Holding signs reading "Today we are here to take communion" and "The sacraments unite," dozens of shopkeepers, florists, photographers, and wedding favor shop owners gathered this morning for a sit-in in front of the archbishop's palace on Via Matteo Bonello in Palermo.
Their goal is to express their distress over the drop in revenue recorded after the Curia decided two years ago to change the process for obtaining First Communion and Confirmation, establishing that it would no longer last two years but five.
"We are not the sacrilegious ones who only think about the loss of revenue," explains Giovanni Felice, president of Confimprese Palermo. "There were 3,500 communions a year in the city. Following the Curia's decision, we estimated a loss of around twenty million euros a year, but unfortunately, we've recently realized the figure is much higher—we're talking about thirty million. Currently, revenue is zero; communions have not been celebrated in the city since 2026, and the situation is likely to remain the same for the next four years. We're simply asking for more courses: in some churches, only one lesson a week is held, in others, one every two weeks. So, in the first case, we're talking about forty lessons a year, and in the second, twenty. Instead of holding the courses once a week, they could be more intensive, holding them twice, thus shortening the five-year period."
Business owners and trade associations are requesting a meeting with the Archbishop of Palermo, Corrado Lorefice. "We can't understand why the word faith can't go hand in hand with the word work," says Manuela Gandolfo, owner of a historic wedding favor shop. "We used to do about 300 communions a year. Many of us have suffered financial losses ranging from 30 to 50%. I'm a very religious person, but I don't think this situation is bringing young people closer to faith. We've been called 'shameful temple merchants' or 'whitewashed tombs,' but that's not the case; we're simply people who go to work every day to earn a living."
"We've seen a 30% drop in turnover this year. We're simply asking for a discussion to express our concerns," says photographer Raffaele Marchese. "We're not against the Church. We're with the Church, but we want to find a common solution so we can support our families."
(Unioneonline)