Rosario Livatino
Rosario Livatino | |
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| Martyr | |
| Born | Rosario Angelo Livatino 3 October 1952 Canicattì, Sicily, Italy |
| Died | 21 September 1990 (aged 37) Between Canicattì and Agrigento, Sicily, Italy |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 9 May 2021, Agrigento Cathedral, Agrigento, Italy by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro |
| Feast | 29 October |
Rosario Angelo Livatino (Italian pronunciation: [roˈzaːrjo livaˈtiːno]; 3 October 1952 – 21 September 1990) was an Italian magistrate who was murdered by the Stidda, a Sicilian Mafia-type criminal organization.
Biography
[edit]Livatino was born in Canicattì, 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 served 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 21 September 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
[edit]In 1993 the Bishop of Agrigento asked Rosario Livatino's former teacher, Ida Abate, to collect any available testimony for Livatino's beatification.
On 19 July 2011, the Archbishop of Agrigento, Francesco Montenegro, signed the decree to start the diocesan process of beatification, which was officially opened on 21 September 2011 in the church of San Domenico in Canicattì.[2]
During the diocesan phase, 45 people testified about the life and sanctity of Rosario Livatino, including Gaetano Puzzangaro, one of the judge's four mafia killers. He was interviewed in prison by Canicattì journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona for the weekly Panorama magazine in December 2017[3] and for TGcom24 in September 2019.[4]
The closure of the diocesan process was announced on 6 September 2018, and was celebrated on 3 October with a solemn mass in the Church of Sant'Alfonso in Agrigento, presided over by Cardinal Francesco Montenegro.[5] At the end of the celebration, the entire collection of documents and testimonies, consisting of about 4,000 pages, was sent to Rome and was then examined by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Pope John Paul II said that Rosario Livatino was a "Martyr of Justice and in an indirect way, of the Christian Faith".[6]
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 was 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 that John Paul II, in 1993, in the Valley of the Temples, addressed his determined call to the Mafia: "Be converted! one day the judgment of God will come![7]
Livatino is the first blessed magistrate in the history of the Catholic Church.[8]
At the request of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Agrigento and his native municipality, on 15 March 2025 his mortal remains were transferred from the family chapel in the municipal cemetery to the Church of Santa Chiara in Canicattì.[9][10][11]
The Livatino Study Center
[edit]In 2015, the Livatino Study Center was established, a group of jurists who study issues mainly concerning the right to life, family, religious freedom, and the limits of jurisdiction within a framework of institutional balance.
The Center maintains an online website, organizes periodic workshops and an annual conference, as well as publishes the semi-annual juridical journal l-Jus (from a Roman Catholic and thomistic point of view.[12]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Fare il proprio dovere per lo Stato significa essere un eroe Antimafiaduemila.com
- ^ "AGRIGENTO. Al via processo di canonizzazione di Rosario Livatino". Avvenire. 19 July 2011. Archived from the original on 21 September 2018. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
- ^ ""Ho ucciso il giudice Livatino, oggi lo prego e non mi do pace"". Stanze Vaticane. 21 December 2017. Archived from the original on 24 January 2018. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
- ^ "Puntata speciale di Stanze Vaticane, intervista a Gaetano Puzzangaro". Tgcom24. 27 September 2019. Archived from the original on 5 October 2020. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
- ^ "Rosario Livatino: card. Montenegro (Agrigento), "il 3 ottobre si conclude la fase diocesana del processo di canonizzazione"". S.I.R. Servizio Informazione Religiosa. 6 September 2018. Archived from the original on 6 September 2018. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
- ^ "Italian judge killed by Sicilian mafia to be beatified as martyr". the Guardian. 22 December 2020.
- ^ 'convertitevi! Una volta verrà il giudizio di Dio!': Buccini, Goffredo (8 May 2021). "Rosario Livatino, giudice martire, e la lezione per le toghe di oggi". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 9 May 2021.
- ^ "Trentatré anni fa l'uccisione del giudice "ragazzino" Rosario Livatino, il primo magistrato beato" (in Italian). 21 September 2023.
- ^ "Il 15 marzo la traslazione del Corpo del Beato Rosario Angelo Livatino". 8 March 2025. Archived from the original on 9 April 2025.
- ^ "Canicattì, il corpo del beato Livatino traslato dal cimitero alla chiesa di Santa Chiara".
- ^ "Cerimonia di Traslazione delle spoglie di Rosario Livatino". Archived from the original on 27 November 2024.
- ^ "Who we are - Centro Studi Rosario Livatino" (in Italian). Retrieved 10 February 2025.
External links
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