people-from-sicily

"*Penso che i magistrati di Caltanissetta stanno processando qualcuno che probabilmente ha avuto una minima parte nell'attentato e che è stato scoperto di recente. Ma non penso che così si possa chiudere il capitolo della partecipazione di soggetti esterni a Cosa nostra. Basti pensare che Falcone, da Roma a Palermo, viaggiava su un piccolo aereo dei servizi segreti. Chi ha voluto far sapere l'ora della sua partenza da Roma? Perché non si è percorsa questa via? Penso che Spatuzza sia un buon collaboratore di giustizia, molto onesto, ma io non penso che il tritolo usato a Capaci venisse solo da quella partita di cui lui parla. A Capaci è stato realizzato un attentato di tipo militare, persone specializzate hanno dato il loro contributo."

"Riina e Provenzano sono due pecorai, perché stavano sotto gli ordini dei politici."

"Ti prego di essere calmo e retto, corretto e coerente, sappia approfittare l'esperienza delle esperienze sofferte, non screditare tutto quello che ti dicono, cerca sempre la verità prima di parlare, e ricordati che non basta mai avere una prova per affrontare un ragionamento. Per essere certo in un ragionamento occorrono tre prove, e correttezza e coerenza. Vi benedica il Signore e vi protegga."

"[Sull'omicidio del giornalista Mauro De Mauro] Fu ucciso perché aveva scoperto che Borghese e la mafia si erano alleati per il golpe... il giornalista si fece scappare qualcosa con uno dei tanti boss che allora frequentavano il Circolo della Stampa che era dentro il teatro Massimo. [...] Si è sempre detto che fu rapito. Non fu rapito invece né prelevato con la forza. Non ce ne fu bisogno. De Mauro conosceva bene uno di quei tre uomini, era Emanuele D'Agostino, mafioso di Santa Maria del Gesù. Gli altri due erano Bernardo Provenzano e Stefano Giaconia. [...] Quando Emanuele D'Agostino seppe al Circolo della Stampa che De Mauro era a conoscenza del golpe, raccontò tutto a Stefano Bontate che era il suo capo. Stefano avvertì gli altri boss della Commissione, tra cui Giuseppe Di Cristina di Riesi e Pippo Calderone di Catania. Tutti volarono subito a Roma insieme a uno che chiamavano "l'avvocato", non esercitava la professione ma era laureato... Andarono a Roma per parlare con il principe Borghese, con un certo Miceli [il generale Vito Miceli, capo del Sid, il Servizio informazioni difesa?] che forse era un militare e forse con un certo Maletti [il generale Gianadelio Maletti, capo dell'ufficio "D" del Sid?]... [...] Da Roma partì subito l'ordine di chiudergli la bocca... I miei amici mafiosi, quando ritornarono a Palermo, mi raccontarono che quella gente era molto preoccupata, mi dissero che avevano paura, che se fosse uscita anche la più piccola delle notizie sull'operazione che stavano preparando, loro sarebbero stati tutti arrestati."

"Ci avevano assicurato che nessuno di noi sarebbe più andato al soggiorno obbligato né avrebbe più subito provvedimenti tipo la sorveglianza speciale, il nuovo governo avrebbe dato un colpo di spugna al passato... ma non tutta Cosa Nostra vedeva di buon occhio il piano dei fascisti."

"Spedalieri was wrongly claimed by the Liberals as one of theirs, and if some of them accuse him of a want of loyalty when he wishes to conciliate democracy and a Divine sanction of the social order, it is because they do not understand the true nature of democracy or of the saying that all authority comes from God."

"Ναυηγοῦ τάφος εἰμί: σὺ δὲ πλέε: καὶ γὰρ ὅθ᾽ ἡμεῖς ὠλλύμεθ᾽, αἱ λοιπαὶ νῆες ἐποντοπόρουν."

