March 19, 2024 / 02:48 PM
Pope Francis sent a letter this Tuesday to Bishop Angelo Spinillo, Bishop of Aversa (Italy), on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the death of Father Giuseppe Diana, who gave his life to the service of the community and was a victim of the mafia at the age of 36.
The priest, affectionately known as Don Peppe, was brutally murdered with two shots to the head by the Camorra, the mafia of the Italian region of Campania, while he was preparing to celebrate Mass on Sunday, March 19, 1994 in the church of St. Nicola di Bari, commune of Casal di Principe.
Throughout his ministry, Fr. Diana was a staunch opponent of the Camorra. In the 1980s, he established a reception center for African immigrants in Campania to protect them from recruitment by the mafia.