Gianni Mion and the sloth of Don Abbondio

Today Sergio Mattarella was at the Monumentale in Milan, visiting the tomb of Alessandro Manzoni on the 150th anniversary of his death. He delivered a sober and civil speech, Manzonian, in which he recalled the moral horizon in which Don Lisander was able to place the men of his time and of our Italy which was being born. He also recalled the "infamous column", which "admonishes us of how pernicious the moods of anonymous crowds are". But today, in Genoa, other words would have needed strong and impartial judgments like those of Manzoni. In the trial for the Ponte Morandi, the former CEO of the Holding Edizione, Gianni Mion, deposed. And he confessed to having learned in 2010, in a summit meeting, that there was a risk of collapse. But nothing was done. “I said nothing and worried. It was simple: either it closed or an external certified it for you. After that meeting I should have screwed up, but I didn't. Maybe because I cared about my job. I didn't do anything, and that's my great regret." It is not the Manzoni della Colonna Infame that would be needed in Genoa, nor that of Fra' Cristoforo. But the very harsh one of Cardinal Federigo when he pins Don Abbondio to his responsibilities and his sloth: the evil of not doing. And the unfortunate man did not answer.

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• Maurice Crippa

• "Maurizio Crippa, deputy director, was born in Milan on a February 27th of swallows and spring. It was 1961. He grew up in Monza, his hometown, but for more than twenty years he has been a proud metropolitan Milanese. He attended classical high school and graduated in Cinema History, his first love. Then there are the loves of a lifetime: Inter, the mountains, Jannacci and Neil Young. He works in the Milan editorial office and deals with a little of everything: politics, culture when he can, church when he wants. He is happy to have two great Popes, Francis and Benedict. He hasn't written books ("why write ugly new books when there are still so many good old books to read?" Sandro Fusina taught.) He has long pursued the dream of knowing how to use social media, but then, thank God, he repents.

  He is in charge of the weekly page of the GranMilano sheet, he writes Against Mastro Ciliegia every day on the first page. He has a wife, Emilia, and two sons, Giovanni and Francesco, who are no longer children"