As the parish priest of Caivano, near Naples, the 69-year-old has been at the forefront of community efforts to expose and remedy the illegal disposal of industrial waste by the notorious Camorra in a region now known as the "Land of Fires".

The European Court of Human Rights is set to rule Thursday on claims the Italian state failed to protect residents, whose cancer rates are higher than normal.

"There were fires all the time, day and night, the smoke reached the church, and the smell of burning. It was impossible to survive, it was impossible to breathe," Patriciello told AFP.

"I realised that the funerals I presided over, including of young people or children, of teenagers, were always the result of tumours, leukaemia. And I began to ask myself, what is happening?"

With local authorities, "we began to take an interest in this problem, understanding that the great drama was not urban waste... it was industrial, toxic waste".

They brought together cancer specialists, lawyers and other politicians, and he began to write about what was happening.

The problem became a national scandal in 2013, sparking huge protests in and around Naples.

Since then, Patriciello says, "some things have changed".

"In 2015, a law against environmental crimes was passed... it could have been broader, but the fact is that now if a policeman finds someone polluting our land, he can arrest him. Before, no, so it's a great success," he said.

That year also saw the publication of Pope Francis's encyclical "Laudato si", which laid out the Vatican's case for defending the environment -- inspired, according to Patriciello, by a helicopter flight the pontiff took over the expansive ravaged area.

Then in 2021, "the National Health Institute for the first time had the courage to say what we have already said and denounced on several occasions, the correlation between the polluted environment and health".

According to court documents, the affected area is home to 2.9 million people.

- Decimated families -

The European Court is due to rule on a case brought by 41 residents of the Campania region, alleging that the Italian state knew about the problem but did not inform citizens.

"We are waiting for justice to be done for these poor people, because you cannot imagine how many people we have had to accompany to the cemetery," Patriciello said.

"Over the years, I have lost two brothers, my sister-in-law and my nephew, and one my nieces is currently battling cancer. All of us have been truly decimated, our families have been decimated by cancer."

But he said the campaign was not just for the families in Italy.

"We have always believed that our cry of despair, but also of hope, that this denunciation could be in favour of all humanity," he said.

"Because it is so obvious that man lives on air, water and the products of the soil. But if man is so stupid, so stubborn that he pollutes, poisons the air, the water, the soil, it is normal that then the air, the water and the soil take revenge.

"If we poison them, they poison us in turn."

What can be done?

"The problem is to really achieve good waste management... I do not understand why the waste from the industries of northern Italy must be in Campania," he said.

"Between lazy politicians, dishonest industrialists and our Camorra, a deadly alliance has been created that has really destroyed our territory."

As well as losing relatives, Patriciello has been forced to live under police protection for his efforts.

"Farmers who paid dearly for our denunciations came to my house to advise me to keep quiet. Then a second time they placed a small bomb in front of the gate of my church, and I was forced to be placed under police protection," he recalled.

"My freedom is a little limited, but if that is the price to pay for the good of these people, I am happy."