Bitter Winter A magazine on religious liberty and human rights I was in the Lithuanian spa resort of Druskininkai for a rare holiday Many if not most of the main Italian TV channels and newspapers wanted to know my opinion about a horrible crime In the Sicilian village of Altavilla Milicia a man called Giovanni Barreca had tortured and killed his wife Antonella and two sons then had called the police inviting the agents to come and arrest him Barreca claimed he had to kill his wife and sons because they were possessed by the devil It was reported that Barreca’s third child she confessed she had been her father’s accomplice and was arrested.  One of the few sources of information for the media was Barreca’s Facebook page He had posted there religious material about prophecies and exorcisms from several different sources including videos featuring Roberto Amatulli a former hairdresser from Bari turned self-appointed Evangelical preacher and itinerant exorcist Since Amatulli had already been denounced by investigative journalists and by fellow Evangelicals as a fraud there was enough material online to write articles about him while there was almost nothing about Barreca.  Some journalists depicted Amatulli both as a charlatan whose aim was to collect money from his naive followers and the inspirer of the Altavilla Milicia crime Many Italian Evangelicals would concur with the first assessment Anybody can post his videos on social media but those who tried to involve him in the crime will hear from his lawyer Few journalists paused to reflect that a charlatan out for his followers’ money normally would not incite them to kill their relatives They will end out in jail and will stop sending money to him While Amatulli slowly exited the media reports (but not entirely) were arrested and accused of having participated in the homicides and the presumption of innocence should obviously be respected the authorities believe there is evidence they were part of a prayer group that met in Barreca’s home and talked a lot about the dangerous action in the world of Satan and his minions they also participated in the deadly “exorcisms.” If there were other persons in addition to Barreca and the Palermo couple who participated in these prayer meetings they have not yet been clearly identified and it seems they did not suspect that a crime was in the making A religious post by Massimo Carandente on Facebook: “There are no limits for my God He is the God of the impossible.”After the breaking news came the op-eds and the comments I was interviewed during Italy’s most watched talk show Anti-cultists of the FECRIS persuasions were also interviewed by some important media who has also worked with CESNUR but has her own organization the word “setta” (“cult”) started to be liberally used Since Italy has witnessed some real crimes perpetrated by Satanists (including the homicides by the “Beasts of Satan” between 1998 and 2004) several media insisted that Barreca and his friends were members of a “Satanic cult.” I kept explaining that it was the other way around the deadly Sicilian trio believed to be on a mission for Jesus to combat Satan and destroy the devil’s minions even the FECRIS fellows agreed that Satanists had nothing to do with what happened It was not difficult to ascertain that Barreca had attended the services of the Pentecostal church of his village Having written several books on religious minorities in Sicily I happen to know that Pentecostal church as both respectable and respected Certainly the Pentecostal Church of Altavilla Milicia could not be held responsible for Barreca’s crimes.  Some anti-cultists, however, do not particularly like the Pentecostals. The representative of one of Italy’s FECRIS affiliates told the daily “Repubblica,” speaking of the alleged “cult” of Barreca that “Often these cults arise in the environment of Evangelicalism or Pentecostalism They are churches that espouse the idea that each pastor has his own discernment It is easier then for cells to break away from the official church who led the 1978 mass suicide with over 900 deaths was a pastor belonging to the evangelical Pentecostal church.” One problem here is that as all serious scholars of the Guyana mass suicide know Jim Jones was a pastor of the Disciples of Christ a denomination that is not Pentecostal.  the Italian anti-cultists did not resist the temptation of using the Altavilla Milicia murders to vituperate against “cults” in general readers were told that the problem is that “sects hide behind drug prevention initiatives proposed to schools.” Indeed the Church of Scientology does propose drug prevention initiatives in schools but what this has to do with Barreca’s crimes is unclear Another FECRIS representative appeared in television to criticize the “New Age” and the “psycho-cults.” The spokesperson of the populist opposition party Five Star Movement used Barreca’s crimes to call for a commission investigating “cults.” There might have been four persons (including Barreca’s daughter) who met to share their fear of the devil and their paranoias about conspiracies and to express them in the religious language they knew But in the equally tragic case of the infant killed in Polistena the language was Catholic The language is not important. It comes from memories, or from the Internet. What is important is that in a country where slightly more than 20% of the population (before COVID: probably they are less now) is regularly in touch with organized religion yet only 7% identify themselves