President of the Council of Ministers Giorgia Meloni’s message to Father Maurizio Patriciello, parish priest of San Paolo Apostolo di Caivano (Naples), on the occasion of the Holy Mass in memory of Giuseppe Salvia, deputy director of the Poggioreale prison in Naples who was killed on 14 April 1981.
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Dear Don Maurizio,
thank you for your letter and for the words of affection and encouragement. Italy could not do without people like you who, every day, serve their communities and do not resign themselves to the idea that nothing can be changed. Men and women who can’t manage to turn a blind eye and who don’t think twice about stepping up when needed, knowing that, far from being useless, good deeds always bear fruits.
Hope and goodness are contagious: they spread, and radically change whatever they touch. Like the light of a candle in the dark, that not even all the world’s darkness can extinguish. Giuseppe Salvia, whom you will be remembering at today’s mass, was and is such a light; one of those many lights, one of those many ‘candles’, that light up the dark.
Giuseppe served the State with honour and did not bow down before an arrogant criminal who, at that moment in time, thought he was untouchable and above the law and the institutions. Giuseppe showed that was not the case. He did not compromise; he did his duty, to the full, and paid for that choice with his life. His sacrifice, however, was not in vain, because his light has in turn illuminated the commitment of so many, especially in your community, and indeed continues to do so. A community that, of course, also has its difficulties and its problems to face, but is not ‘condemned’. Even the most complex of situations can rise from the darkness and shine with new light. This is possible, also by following the example of Giuseppe, who never stopped doing his duty. Every day.
This is the most important lesson that Salvia taught us: not to do whatever is most convenient, or most useful, but only what is right. For us, the right thing was to ensure that anti-mafia legislation, starting with the hard prison regime for mafia convicts, as devised by Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, could continue to be operational, representing a key tool for the State to combat organised crime. A clear and strong message that the State is present and has no intention of backing down.
The battle against all mafias continues and we will do everything we can to win it.
[Courtesy translation]