Bishop Antonio Riboldi and his fight against the Camorra

When in 1987 Mgr Antonio Riboldi, Bishop of Acerra, close to Naples, came to Malta as a speaker for the Cana Movement, the island was in a turmoil because on the brutal murder of the young Raymond Caruana and the frame-up of Peter Paul Busuttil.

On hearing the news, Bishop Riboldi asked me to take him to see the two families. This is what he used to do in the aftermath of Camorra and Mafia murders. The families were moved to tears by his words and blessing, but the local left-wing politicians and press cast all sorts of judgements for this ‘foreign interference’.

Bishop Riboldi died aged 94 a week ago and was mourned by all Italy as he was considered as the “bishop who fought the Camorra and the Mafia”. Pope Francis and Italian President Sergio Mattarella sent their condolences. In Acerra and Naples, flags flew at half-mast and Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Archbishop of Naples, officiated at his funeral Mass.

It was the wish of Bishop Riboldi to be buried in the Cathedral of Acerra among the people he loved and defended against the violence of the Camorra.

Bishop Riboldi was born in Triuggio, close to Milan, on January 16, 1923. When he went for pastoral work in Bellice, Sicily, in 1958, there was the prejudiced belief that northern Italian people could not understand the country’s south. This was not true for the 35-year-old Riboldi.

On the night between January 14 and 15, 1968, the area was hit by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake. Thousands of homeless people ended up living in wooden huts for years because the funds sent to help them was stolen by the Mafia. The area was devastated and Mgr Riboldi had to struggle on two fronts: the government and the Mafia.

He won through his pastoral care and prayer. He always said his mission was to “announce the Gospel to the poor and to denounce corruption”. Not all bishops and priests had this Jesus-like courage, for there were some cases of association with the Mafia.

The years in Bellice were a training ground for young Riboldi, when Pope Paul VI choose him to fill the troubled See of Acerra.

In 2009, he presented me with his book I figli del Terremoto. He did not mince his words and wrote: “When we went to Santa Ninfa we did not get a festive welcome, for the rural area was dominated by a violent Mafia who ran the whole area and did not allow any room for freedom of movement, action or words. They could not accept me as a priest who speaks out. We had only to bow our heads and respect their laws. This from the start I did not accept. It was against my dignity and mission.”

This was all in preparation for a much harder mission in Acerra, where the Camorra did not want him. In an interview he said: “The situation here is much worse. I will continue my mission. I will go among the people to fight fear, bureaucracy and the filters of power, so as to announce the Gospel.”

When after the earthquake I led a delegation of five from Unicef to inspect the area and to propose some projects, my friends, mostly non-Catholics, were impressed by his ordinary lifestyle. He was always grateful to me for the three children’s projects Unicef provided, and every so often when in Milan we met at San Raffaele Hospital for a pizza.

In a short time, ‘Don Riboldi’ became a symbol of the Christian way of life to free Belice and Acerra from the grip of the Mafia and the Camorra.