Palermo, traders protesting against the Curia: "The new path for communions eliminates our turnover"

Holding signs reading "Today we are here to make communion", "The sacraments unite", over thirty traders, including florists, photographers, owners of wedding favor shops, gathered this morning for a sit-in in front of the archbishop's palace in via Matteo Bonello in Palermo. Their objective is to express discomfort due to the drop in turnover recorded after two years ago the Curia decided to change the path to achieving first communion and confirmation, establishing that it would no longer last 2 years but five.

"We are not the sacrilegious people who only think about lost profits - explains Giovanni Felice, president of Confimprese Palermo - in the city there were 3,500 communions a year. Following the Curia's decision, we had estimated around twenty million losses a year but, unfortunately, in recent days we have realized that the figure is much higher, we are talking about 30 million. To date the turnover is zero, no communions will be celebrated in the city since 2026 and probably the situation is expected to be the same for the next four years. We only ask that the courses be intensified: in some churches there is only one lesson a week, in others one every fortnight. So, in the first case, there are about forty lessons a year and in the second case, twenty. Instead of organizing the courses once a week, they could be intensified, doing them twice, in order to shorten the five years".

Traders and trade associations ask for a meeting with the archbishop of Palermo, Corrado Lorefice. "We cannot understand why the word faith cannot go hand in hand with the word work - says Manuela Gandolfo, owner of a historic wedding favor shop - We had around 300 communions a year. Many of us have suffered an economic loss ranging between 30 and 50%. I am a very religious person, but I don't think that this situation brings more young people closer to the faith. We have been called 'shameful merchants of the temple' or 'whitewashed tombs' but it's not like that, we are simply people who go to work every day to bring bread home".

"This year we have recorded a 30% drop in turnover, we are only asking for a discussion table to express our discomfort - says Raffaele Marchese, photographer - we are not against the Church. We are with the Church, but we want to find a common solution to be able to keep our families going".