‘Meloni’s response left me stunned’: the Italian priest taking on the mafia

Maurizio Patriciello has had police protection since a bombing near his church in Caivano, Naples, but he vows to keep fighting crime

Father Maurizio Patriciello is running late. I'm waiting for my bodyguards," he says by text message.

He is neither a celebrity nor a politician but a parish priest in Caivano, a desolate, crime-ridden town on the outskirts of Naples. He has been living under police protection ever since a bomb, accompanied by the message get out of our way", exploded by the gate of his church.