As the parish priest of Caivano, near Naples, the 69-year-old has been at the forefront of community efforts to expose and remedy the illegal disposal of industrial waste by the notorious Camorra in a region now known as the "Land of Fires".
The European Court of Human Rights is set to rule Thursday on claims the Italian state failed to protect residents, whose cancer rates are higher than normal.
"There were fires all the time, day and night, the smoke reached the church, and the smell of burning. It was impossible to survive, it was impossible to breathe," Patriciello told AFP.
"I realised that the funerals I presided over, including of young people or children, of teenagers, were always the result of tumours, leukaemia. And I began to ask myself, what is happening?"
With local authorities, "we began to take an interest in this problem, understanding that the great drama was not urban waste... it was industrial, toxic waste".
They brought together cancer specialists, lawyers and other politicians, and he began to write about what was happening.
The problem became a national scandal in 2013, sparking huge protests in and around Naples.
Since then, Patriciello says, "some things have changed".
"In 2015, a law against environmental crimes was passed... it could have been broader, but the fact is that now if a policeman finds someone polluting our land, he can arrest him. Before, no, so it's a great success," he said.
That year also saw the publication of Pope Francis's encyclical "Laudato si", which laid out the Vatican's case for defending the environment -- inspired, according to Patriciello, by a helicopter flight the pontiff took over the expansive ravaged area.
Then in 2021, "the National Health Institute for the first time had the courage to say what we have already said and denounced on several occasions, the correlation between the polluted environment and health".
According to court documents, the affected area is home to 2.9 million people.
- Decimated families -
The European Court is due to rule on a case brought by 41 residents of the Campania region, alleging that the Italian state knew about the problem but did not inform citizens.
"We are waiting for justice to be done for these poor people, because you cannot imagine how many people we have had to accompany to the cemetery," Patriciello said.
"Over the years, I have lost two brothers, my sister-in-law and my nephew, and one my nieces is currently battling cancer. All of us have been truly decimated, our families have been decimated by cancer."
But he said the campaign was not just for the families in Italy.
"We have always believed that our cry of despair, but also of hope, that this denunciation could be in favour of all humanity," he said.
"Because it is so obvious that man lives on air, water and the products of the soil. But if man is so stupid, so stubborn that he pollutes, poisons the air, the water, the soil, it is normal that then the air, the water and the soil take revenge.
"If we poison them, they poison us in turn."
What can be done?
"The problem is to really achieve good waste management... I do not understand why the waste from the industries of northern Italy must be in Campania," he said.
"Between lazy politicians, dishonest industrialists and our Camorra, a deadly alliance has been created that has really destroyed our territory."
As well as losing relatives, Patriciello has been forced to live under police protection for his efforts.
"Farmers who paid dearly for our denunciations came to my house to advise me to keep quiet. Then a second time they placed a small bomb in front of the gate of my church, and I was forced to be placed under police protection," he recalled.
"My freedom is a little limited, but if that is the price to pay for the good of these people, I am happy."
Mafia waste victims seek justice in Italy's 'Land of Fires'
Caserta, Italy (AFP) Jan 30, 2025 -
After years of feeling "invisible" as she managed her daughter's cancer, Antonietta Moccia said she hopes a European court on Thursday will recognise the Italian government's failures to protect her from toxic waste.
The European Court of Human Rights will on Thursday morning deliver its verdict on allegations Italy was aware of the illegal dumping, burying and burning of hazardous waste by the mafia in Campania, near Naples, but failed to act.
Cancer rates are higher than normal in the region, known as the "Land of Fires" and home to almost three million people -- among them Moccia's daughter Miriam, diagnosed aged five with a brain tumour.
The medulloblastoma that struck Miriam occurs in around 1.5 people in a million in Europe.
But "in the hospital there were three other cases from Acerra", their Campania town of 60,000, Moccia told AFP.
But "we are invisible, nobody listens to us", she said.
Today, she is waiting for the territory to be cleaned up and for compensation "to help other families", saying that she herself received no help except from family and friends.
Fortunately Miriam, now 18, has her cancer "under control" and she "is moving forward and wants to turn the page", her mother said.
The European court has heard a case brought by 41 residents from Caserta or Naples provinces and five local organisations.
For decades, industrial waste -- often from northern Italy -- was burned in the open air in this vast area, which is also known as the "Triangle of Death".
Instead of paying exorbitant sums to have it disposed of legally, companies paid the Camorra mafia a fraction of the cost to dump it in fields, wells and lakes.
Everything from broken sheets of asbestos to car tyres and containers of industrial-strength glue was burned or left to rot, polluting the air, soil and water.
Years after the issue was made public, mounds of rubbish still lie near waterways, along roads, and in fields where sheep and goats graze.
- 'Two heads' -
Alessandro Cannavacciuolo, one of those bringing the case, first knew something was wrong when his sheep in the early 2000s birthed "deformed lambs, with two heads, two tongues, tails on the side".
"We no longer had lambs, but real monsters," the former farmer told AFP.
As his friends and relatives also fell sick, Cannavacciuolo took it upon himself to find and report illegal dump sites -- at great personal risk.
"We are at war. Anyone who raises their voice, anyone who points out these criminal activities, is threatened," he said.
"Our cars have been shot at, our animals have been killed, we have received threatening letters", he added.
In 1997, a mafia turncoat revealed that hazardous waste had been buried in the area since at least 1988, and parliament was informed.
But it was not until 2013 that the government adopted a decree-law officially defining the "Land of Fires".
Since then, a host of parliamentary inquiries have found the authorities negligent and in some cases complicit.
They have also highlighted the health fallout, including an increase in cases of cancer and foetal and neonatal malformations.
In 2018, the Senate's Hygiene and Health Committee said mobster criminality and political inaction had caused an ecological disaster, while in 2021, Italy's National Health Institute officially recognised the correlation between the pollution and cancer.
Neither the government nor the Campania region responded to an AFP request for comment.
Armando Corsini, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said he was not surprised by their silence, saying they have yet to admit responsibility.
The state "has done nothing to protect these victims and ensure that other cases do not occur", he said.
The Strasbourg court is "the last resort, and the ultimate place to have the importance of the responsibility of the Italian State" recognised.
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