Who pays for poor Angelo’s funeral? The body for 4 days in the mortuary
Flowers, offerings, cans of food for his dogs and messages on the steps of the Corso Nizza bank where he used to sit. «Dear Angelo, thank you for the nice chats, the shared coffees, your great humility» and «Thank you for your silent testimony of great dignity and richness of soul».
The tribute of the people of Cuneo to Angelo Caliò, 73 years old, a beggar with a kind soul, who died at the Carle hospital in Confreria.
Sicilian from Paternò, in Cuneo for about fifteen years, he received a small subsidy and to pay rent, bills, food for the inseparable dogs Lupo and Roby, he gave alms. He lived in via Bersezio with a partner, who cannot cover the expenses of the funerals or the dogs. The Municipality has given willingness to find accommodation for the animals, but has not yet taken a decision for the payment of the funeral, foreseen in cases of poverty. Reason: Caliò had been married and had children, living in France. The Municipality would be tracing the heirs, but in the meantime the body, for four days, has been closed in a cold room in the Carle and awaits burial. The situation was described by the lawyer Claudio Massa, one of the people from Cuneo who had helped Caliò, in a letter to the mayor Patrizia Manassero and to the manager of the Funeral Office.
“The body and those who have loved the person are forced to wait for me to be unfair” writes the lawyer, who has tried to identify “regulatory prerequisites for such a practice, but I have not found them” either in the national police regulation mortuary of 1990, neither in the regional legislation, nor in the municipal regulations.
“If this is the situation – he adds – it seems to me that the conduct of the Municipality, in addition to being devoid of pietas towards the deceased, even more so if they are in need, as Mr. Caliò is well known, does not take into account that there are also other subjects, also powerless, who however must have the right to place the subject to whom they were linked in life». He then underlines: «A conduct more in line with my reading of article 97 of our Fundamental Charter, should take the form, in situations of clear impossibility, in the advance of the relative expenses by the Municipality, which would recover them, once the passive legitimacy”.
«For me civilization means operating in such a way that those who have had the misfortune of “troubling” all their life – concludes Massa – should not find it difficult even to have a dignified burial. Mr. Caliò’s friends, certain that he too would have agreed, prefer to allocate the sums they deem to pay to Angelo’s partner and beloved pets, who with the latter’s death are left without even the modest contribution represented from the social allowance received”. —
