The former grandmaster of the Grande Oriente d'Italia, Giuliano Di Bernardo, revealed the links between the Calabrian lodges and gangs at the trial underway in Reggio Calabria: “The massacres? The idea I had was that there was someone pulling the strings within different contexts"
“Through the masonry, the 'ndrangheta occupied the northern regions”. The former grand master of Great East of Italy, Giuliano Di Bernardo, revealed the links between the Calabrian lodges and gangs. He had already done so during an interrogation before the deputy prosecutor Giuseppe Lombardo to whom he had explained why, after the meetings with the Palmi prosecutor, Agostino Cordova, who in the nineties was investigating freemasonry, he decided to resign from the GOI: “I couldn't believe that masonry that I had imagined and about which I had written a book, in reality and in human society it could be something completely different”.
Di Bernardo relived the shock in the courtroom of Reggio Calabria where he was heard as a witness in the trial of the 'Ndrangheta massacre who sees the bosses in the dock Giuseppe Graviano e Rocco Filippone accused of the murder of the carabinieri Antonino Fava e Vincenzo Garofalo. In his deposition, Di Bernardo explains his entry into Freemasonry, how he came to hold the top position and why, in April 1993 he resigned as grand master: “Cordova managed to provide me with some elements and documents from which an aspect of the Grand Orient of Italy emerged that I would never have imagined could exist”.

At that point Di Bernardo summoned the Goi council. Remember the response that his deputy Ettore Loizzo of Cosenza explained to him why he did nothing to prevent the Calabrian gangs from having contact with Freemasonry: “I would have put my life at risk and that of my family. – said Loizzo – The truth is 28 are 32 Calabrian lodges are controlled by the 'ndrangheta". And it was at that point that Di Bernardo understood "that the Big East was no longer a place for me".
There were also signs of infiltration Sicily “where there was an event that made Freemasonry tremble a bit: the arrest of the mayor of Castelvetrano for involvement with the mafia". The situation of Calabrian freemasonry, but, it was “much more worrying than the Sicilian one, as it was more branched and powerful". “In Calabria – he adds – there was a unitary power, a mind that ruled beyond all the conflicts that existed and still exist among the Masonic obediences. There was a common thread. Calabrian Freemasonry is more powerful than the Sicilian one because it has a unitary vision".
Here's why, according to Di Bernardo's story, “the Cordova investigation was going in the right direction”. However, that investigation led to nothing: after the transfer of Palmi's prosecutor to Naples, the investigation was transferred to Rome where "two magistrates summoned me and told me that they didn't have the time to investigate it and it was closed. It is said today that the investigation is over because nothing has been found against the Grand Orient. The truth is that it was archived due to expiration of the deadlines".
He was his personal secretary, Luigi Savina, to talk to him about separatist movements which appeared on the Italian political scene at the beginning of the nineties: “He told me that there were Goi affiliates who supported the separatist movements. Reggio Calabria was the driving force". On the topic of massacres, the grand master believes that everything has moved "within the same context” as the separatist movements: “The idea I had was that there was someone who pulled the strings within different contexts”. Needless to say, the contexts were the Masonic one and the 'Ndrangheta one: “Il the junction point I think is the rituale. The one used in Freemasonry and the one used in the 'Ndrangheta have a common basis: il bind you to secrecy once you're inside. In my opinion, this has greatly facilitated the interpenetration between the 'Ndrangheta and Freemasonry.".
In the final part of his deposition, Di Bernardo also dealt with the story of Licio Gelli and the list, the real one, of P2: “Licio Gelli was invented by the CIA, by the Americans. The American government had lost confidence in Moro and Andreotti, and therefore he began to fear that there could be a communist takeover in Italy". In essence the venerable, according to Di Bernardo, “he had become the 'savior' of Italy. From that moment on, Gelli was the sole and exclusive contact person for the Americans. He had mountains of dollars, but above all the American government and the CIA put the Italian leaders under Gelli's obedience". The former grandmaster, first of the Goi and then of the regular Grand Lodge of Italy, refers to the “economic leaders, to the military leaders and the judiciary". Everyone was "under his obedience and he initiated them at the Excelsior in Rome. This man suddenly found himself a power that, I think, no one else has had in Italy".
Despite having its base inside, Gelli had been expelled from the Goi before Di Bernardo was appointed grand master: “After my election he sent me two letters and asked me to be readmitted. I read them and do nothing. He sent me one of his emissaries to officially ask me to do so return. Gelli believes every man is buyable and makes me ask the question: ‘You decide the amount. You stare’. I made him answer: 'Gelli perhaps bought a lot, but he certainly won't buy me'. Shortly afterwards the same person returns with another proposal and tells me: 'Gelli in exchange for your support, will make it available to you the actual list of P2 with the related files’. The one seized by the judiciary is only partial. Gelli had this emissary of his tell me that he would give me the real list with the related files. 'This way you can blackmail all of Italy’. The comment was this. In the end I decided not to proceed and so the matter ended there.".
That there is a “real” list of P2, Di Bernardo also found this from another episode that was reported to him by the personal secretary of the grand master Battelli: “He tells me that one evening Gelli shows up in the grand master Battelli's study with a large file and tells him: ‘This is the P2 list’. Battelli begins to leaf through it and, as his secretary claims, 'becomes all colours'. Batelli closes after reading and tells Gelli: ‘Take it back, I've never seen this’. All this takes place many years after the P2 lodge had been disbanded. Gelli wanted to rejoin the Goi because he understood that with the Masonic channel he could move anywhere. Gelli without freemasonry was worth little. With Freemasonry he could have reopened his international contacts. His request was to strengthen his business power. He never returned to the Goi".
source – https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2019/01/17/ndrangheta-stragista-lex-gran-maestro-attraverso-la-massoneria-i-clan-hanno-occupato-le-regioni-del-nord/4903102/