Rosario Livatino

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Rosario Angelo Livatino (Italian pronunciation: [roˈzaːrjo livaˈtiːno]; October 3, 1952 – September 21, 1990) was an Italian magistrate who was killed by Stidda.

Blessed

Rosario Livatino
Giudice Rosario Livatino.jpg
Layman; Martyr
BornRosario Angelo Livatino
(1952-10-03)3 October 1952
Canicattì, Sicily, Italy
Died21 September 1990(1990-09-21) (aged 37)
Between Canicattì and Agrigento, Sicily, Italy
Venerated inRoman Catholic Church
Beatified9 May 2021, Agrigento Cathedral, Agrigento, Italy by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro
Feast29 October
PatronageLawyers

Biography[]

Livatino was born in Canicattì, in Sicily. After successfully completing high school, he entered the university Law Faculty in Palermo in 1971, and graduated in 1975. Between 1977 and 1978 he serviced as vice-director in the Register Office in Agrigento. In 1978, after being among the top percentage in the Judiciary audit, he was assigned a post as magistrate at the court at Caltanissetta.

In 1979 he became "sostituto procuratore" (deputy prosecutor) at the Agrigento court, a position he kept until 1989, when he was appointed assistant judge (giudice a latere). He was murdered on September 21, 1990, along route SS 640 by four killers, as he travelled without bodyguard to the court. The assassins had been paid by the Stidda of Agrigento.[1]

During his career, Livatino worked against corruption, and gained success in a number of cases, obtaining the seizure of large sums of money and property and the arrest of senior figures in organised crime.

His story inspired a novel, Il giudice ragazzino ("The Boy Judge"), written by Nando Dalla Chiesa in 1992, and this was made into a film with the same title in 1994 by director Alessandro di Robilant.

Beatification process[]

In 1993 the Bishop of Agrigento asked Rosario Livatino's former teacher, Ida Abate, to collect any available testimony for Livatino's beatification.

Pope John Paul II said that Rosario Livatino was a "Martyr of Justice and in an indirect way, of the Christian Faith".[2]

In December 2020, Pope Francis approved the decree of martyrdom proposed by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Servant of God Rosario Angelo Livatino has been officially proclaimed Blessed on Sunday, 9 May 2021, in the Cathedral of Agrigento, Sicily by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on the same day John Paul II, in 1993, at the Valley of the Temples, addressed his peremptory invitation to the Mafia: "Convert! once God's judgment will come![3]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Fare il proprio dovere per lo Stato significa essere un eroe Antimafiaduemila.com
  2. ^ "Italian judge killed by Sicilian mafia to be beatified as martyr". the Guardian. December 22, 2020.
  3. ^ Buccini, Goffredo (2021-05-08). "Rosario Livatino, giudice martire, e la lezione per le toghe di oggi". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 2021-05-09.

External links[]

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