Never before in the history of Montedoro have so many people attended a funeral. The village has been turned back in time in the wheat fields and abandoned sulfur mines of central Sicily.
Its 1,500 residents have been waiting for this moment for more than half a century. On Wednesday, hundreds of people gathered in the village church to pray solemnly around a small white coffin.
Inside is the remains of Lucia Mantione, a 13-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted and murdered in 1955. For 66 years, the Catholic Church has prohibited her from holding a funeral based on a mysterious principle.
73-year-old Rosa Alba said: “This is the day Lucia was redeemed, and it is also the day Montedoro was redeemed.” She knew Lucia as a child and has been trying to convince the church for many years. Admit her mistakes and allow the girl to hold a funeral in the village.
On a cold afternoon on January 6, 1955, Lucia, nicknamed Lucida, left home to buy a box of matches. My mother didn’t see her come back, so she looked for a few hours, looking for her on the street and in the country.
“I remember that day was like yesterday,” Alba said. “In an instant, everyone in the town knew. “Lucia is missing,” they cried. I was horrified.”
Lucia never returned. Her body was found in a farmhouse 1 kilometer from Montedoro on January 9. An autopsy confirmed that she was strangled to death while fighting the assailant. That night, her sulfur miner father knocked on the door of the priest Don Vito Alfano (Don Vito Alfano) of the diocese of Montedoro and arranged for Lucia’s funeral. The priest refused, on the grounds that Catholic law prohibits the holding of funerals for people who have died “violently.
“This is an old principle that applies mainly to people who commit suicide,” said Fr Francisco Stabili, a former theology professor at the University of Palermo and an expert in church history. “However, some priests extended this principle to those who were violently killed. There were some examples of this application in the 19th century. The absurd idea behind this is that if you are killed in a certain way, you are doing something wrong. What. Some priests believe that the violent death keeps this person away from religious groups.”
For several weeks, the police investigated the crime, interviewed villagers and tried to recreate Lucia’s last days, but many people were afraid to speak. At first, the investigation focused on an elderly resident with a criminal record, and this road was quickly abandoned. It is suspected that the murderer of Lucia was a wealthy nobleman. In the post-war years in Italy, he could count on the support of the Mafia.
Lucia got a simple funeral without a funeral in a small cemetery in Montedoro’s cemetery. The Italian authorities and the church have actually ended the case of the girl’s death, but the villagers have never forgotten it.
“The story of Lucia has been passed down from generation to generation,” said Renzo Bufalino, the 40-year-old mayor of Montedoro. “When we were young, they would take us to the cemetery to lay flowers for Lucia’s grave. Her memory has not been forgotten, even by those who did not know her.”
Federico and Carlos Messana, two brothers the same age as Lucia, opened a blog to commemorate her a few years ago and began collecting a series of articles and statements from the time of her disappearance. Federico wrote a long letter to the bishop of the province, Caltanissetta, asking him to intervene in support of giving Lucia a proper religious funeral. “He apologized for what happened at the time and said that he would do everything he could to get his superiors to notice this case.”
Recently, when the prosecutor of Caltanissetta re-examined the case, exhuming Lucia’s body and attempting to extract DNA, a turning point occurred. According to rumors, an object that might contain traces of the murderer’s DNA was found at the crime scene, even after such a long period of time seems unlikely.
The people of Montedoro immediately seized the opportunity and, after nearly seven years, pressured the church to hold a proper funeral for the girl. On Wednesday, the first person to come into contact with Lucia’s coffin was Maria Lucia Mantione (Maria Lucia Mantione), Lucia’s 64-year-old niece and one of her few relatives. She was named after her, even though she never knew her, and came to Montedoro from the northern Italian city of Treviso to attend the funeral.
“You are finally here, dear auntie,” Maria said, crying, clutching the girl’s coffin tightly. “I didn’t expect I would find you.”
“My father, Lucia’s brother, suffered a great deal,” she said. “Because of pain, they left Montedoro and emigrated north. But every day, until they died, they talked about Lucia. I never thought I would be here for her funeral in 66 years.”
Hundreds of people waited for Lucia’s coffin, which Maria and three other women moved out of the church and received loud applause.
“This funeral will be recorded in our history,” Buferino said.
This news has become the headline news in Italy, has become a symbol of the struggle for justice and against religious chauvinism, and it has also become a time to raise awareness. Violence against women And kids.
According to a report by Eures, in 2020, a woman was killed every three days in Italy, and many of them were also sexually abused.
“Today, in Montedoro, we remember not only Lucia, but all the victims of female killings in Italy,” Buferino said. “All women who have been raped and sexually abused. All women, such as Lucia, have not heard their voices for justice for a long time.”
