Collesano spiritual leader denies taking money for exorcisms
Father Giulio, whose real name is Giambattista Scozzaro, denies all the accusations contained in the judicial police report transmitted to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Termini Imerese, as reported by the Giornale di Sicilia in recent days. In particular, the religious – who was placed under house arrest last February, along with a 50-year-old doctor, in a delicate issue related to the latter’s divorce – through his lawyers Antonio Ingroia and Antonio Maltese, refutes “the false news of the alleged founding of a religious sect” and that he “received around 500,000 euros, of which almost half, about 200,000, was allegedly paid by the doctor” (the other suspect), “to perform exorcisms,” while the physician “even convinced his followers to take psychotropic drugs, diagnosing mental disorders.”
According to the friar’s lawyers, none of these claims are true, as well as other considerations – also taken from the police report – in which it was highlighted that “Father Scozzaro had a religious approach based on isolation and demonization of anyone who does not share his actions, and that this modus operandi could lead more people to attempt suicide or others to threaten rebellious followers with death.” According to the investigators, Scozzaro kept his followers together by instilling in them the fear of an imminent apocalypse and presenting his Casa Mariana in Collesano as the only place of salvation, but also exerted total control over the finances of the doctor’s family, obtaining the donations necessary for the construction of the place of worship. However, the suspect’s defense lawyers deny all of this, also contesting the assertion that “Father Scozzaro was preparing his followers for the end of the world, even procuring quantities of weapons through a sort of escort (‘they stockpiled provisions and weapons’) to ward off potential intruders who had not managed to equip themselves to survive the apocalypse.”
For the defense, “it has been falsely described as the founder of a sect that contemplates the use of violence (even armed), threats, blind obedience, and fraudulent conduct to appropriate the assets of the followers of the same sect.” Lawyers Ingroia and Maltese clarify that “the religious community that formed at Casa Mariana, as emerges from the investigation documents, does not have any of the characteristics that distinguish a sect, if only because participation in religious activities was not exclusive at all, as most of the faithful participated in celebrations, including Sunday Mass, also, or even primarily, in other parishes.”
In short, a denial on all fronts of what emerges from the investigation documents reported by our newspaper: “It is not true – add the lawyers – that among the rules of the Casa Mariana community there was that of repelling ‘intruders with bullets’ who had not adequately prepared for the imminent apocalypse and even less that Father Scozzaro ever diagnosed mental disorders in his followers or forced anyone to take psychotropic drugs against their will.” Lastly, the lawyers conclude, “it does not appear from any investigatory document that Scozzaro ever received any sum, let alone amounts as high as 500,000 euros to perform any sort of exorcisms. The only sums, albeit significantly lower, referred to in the investigation documents concern voluntary contributions from the faithful who frequented the religious community of Casa Mariana, intended for maintenance and improvement expenses of the structures mainly used for religious activities.”
In the photo, the Termini Imerese courthouse and, in the inset, Father Scozzaro.
Il santone di Collesano respinge le accuse: «Mai preso soldi per esorcismi»
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