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| Pontelandolfo rally, August 14, 2009 (Photo courtesy of Agostino Abbaticchio) |
Assembling in the piazzetta the participants, about 40 in all, peacefully made their way to the Chiesa del S.S. Salvatore to commemorate the fallen. However, at the church entrance they were met by the Mayor of Pontelandolfo, Dr. Cosimo Testa, who ignobly informed the attendees that they were in violation of incitement of civil disobedience because of their Bourbon flags. The patriots protested but most of them were barred entry into the church and forbidden to attend the "official" observance with their seditious flags. To add further insult, the Carabinieri harassed the participants by collecting personal information from them as if they were common criminals.
It seems more than a little strange that in a country where mobs of Communists and Moslems can rally (or riot) with impunity that such a small and peaceful gathering would evoke the response it did. (Also, at a time when church attendance is at an all-time low one would imagine they would be happy to have people filling the pews and praying to the memory of the victims.)
In defiance the gatherers sang the Hymn of the Two Sicilies on the church stairs and proudly flew their flags while chanting, "Long live the King" before leaving. They returned to the piazzetta to hold a commemoration of their own, leaving the mayor to perform his ceremony with virtually no one in attendance. The mayor and his color guard further marred this solemn occasion by bearing the Italian tricolor, for in whose name the victims at Pontelandolfo and Casalduni were slaughtered.
