Il casalese di Dio. Don Peppe Diana. Storia. Omicidio. Verità

On the morning of 19 March 1994 in Casal di Principe, whilst preparing to celebrate Mass in his church, the parish of San Nicola, Father Giuseppe Diana was brutally murdered with four gunshots. He was 35 years old. More than thirty years on, following a trial that long ago established the legal truth of the case, and whilst the launch of the process towards opening a diocesan inquiry into the recognition of the Casalese parish priest’s martyrdom has been announced, Antonio Mattone has set out once again from Casal di Principe with the aim of answering one question: why was Father Peppe Diana killed? On the difficult journey to find an answer, Mattone met dozens of people – those to whom Don Peppe was most deeply dear and some of those who, in various capacities, were involved in his murder. He entered homes, churches and prisons with sensitivity and asked everyone both old and new questions. The result is a courageous and necessary book, from which finally emerges a fully rounded portrait of a complex, often flamboyant personality, for whom the label of “anti-Camorra priest” immediately proved too narrow and faded, both to support a truth that remains unclear and, above all, to show who Don Peppe Diana really was: a priest loyal to the Church’s mission and a man devoted to the good of his people.