judiciary.



"Credibility is an essential value for magistrates"

"The external credibility of the judiciary as a whole and in each of its components is an essential value in a democratic state, today more than yesterday. '' These are the words of Rosario Livatino quoted by the vice president of Superior Council of the Judiciary, David Ermini, in his speech after the screening of the documentary film.



"Livatino is the model by which each magistrate has the duty to inspire himself in order to gain the trust of citizens, the primary and exclusive source of the legitimacy of his actions", said Ermini. "It is an honor for the Superior Council to have hosted today the preview of the docu-film on Livatino on the eve of the beatification ceremony", underlined Ermini at the end of the screening.



"Judge esteemed by all for his professional skills, the sense of institutions and extraordinary humanity, Livatino will be the first blessed magistrate in the history of the Church. Martyr of justice and indirectly of faith, as John Paul II defined him".



"To be credible, this is the teaching of an exemplary man and magistrate - highlighted the vice president of the CSM - A simple and merciful man and at the same time determined and courageous. A shy magistrate and not at all careerist and at the same time rigorous and tenacious. Capable, as deputy prosecutor, to conduct delicate investigations against the mafia and corrupt entanglements with politicians and entrepreneurs and to hit hard the gangs of Agrigento by confiscating their assets ".



Ermini then reported again Livatino's words: `` The independence of the judge is not only in his own conscience, in his incessant moral freedom, in his fidelity to principles, in his capacity for sacrifice, in his technical knowledge, in his experience, in his clarity and linearity of his decisions, but also in his morality, in the transparency of his conduct even outside the walls of his office, in the normality of his relationships and manifestations in social life, in the choice of his friendships, in his unavailability for initiatives and to business, still permitted but risky, in the renunciation of any desire for assignments and prebends, especially in sectors that can produce the germ of contamination and the danger of interference ".



And he concluded: "In recent years we have commemorated the anniversary of many, too many magistrates who have fallen under the fire of the mafia and terrorism. Each time, remembering their names, I thought about their age. Livatino was killed at 37, among a few. he would have turned 70 months, one step away from retirement. In our hearts, the young Rosario is and always will be, to steal the verse of the poet, our best youth ". 



Bassetti: "You can't live with the mafia. Never bow"

"There is no coexistence with the mafia! Between the mafia and the Gospel there can be no coexistence or even less connivance. There can be no contact or any deplorable bow". Thus Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, president of the CEI. In his speech, Bassetti recalled that on Sunday 9 May, the young magistrate murdered by the Agrigento stidda will be proclaimed blessed because he was killed in "hatred of the faith".



"A beatification that takes place on an anniversary of great significance: on May 9, 1993, Pope John Paul II in the mass celebrated in the Valley of the Temples issued a harsh warning against the mafia guilty of" trampling on the most holy right of God "and of" killing " innocent lives Still today I feel that cry addressed to the mafia with which he concluded his homily vibrate in my heart: "Convert! Once upon a time God's judgment will come! ". 



"The underworld is unequivocally a source of death: the death of society, the death of the territory, the death of people's souls. In order to carry out their projects, criminal organizations create a climate of fear that exploits misery and unemployment, social desperation and the 'absence of legal certainty. Precisely for this reason the presence of the State is absolutely necessary. A strong, authoritative and above all educational presence. Like that of Rosario Livatino ".