The “Black Knight” and another “brother” don’t fit. And in recent days they have filed a long complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office against other “brothers”. For a scenario of alleged “purges” and “revenges” carried out in the shadow of the lodges which causes great turmoil not only in the Messina freemasonry but also in the Sicilian and national one. A scenario that folds “… in the context of the national electoral campaign” for the renewal of the leaders of the Grand Orient of Italy”, where the list of which the “Black Knight” was part led a battle against mafia infiltration and also “… of subjects extraneous to its aims and principles”.
In a city like Messina which is among the most “cultivated” from this point of view, a real “war” has broken out for some time now with strong contrasts and also very loud abandonments of leading figures.
The “Black Knight” – as he was called in some denigrating chats, and as he reconstructs in his own complaint – is one of these, a very well-known professional from Messina, the notary Silverio Magno, a figure of national importance within the brotherhood and several times candidate for top positions within it.
In recent days he filed a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office in Messina, together with another “brother”, in which he hypothesizes the crimes of stalking, defamation and violation of correspondence against other exponents of Messina, Sicilian and national freemasonry. And who has suffered, as he himself writes, via email, both personally and to the email address of the Messina College of Notaries, threats and “… seriously defamatory messages”. He has even been described “… like a terrorist, an arms dealer, a person under investigation by the postal police and the DDA”.
And in the context of the same message sent to the College of Notaries, the authors, obviously still anonymous, warned «… that, in case of inertia on their part, a new message of identical content would also be sent to the national heads of the notaries and to “their” anti-mafia directorate».
The investigation, in the Prosecutor’s Office in Messina, is obviously in its first steps. But apparently the first investigative activities have already been carried out with the acquisition of documents in some Masonic offices and some “people informed of the facts” have been interviewed.
The complaint originates from a disciplinary proceeding within the Grand Orient of Italy which in the language of the lodges is initiated with the so-called “table of accusation”. Magno – as he says in the complaint – has suffered four in recent months, three personally and a fourth together with the other plaintiff. According to what emerges from the documents, the procedure ended with the expulsion of the Messina notary from the Goi, in a context characterized by a progressive and profound contrast with the current governance, which developed during the recent electoral campaign for the renewal of the management positions. The fracture occurred when Magno publicly denounced the risk of mafia infiltration within Masonic life and its circuits of influence, taking an openly critical position with respect to internal power structures. According to what he writes in the complaint, this stance would have led to the initiation of disciplinary action and, subsequently, expulsion from obedience. But despite the expulsion from the Goi, Magno appears to be currently at the top of his own lodge in Messina, “La Ragione n. 333”, which, after the “purge” has decided to suspend its affiliation to the Grand Orient of Italy, continuing its activity according to the so-called “lodge of San Giovanni”, an expression which indicates Masonic lodges that operate autonomously and do not formally recognize themselves in any obedience.
However, the story does not end in a single case. Indeed, the complaint raises a broader question relating to the coherence and fairness of internal disciplinary action. In the documents and in the defense reconstruction, a recent fact in the public domain is in fact recalled: Alfonso Tumbarello, indicated as the doctor who treated the mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, appears to have been sentenced in the first instance to 16 years of imprisonment and affiliated with the Grand Orient of Italy. Following the conviction, Tumbarello would have proceeded with self-suspension, without, at present, the adoption of a formal expulsion measure by the Goi governance. The comparison that emerges from the documents therefore appears clear: on the one hand the notary from Messina, expelled after having reported the risk of mafia infiltration, on the other a person like Tumbarello, involved in legal matters, for whom similar expulsion measures were not adopted.
This climate of tension and conflict has generated a “widespread ferment” in numerous lodges, particularly evident in Messina. And the “ferment” is only just beginning. As well as the investigation in the Prosecutor’s Office.