Alcamo, June 21, 2026 – The historic patronal feast of Mary Most Holy of Miracles was held in the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta. Civil and military authorities, along with the delegation of the Constantinian Order, took part in the event. Monsignor Antonino Raspanti, President of the Sicilian Episcopal Conference, offered a theological reading starting from the Book of Genesis. He compared today’s society to the Tower of Babel: a humanity seeking self-sufficiency through technology and power. According to the Bishop, man’s original temptation to replace God manifests itself in today’s conflicts. This reflection was then applied to the Sicilian reality, defining the mafia as an illusion of being able to exercise power by trampling on moral law and human dignity. The prelate pointed to the biblical figure of Nehemiah, who rebuilt Jerusalem by convening the community and values the talents of each individual: the true leader builds co-responsibility through service, like Christ. The Christian faith has an essential public responsibility. Recalling Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum and the social teaching of the Church, the entire reflection then converged on the figure of Mary Most Holy of Miracles, as the opposite of Babel: Her “Here I am” is the highest expression of a human freedom fully realized in love and the common good, a guardian of hope.

At the end of the services, the Noble Doctor Antonio di Janni presented Monsignor Raspanti with a commemorative medal from the Sicilian delegation, depicting the Royal Eagle with the Bourbon coat of arms on one side and the Constantinian cross on the other. “We wanted to present this medal as a tangible sign of our gratitude for a figure who represents one of the highest expressions of the Italian episcopate. In him, we recognize an authentic Pastor, capable of combining theological depth, attention to the most vulnerable, and reading the signs of the times without ever losing the centrality of the Gospel.”