"[Italian graphic novelist Fabia] Mustica recounts a promise made to Agatha years ago, following the moment her cherished cousin awoke from a deep coma caused by a car accident. This event coincided with the night the hospital chaplain circulated the Veil of Saint Agatha in the intensive care unit. This relic, treasured by the residents of Catania, is believed to be the same veil that endured while her tormentor, Quintianus, forced Agatha to walk over scorching coals and burn. Mustica vowed to dedicate a graphic novel to the saint. However, distracted by her busy life, she delayed fulfilling this promise until the saint reminded her during her prayer before her statue in Catania Cathedral."

":*Ferdinand Albert I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern, quoted in Carlo Ruta (editor), Viaggiatori in Sicilia tra rinascimento e illuminismo, Edi.bi.si, Messina, 2007, pp. 34-35 (in Italian)."

"He visited the main church dedicated to Saint Agatha, whose choir features forty-two beautifully carved images depicting the life of the saint, culminating in her coronation by Christ and Mary. The seats in the apse can accommodate sixteen clergymen, all of whom must be of noble birth and receive an annual income of one hundred and fifty scudi. In the church, which is long and narrow in shape, there is a chapel where the body of Saint Agatha is kept, securely closed by two doors, one made of iron and the other of copper, with eight different locks. The ceiling is decorated with ancient but still splendid paintings depicting the sufferings of Christ. The church has a beautiful bell tower with a melodious bell, which can be reached after climbing two hundred and forty-two steps."

"[5 February] Memorial of Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr, who, while still young, preserved the purity of her body and the integrity of her faith during the persecution in Catania, Sicily, offering her testimony for Christ the Lord."

"Lucy, a noble maiden from Syracuse, having heard of Saint Agatha's fame throughout Sicily, went to her tomb with her mother Euticia, who had been suffering from blood loss for four years and whom the doctors had been unable to cure. It so happened that during the celebration of Mass that day, the passage from the Gospel was read in which it is said that the Lord healed a woman from that same illness. Lucia then said to her mother: ‘If you believe what has been read, believe that Agatha always has beside her the one for whom she suffered martyrdom. Therefore, if you touch her tomb with faith, you will immediately regain your health.’ When everyone had left, the mother and daughter remained in prayer at the tomb. Lucia fell asleep and saw Agatha before her, adorned with precious stones, surrounded by angels, who said to her: 'My sister Lucy, virgin devoted to God, why do you ask me for what you yourself could obtain for your mother? Behold, thanks to your faith, she is healed."

"History shows that the more difficult it is to spread the faith, the stronger is the assistance of the Spirit who sends the Church new charismatic impulse."

"Ultimately, Satan is interested in snatching souls away from God, and he does not want to take possession of the body just to lead it to spiritual death, which is far worse than physical death."

"One can lead a seemingly normal life without knowing that one is possessed by the Devil."

"Satan can attack tirelessly, but he cannot triumph."

"When we fight with the devil, we must remain ‘seated’ in Christ. To perform exorcisms, absolute chastity is required."

"Man no longer has a spiritual plan for his life when he uses God for his own needs, to fill the void of his existence."

"The true exorcist knows that he must pay a very high price for his ministry."

"Historically, primacy has never excluded synodality, nor has synodality excluded primacy."

"The Christian godfather must guarantee the child's education and upbringing in the faith and how can he do that if his life is in contradiction of the gospel, if it is violent and totally ruled by the god money. There is a total incompatibility here and we've got to be clear about that."

"If Christians in Portugal keep their love for Our Lady strong, I believe that it will also keep their faith alive, which will bring them directly to Jesus."

"My ongoing duty will be to support and strengthen the climate of mutual respect and trust through sincere and constructive dialogue, and I am sure, Mr. President, that I can count on your help and on your kind understanding, as well as on the good intentions and help of all people of good will, regardless of their religious and political affiliations."

"The years of my diplomatic service have taken me to work in different countries with different sensitivities in Church-State relations. In all of them, however, I seemed to perceive a common denominator: the State looks at the Church with attention and interest. Why is this so? Perhaps because the Church has always shown itself to be more inclined to what unites than to what divides."

