Don Patriciello: "Adriano, I forgive you. Get up and start living again."

Caivano – "You're so young, don't give up, but ask for forgiveness and get back up. My forgiveness has already been given, but if you need it, call." With the same sensitivity that made him a symbol of the fight against the Camorra, Don Maurizio Patriciello broke his silence the day after the news that shocked Caivano and the Veneto region: the young reporter Adriano Cappellari, until yesterday believed to be the victim of a series of threats related to his articles, is being investigated by the Vicenza Prosecutor's Office for feigning a crime.

According to investigators, he himself orchestrated the intimidating incidents, including the explosive device that exploded outside his home, which also cost him the assignment of an escort.

The parish priest of Parco Verde doesn't raise his voice. He recalls meeting "that clean-cut young journalist" in Enego, in the Vicenza province, as a guest of the parish priest, Don Federico Meneghel. "Intelligent, polite, knowledgeable," Don Maurizio recounts. "In February, I received an anonymous letter threatening death for me, Giorgia Meloni, and Cappellari himself. I reported everything. I learned that a similar letter had reached him months earlier. I felt sorry for this young man forced to endure bullying. I was enraged by the cowards who threatened him."

Then came the bitterness of what the Carabinieri of Bassano del Grappa found. "I was shocked," the priest confided. "Not for a moment would I have thought that that kind-hearted young man could do something so serious and so stupid. The bitterness remains in realizing that evil refuses to die: it attacks everyone, infiltrates everywhere, defiles everything."

But it is in his final appeal, addressed by name, that Don Patriciello condenses his entire message. "Adriano, if this accusation is confirmed, pay your debt to justice. Tell the whole truth. Ask forgiveness from your parents, from your wonderful Enego, from Don Federico, from the police, from the Prosecutor's Office, from Giorgia Meloni, and from me. Get up. Start living again." Then a final, heartfelt warning: "Lies are the devil's favorite child. A trap, a plague. You must flee from them at lightning speed. Living a lie is like living in hell. Have a good life, boy."