OMCOM – OSSERVATORIO SULLE MAFIE (EN)

ONE HUNDRED YEARS SINCE THE BIRTH OF ANTONINO CAPONNETTO, MAN AND JUDGE AGAINST THE MAFIE

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Naples - Florence  ||  | 05 September 2020
Iniziative (EN) - OMCOM – Osservatorio Mediterraneo sulle Mafie (EN)

The celebrations for the centenary of the birth of Nino Caponnetto, Judge creator of his historic Pool or "Nonno Nino" for the thousands and thousands of children, took place in Florence and Naples (OMCOM headquarters and the Museum of Peace - MAMT) met, until the last moment of his life, in the schools of all our forgetful Italy.
"He loved Florence, he was loved by it and still is today. He loved Palermo, he was loved but not enough. He chose to be a judge. Without saying anything to his wife, he replaced Rocco Chinnici killed with the Lebanese method by Cosa Nostra. He obtained the first sentence of the Constitutional Court as Magistrate in his first position. He fought in Africa and came back full of nightmares and lined up for peace. He spoke to young people from all over Italy. He created the first anti-mafia pool with four musketeers: Falcone, Borsellino, Guarnotta, Di Lello. He loved his wife Betta for 61 years until her death. He defended the Constitution. He was the first, in the history of our country, to have over 400 mafia bosses sentenced definitively. He wept for the death of his 'children' Falcone and Borsellino. He said 'it's all over', immediately regretting it ".

Thus writes of Antonino Caponnetto Salvatore Calleri, president of the Foundation that bears the name of the Judge, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of his birth on 5 September 1920.
So that remembering the greatness of Caponnetto is also in that very human and desperate "It's all over" pronounced the day after the Capaci massacre.
That moment of weakness, which made us love him so much, won a moment later thanks also to the many young people who began to stand under his window to make him feel that it was not all over and that on his legs, together with him, they still had to walk the ideas of the many killed.
"Remembering Antonino Caponnetto is, today, paying homage to the life of a man who has made his existence concrete testimony of profound values, those that give meaning to our being men and women, those who live in daily respect for democracy, legality but, above all , of coherence of deeds and words ”says the president of the Fondazione Mediterraneo Michele Capasso in celebrating the nineteenth anniversary at the Museum dedicated to Nino Caponnetto.
A congruent life, in the midst of the many empty words of today, a lot of easy chatter. Lives whose actions it is enough to look at to understand their moral, human and political coherence.
Very few know that, for example, it was Antonino Caponnetto in his first assignment as a young praetor in Prato, who referred to the Constitutional Court the two provisions of the text on Public Security which prohibited leaflets, obtaining the first two sentences of the Constitutional Court.
Thus confirming the newborn Article 21 of our Constitution for which everyone has the right to "freely express their thoughts by word, writing or other means of dissemination".
Antonino Caponnetto himself, who about forty years later wrote that: “... the Constitution is a life lesson; it's everyday life ”. A man who arrived in Palermo in Rocco Chinnici's studio when the seals placed after the murder were still there and who returned to Florence with the load of events that should have remained in the memory of everyone, especially the young. Had the so-called "adults" disappointed him?
What is certain is that he began touring Italy to talk to young people about the Constitution, the value of being active and aware citizens and about Democracy, in which we are lucky enough to be able to live.
Memorable are the words in Bergamo in 1995:
“In America (nb. The Constitution) it is learned by heart in the first grade. And a person cannot obtain American citizenship if he does not pass a thorough examination of his knowledge of the Constitution ... In our country, however, the Constitution is a mysterious object. Something you hear about every now and then ... It was born on the basis of the Resistance, which young people today no longer know, because they do not teach these things in schools. And he merged three experiences that had formed a common front in the Resistance: the Catholic social one, the liberal one and the Marxist socialist one ... ”.
Harmonize and never divide, divulge with the simple story of facts experienced firsthand. This is the enormous strength of Caponnetto's teaching. And turn to young people, dedicating the last part of his intense life to them. Because you can't fool young people, young people feel if those in front of them really believe in it.
Young people the empty speeches of those who speak to speak smell them like truffle dogs.
"Guys ... Never be afraid to think, denounce and act as free and aware men".
Caponnetto was Verità, whether he was the judge who created his historic Pool or "Nonno Nino" for the thousands and thousands of children he met, up to the last moment of his life, in the schools of all of our forgetful Italy.