"We always rank at the bottom of the list when it comes to economy, wealth and wellbeing. Unfortunately, there is no common scale for measuring values, such as intelligence, charity and generosity. Otherwise, we would rank at the top because this small diocese has a big heart."

"We have the power of prayer and we want to pray every time we are afraid; in this case, we must pray that the flow of lava will stop."

"It is necessary to "know oneself and to know". That is crucial. Respect for one's own dignity, for one's own freedom, one's own history, one's own presence is respect for the other who comes along, with his identity, with his consciousness. There is no other way."

"We are diocesan bishops... and here a certain level of responsibility and institutional attention is required"

"The Catholic Church in Ireland which has – in the course of its history and in the spiritual footsteps of its great missionary "Father in the Faith" and in nationhood, St. Patrick – taken the message of Pentecost to heart and zealously spread the Good News of salvation at home and abroad. The Church in Ireland, which counts among its sons and daughters an abundant blossoming of saints – some of whom have paid the ultimate price for their fidelity to Christ."

"Let us rest our dead with dignity and in peace while we await the resurrection, waiting to be able to embrace each other again in eternal life."

"The Gospel is about the poor: if we removed from the Gospel the pages about the poor, only the cover would remain, so if I want to live the Gospel, I must take the poor into account. And if I take the poor into account, perhaps I can really meet Jesus, since he identifies himself with the poor."

"In the international community, the Holy See also has the mission of ensuring that the interdependence between people and nations be developed in a moral and ethical dimension, as well as in the other dimensions and various aspects that relations are acquiring in today's world. One must never tire of encouraging dialogue at all levels, always seeking diplomatic solutions."

"The Pope has placed before us a beautiful goal, this universal brotherhood, which logically, includes women and men, for Saint Francis did not exclude anyone! It is a commitment that begins to daily life, in the relationships that each of us have, and then extends it to the areas of professional or social commitment where we find ourselves, at whatever level. Logically, in the current situation, this is not easy, we cannot hide it and be naïve, but we have a goal and a great hope, for which we are also responsible. Moreover, I have faith that if we try to do our small part, God will do the rest if we let Him."

"Canonization, which everyone admits does not derive directly from faith, is never an actual definition relating to faith or tradition."

"Pretending to be God and parroting his power of creation is an enormous risk that can plunge men into a barbarity. Never forget that there is only one creator: God. In the wrong hands, today's development can lead tomorrow to a devastating leap in the dark."

"True revolution and a concrete change in the world can only come from the saints and from God. In the 1900s we experienced the revolutions, whose spirit was that of not waiting for God, taking the destiny of the world into our own hands. And we saw how that human and partial way of seeing things was seen as the only means of finding one’s way in the world. The Holy Father teaches the act of speaking about things as though they were absolute when they are simply relative, is called totalitarianism. It does not free humans, but instead, takes away their dignity, enslaving them. It is not ideologies that save the world, but turning our attention to the living God, who is our creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is really good and true. The real revolution involves turning our attention completely to God because he is the measure of what is right and is eternal love."

"My relationship with Italy is really a relationship of memory... of colors and shapes whose roots are in my childhood. I am convinced that anyone raised in Italy has unconsciously received a very incisive visual education. Having constantly been exposed to artistic masterpieces of incredible beauty, one implicitly receives an education in taste that remains unmatched."

"The musician who has a picture in front of him has an interpretative funnel and must be careful what happens in the history and images. The other thing is the viewer’s attention. When they are on TV they can easily switch channel. This requires put both the assembly of the story and how the story is told, captures the viewer’s attention constantly."

"Hope is the possibility of always having something to achieve."

"(About the ideal government) I am a candidate for Prime Minister, so I will be the president of the Council and also take on the role of interim Minister of Justice. Travaglio would be an excellent choice for the Ministry of Information, as he is outside the political sphere, while I would put Fiorella Mannoia in charge of Culture. Then I would put the economist w:it:Vladimiro Giacché in charge of the Economy, a worker in charge of Labor, and a police officer in charge of the Interior. We need competent people, not like Castelli, who was an engineer, and Carfagna, let's not even go there..."

