A popular youtuber AvE has already done a very thorough preliminary inspection of the engineering factors at play here, and his conclusions are that a lack of maintenance extreme weather probably led to this event. I don't contest this, the man is smarter than I am.
I'll just hit the keypoints I'm thinking about here. I have no clear point here, just some vaguely connected symbols and my understanding of history.
The bridge was designed by Riccardo Morandi, an Italian man responsible for the deign of many bridges across Europe and Africa.
Take a look at this photo and there is a clear resemblance between the masonic square and compasses. Considering the persecution of Genoian mansons under Sardinian rule of the early 1800's, its not hard to imagine the lasting grudge a mason might feel for the reemergence of fascism under Mussolini who attacked masonic ideals during Morandi's college years.
I don't know if Morandi was a mason or not, and frankly the only evidence I can cite is the shape of some of his bridges. Regardless, consider this reaching preponderance of mine for a moment: if you were a radical genius Rome-educated engineer that saw your homeland once again falling to fascism, how absurdly ironic/fitting is it that your work would collapse during the third resurgence of the authoritarian regime? If that man was me, I'd feel like I was the target of something larger, considering my work is still standing in countries like Libya, that have surly been tested more under war than Italy has during its summertime weather.
I agree with the entire comment, but I wonder if you can tell me more about what the church was offended by? I'm familiar with the earlier monetization of the catholic faith through indulgences (which inspired Lutheranism), but I don't know much about other significant deviations from Catholicism.