(ANSA) - Palermo, September 14 - A square was renamed in
honor of Father Pino Puglisi on Friday, on the eve of the 25th
anniversary of his murder by the mafia.
The Palermo square previously known as Piazzale Anita
Garibaldi will from now on bear his name. The square was where
the priest's home was as well as where he was killed on
September 15, 1993 on his 56th birthday
Italian President Sergio Mattarella said in a statement that
"the Republic recognizes in Puglisi a civilian martyr who died
for values of solidarity, justice, equality, and respect for the
inviolable rights of the human, which constitutes the vital core
of the Republican Constitution and the engine for our social
model.
He added that "there is no going back from what he left us.
It is a shared commitment that involves all the Republican
institutions and, at the same time, every citizen and member of
society."
For the anniversary of his death, Italian prime minister
visited the Father Pino Puglisi School in Palermo and told them
the priest was "a grain that gave a copious harvest, we could
say".
He added that "today there is a mafia that is ever more
finance-oriented. It seeks money, runs after money and develops
in a chameleon-like manner, becoming less noticeable. The state
will have ever more problems (to fight the mafia, Ed.) and it
must never let down its guard."
"However," he said, "the best way to fight is it like this",
at schools, since in this way "the mafia sees its development
strategies undermined. Its lifeblood is lessened".
The head of the Chamber of Deputies justice committee, Giulia
Sarti, added that "he was an independent, courageous man to whom
democratic Italy owes a great deal. His work as an educator, his
bravery and his open challenge to the Brancaccio mafia bosses -
from whom he wanted to take their young 'workforce' - bear
witness to a civil act of boundless value."
Pope Francis will remember Puglisi during a weekend trip to
Sicily, his second to the island since 2013 when he travelled on
to the migrant stepping-stone island of Lampedusa.
The pontiff is expected to issue another ringing condemnation
of the mafia.
Tributes to Puglisi on 25th anniversary
Square named in his honor, president calls him 'civilian martyr'