Matteo Messina Denaro, his daughter Lorenza was also at the armored funeral

The coffin of former boss Matteo Messina Denaro was buried this morning at Castelvetrano cemetery. Behind the hearse that arrived from L’Aquila, there were three cars with the relatives of the former fugitive on board: Lorenza Guttadauro, her niece and her lawyer (the only one to have seen Messina Denaro’s body after his death), the sisters Bice and Giovanna and brother Salvatore. Among the other family members, also Vincenzo Panicola (husband of Patrizia Messina Denaro, in prison together with his sister Rosalia and many other relatives) and some nephews. Also present was her newly recognized daughter, Lorenza.

The Trapani police headquarters had arranged that the funerals were armored and lasted a few minutes. They were not religious. Messina Denaro had confirmed his opinion in a note found by the ROS carabinieri in the Campobello di Mazara hideout after his arrest: «I reject any religious celebration because it is made up of unclean men who live in hatred and sin”, it was written. «It is not those who proclaim themselves the soldiers of God who can decide and execute my lifeless body, they will not be the ones who refuse my funeral».

But, regardless of his will, it is the church itself that prohibits religious funerals for the mafiosi. The bishop of Mazara del Vallo Giurdanella reiterated this. “Right now we as the Church are on the side of the victims, we are on the side of justice», he explained to Ansa, «so that people who have suffered every form of atrocious violence, resulting in death, can feel accompanied by urgent processes that civil society, law enforcement, the judiciary but also the school and ecclesiastical community must start, to free this territory from the culture of oppression, of arrogance, of the logic of the strongest”. The burial of Matteo Messina Denaro was in the chapel where his father was also buriedthe boss Francesco Ciccio Messina Denaro, who died as a fugitive.

Why the autopsy

The Palermo and L’Aquila prosecutors ordered the autopsy, which was carried out yesterday afternoon by Chieti’s medical examiner Cristian D’Ovidio. The exam has confirmed death from natural causes, colon cancer. It was carried out not only for a detailed report on the health conditions of the former boss, but also to clear the field of possible future legal actions by, perhaps, representatives of associations that have long been fighting against the so-called hard prison regime , as explained byActFor avoid disputes on the effect of 41 bis for mafia inmates on a cancer patient.