«When we die no one will come to ask us if we were believers, but credible» wrote in his diary the magistrate Rosario Angelo Livatino, born in Canicattì on 3 October 1952 and killed by the mafia on 21 September 1990, along the road – where a stele commemorates his martyrdom – which leads from Agrigento to Caltanissetta. Profoundly Catholic (he was linked to the Christian movement of Catholic Action), “martyr, that is, witness, of truth, justice, duty and also of love”, as Monsignor Domenico De Gregorio, historian of the Agrigento church, remembered him, Rosario Livatino, teacher of faith, justice and charity, was proclaimed blessed by Pope Francis in 2021. On 21 April 1990, just five months before his assassination, he achieved at the University of Palermo the specialization diploma in “Regional urban planning law”, a relatively “new” subject that Livatino had wanted to study in depth thanks to his experience as an investigating magistrate in one of the Italian provinces most marked by building sacking, illegal construction and criminal interests linked to land management.
That articulated and timely thesis, whose title specifically reads «The events of the urban planning discipline in the Sicilian Region: from state legislation to regulatory production», 35 years after its discussion and the assassination of the young magistrate today lives again in a beautiful volume edited by Gaetano Armao for the Treccani encyclopedic library, which makes use of the contributions of magistrates, jurists, university professors, religious people.
The president of the Sicilian Region Renato Schifani signs the presentation recalling that the publication, «which offers an unprecedented perspective on the man of Livatino law, a shining example of integrity, commitment and dedication that continues to inspire the new generations», is among the initiatives of the year of Agrigento Italian Capital of Culture. But the contributions that illuminate the figure of Livatino are numerous and moving, not only the judge-boy, the judge-student or the man who, holding together the demands of law with those of faith, did not forget, as a militant of humanity, the dimension of pietas towards others.
Through all the portraits we learn his gentle and rigorous lesson: sagacious reading of trial data and always at the center of the whole man, his will and his freedom. Freedom also to cultivate doubt for those who have the responsibility of judging, because, as Livatino wrote in his notes, “to decide is to choose and sometimes choosing between numerous things or paths or solutions is one of the most difficult things that man is called to do”.
Welcoming him in this volume, illustrating his journey as a magistrate and the service aimed at the common good, «sub tutela Dei», under the protection or gaze of God, the acronym with which Livatino marked every page of his work, aware as he was of the fallible finiteness of the actions of those who judge, are Massimo Midiri, rector of the University of Palermo, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Alfredo Mantovano, magistrate, undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers who signs the preface, Gaetano Armao, politician and university professor and editor of the volume in which he illustrates the values and path of the jurist magistrate, and the teachers, constitutionalists and scholars engaged in research on the main themes of administrative and regional law, Emanuele Boscolo, Guido Corso, Nicola Gullo, Maria Immordino, Laura Lorello, Andrea Piraino, supervisor of the thesis, Giovanbattista Tona, Caterina Ventimiglia, and, in conclusion, Gaetano Armao again with a further reflection on regional urban planning law and illegal construction.
Then follows the text of Rosario Livatino’s master’s thesis, who in exposing the subject starting from the historical premises and national legislation reaches the issues of Sicilian legislation, showing uncommon critical skills not only in the study of the complex events of urban planning discipline, but also in the far-sighted need for urban recovery and defense of the environment and territory. And at the end of the volume Livatino’s eulogy for Elio Cucchiara, deputy prosecutor of Agrigento, a public speech in which the now blessed young judge indicated the profession of humility that, like Cucchiara, those who are workers of justice must always exercise.