"Un magistrato deve essere imparziale quando esercita le sue funzioni ma io confesso che non mi sento del tutto imparziale. Anzi, mi sento partigiano, sono un partigiano della Costituzione."

"Azione Civile è un movimento civico puro, fuori dai partiti, che oggi avvia una campagna di adesione aperta ai cittadini che credono in questo progetto per radicarsi sul territorio."

"Today we have a more civilized mafia and a more mafia-like society. A mafia that increasingly wears suits and ties and a society that changes its clothes too many times a day and chooses to disguise itself. In short, we have entire sections of society that have now internalized the behavioral models of mafiosi. And you can see it in all areas."

"As a people, we have been stripped of monetary sovereignty, but not only monetary sovereignty. We have been stripped of financial sovereignty, we have been stripped of political sovereignty. We are subjects, we are not sovereign in our own country. [...] And this lack of sovereignty, this expropriation of sovereignty, is not an accident, it is not a coincidence. It is part of a precise plan, which is not only Italian [...]. I believe that it is a rearguard battle to say, “We want another Europe, we will build another Europe”: within these institutions and within this Europe, another Europe is impossible. We must tear down this Europe, as it is today, as it is constructed, with its institutions and the primacy of finance over politics that has been established. [...] We must withdraw from the European treaties."

"(About Pietro Grasso) He was a magistrate of great experience, courage, and professional ability, but it must be remembered that he became national anti-Mafia prosecutor thanks to a law passed ad personam by Silvio Berlusconi, which excluded Gian Carlo Caselli, who had more qualifications than Pietro Grasso. Grasso himself said in a famous interview that the Berlusconi government deserved a special award for its anti-Mafia activities. Pietro Grasso is certainly not left-wing, nor has he ever been in his brief forays into politics. Even when Caselli was appointed prosecutor of Palermo in 1992, Grasso was his opponent, the candidate of the then Minister of Justice Martelli. Therefore, he did not have a left-wing position, as the founders of Liberi e Uguali do. He was then supported by the Berlusconi government against Caselli. [...] Grasso has always taken a very cautious stance on many of the Palermo prosecutor's initiatives. He did not want to sign the Palermo prosecutor's appeal against the acquittal of Andreotti in the first instance. When he was my boss, he was very lukewarm about the investigations I had carried out into criminal networks, the State-Mafia negotiations, and the Dell'Utri trial. He has always been a prudent man, legitimately so, but also a cautious magistrate."

"Borsellino once, we were at his house in Marsala one evening, so before he even arrived in Palermo, I remember it clearly even though he didn't give me any precise explanations about it, he said to me, and I quote: "w:it:Pietro Giammanco is a man of Lima," a statement that obviously upset me."

"I would define the case De Magistris as emblematic of what happens when a magistrate finds himself isolated and overexposed, managing an extremely complex and delicate investigation into a tangle of legal and illegal interests involving diverse individuals and circles, on the cusp where criminal, political, and institutional spheres meet. As often happens in areas where integrated criminal systems operate. And I am referring, of course, to the criminal systems associated with the mafia in Sicily and the 'ndrangheta in Calabria."

"The union between occult powers and the mafia is the famous “big game” that Giovanni Falcone was working on. And for which he probably died: and the real instigators of the Capaci bombing have never been found."

"As far as we have been able to ascertain, De Magistris' investigation went far beyond what has become widely known. It went well beyond the wiretapping of Clemente Mastella or the inclusion of Romano Prodi in the register of suspects. I believe that the core of the investigation was precisely the intertwining of criminal powers and other powers in the area. I believe that his case cannot be addressed without taking into account the reality in which De Magistris, often in institutional isolation, operated."

"(About the takeover of the ‘Why Not’ investigation) De Magistris calls it illegitimate, I call it unthinkable. [...] My feeling is that we found ourselves in a situation where autonomy and independence, both internal and external, reached a breaking point. We are truly in a moment of crisis for the rule of law."