at atheists there is an enormous religious Far West inhabited by those who are interested in some form of religion or spirituality but seek it outside of the institutional religious organizations Luigi Berzano and other sociologists have studied the proliferation of “do-it-yourself” religions where Italians pursue religious interests individually or in small groups the vast majority of these micro-groups do not commit crimes carnages such as the one that terrorized the quiet village of Altavilla Milicia would occur daily Although we may suspect that there are thousands of such groups—normally Four friends praying at home and even sharing apocalyptic or conspiracy theories do not leave a trace We may have different opinions about the Jehovah’s Witnesses the Unification Church or the Church of Scientology but harassing them as France or Japan do would not in any way prevent the pulverization of the sacred and the functioning of groups of two or ten people that no parliamentary commission on “cults” nor anti-cult governmental agency would identify They are simply part of a different phenomenon Massimo Introvigne at #1 Italian talk show “Porta a Porta” with anchorman Bruno Vespa The talk show also hosted anti-cultists who offered a different point of view.A final comment for our non-Italian readers most national and local (Sicilian) media contacted CESNUR for information and comments—although some contacted the anti-cultists whose freedom of expression I am certainly not proposing to limit it was not the anti-cult narrative that prevailed in the media The “cult” of Altavilla Milicia was quickly constructed something similar would have happened due to the presence of INFORM as an independent information center on religious and spiritual pluralism The absence of institutions such as CESNUR or INFORM explains why in Japan when an incident such as the assassination of Shinzo Abe happened only the anti-cult lawyers and their publicists were heard by the media But one that it is perhaps not too late to solve From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale La leggenda di Torino come “città del Diavolo” deriva da memorie ottocentesche ma anche da uno scherzo goliardico della fine degli anni 1960 « Bitter Winter » a obtenu un document intéressant sur les relations entre l’anti-sectes russe le plus en vue et la célèbre fédération anti-sectes européenne 旧統一教会が解散になると、忌まわしき「ディプログラミング（拉致監禁・強制改宗）」がまた引き起こされる The legend of Turin as the “city of the Devil” derives from nineteenth-century memories but also from a goliardic prank of the late 1960s CESNURVia Confienza 1910121 TorinoItalyinfo@bitterwinter.org Copyright © 2025 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Another tragic chapter is added to the Altavilla Milicia massacre in which Kevin was killed together with his 5-year-old brother and his mother Antonella Salamone during a crazy exorcism of his father aided by two religious fanatic friends and his other 17-year-old daughter managed to bite Sabrina Fina and kick Massimo Carandente the two self-styled "healers" who participated in the atrocious crime A strenuous defense that did not save his life the signs of his desperate attempts were found on the body of the woman who before making use of the right not to answer said that the problem of Kevin's family was aggression boy's The circumstance emerges from the precautionary custody order in prison against Giovanni Barreca, Massimo Carandente and Sabrina Fina. Barreca's daughter, a 17-year-old girl who admitted her responsibilities and claimed responsibility for her actions, is also imprisoned for the crime Today a procession of school children and young people welcomed the bodies of Kevin and his brother « I told my daughter that her partner left It is located in another municipality in Italy He had to leave because his father had found another job What could I say to my five-year-old daughter » says the mother of a classmate from the kindergarten attended by Emanuel without being able to hold back her tears Mayor Pino Virga proclaimed city mourning and organized the funeral chapel in the city council headquarters The two coffins were accompanied in procession to the Zucchetto hall of the Municipality Many went to pray and say goodbye to the victims of a crime that caused shock and great emotion in the town we must look forward and go back to living The Municipality is obviously close to the family from an emotional and material point of view when Antonella Salamone's remains will be returned we will organize another moment of sharing" «At this stage it is good to remain silent and the community was very impressed by what happened - said Marshal Ettore Cannabina It touched those who intervened and those who had to endure all this Also at the funeral home was the Archbishop of Palermo Corrado Lorefice «We must be wary of those who say they are healers or saints But it is also the sign of mental fragility and perhaps the consequence of an approach that we Westerners have given ourselves We have given up on the true face of God and others risk taking over Tutte le notizie del giorno aggiornate minuto per minuto 2021 L'Unione Sarda S.p.A | Indirizzo della Sede Legale: Piazzetta L'Unione Sarda nr | Codice Fiscale ed iscrizione presso l'Ufficio Registro Imprese di Cagliari 01687830925 (P.I stai utilizzando un browser non supportato Per visualizzare al meglio il sito de L’Unione Sarda.it ti consigliamo di scaricare l’ultima versione di uno dei browser supportati: Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.