Naples, Aug. 25 (LaPresse) – “At first it was very difficult. The tumor caught me by surprise, I didn’t sleep for many nights. Now hope has taken over. And hope changes things. They told me yes, there is hope of defeating the tumor. But I don’t know whether they’re only telling me that to give me courage.” Clemente Mastella, mayor of Benevento and former Justice Minister, said this in an interview with Il Giornale. After receiving the diagnosis, Mastella says, he spent “days of tremendous anguish. I couldn’t understand. I thought about my grandchildren, I thought that I would have to leave them. I tried to imagine their lives without me. I thought about my children. I thought that perhaps I wouldn’t be able to see my eldest granddaughter reach adulthood. I thought about the future of my youngest granddaughter. The idea that it is the end of the world for you overwhelms you. I think about death, but not as an obsession, rather as something inevitable, with the hope that I can experience that moment like this: crossing the barrier. How do I imagine the afterlife? I’ll go to purgatory. The upper part. Not heaven, for a politician heaven is impossible. It happened to Thomas More, perhaps De Gasperi. Only them. I don’t fear hell because I haven’t done anyone any harm. I am a good person.”
Benevento, Mastella: “Tumor is tough but I have hope. The afterlife? I’ll go to purgatory”
Naples, Aug. 25 (LaPresse) – “At first it was very difficult. The tumor caught me by surprise, I didn’t sleep for many nights. Now hope has taken over. And hope changes things. They told me yes, there is hope of defeating the tumor. But I don’t know whether they’re only telling me that to give me courage.” Clemente Mastella, mayor of Benevento and former Justice Minister, said this in an interview with Il Giornale. After receiving the diagnosis, Mastella says, he spent “days of tremendous anguish. I couldn’t understand. I thought about my grandchildren, I thought that I would have to leave them. I tried to imagine their lives without me. I thought about my children. I thought that perhaps I wouldn’t be able to see my eldest granddaughter reach adulthood. I thought about the future of my youngest granddaughter. The idea that it is the end of the world for you overwhelms you. I think about death, but not as an obsession, rather as something inevitable, with the hope that I can experience that moment like this: crossing the barrier. How do I imagine the afterlife? I’ll go to purgatory. The upper part. Not heaven, for a politician heaven is impossible. It happened to Thomas More, perhaps De Gasperi. Only them. I don’t fear hell because I haven’t done anyone any harm. I am a good person.”