Cardinal Carlo Caffarra died crucified, as the crucified and the crucified
CARDINAL CARLO CAFFARRA DEAD CROSS, HOW THE CROSS AND THE CRUCIFIED
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[…] in this case the Pope has run misbehaved, quite a lot of. The embrace of Carpi to Cardinal Carlo Caffarra was very little, also because it was a greeting of a few seconds, just the time it takes for a photograph, while the wound of this man of God remained. Cardinal Carlo Caffarra died crucified. On the contrary, let's explain better: he died as the Crucifix and with the Crucifix.
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Properly religious pain is that which weeps or one's own sin or that of others. Nor does he grieve because this evil is struck by divine justice, ma, if you get sad, it does so for what is committed by human iniquity.
St. Leo the Great, Speech 95, 4-5, PL 54, 462-463
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Author
Giovanni Cavalcoli, o.p.
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a memory of Cardinal Carlo Caffarra by the television channel of the Archdiocese of Bologna, to open the video click on the image
We have lost a saint, a Holy Cardinal, honor and pride of the sacred college, that sacred college, which today unfortunately is wounded and troubled by modernist thrusts, which undermine its unity and functionality as the Pope’s support in governing the Church. It is that college of elected pastors who most closely help the Successor of Peter in his arduous apostolic office. The color of their dress, as Saint Catherine of Siena reminded them, it's red, symbolizing the blood of Christ, meaning that they must be ready to give their blood for the good of the Church. With Cardinal Carlo Caffarra we have lost a humble prince and a sturdy column of the Church, a man of God, luminary of moral theology, especially in the field of the sacrament of marriage and the family, therefore in the forefront to suffer the attacks and insults of the world and therefore despised, slandered and mocked by the modernists, exploited and vainly courted by the Lefebvrians, delighted, listened to and imitated by good Catholics, living of that "continuity in progress", which was the maximum delivery to the Church made by another great spiritual guide: Benedict XVI.
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And he always in the breach, with indomitable firmness, until the very end, because it is founded on a solid doctrinal preparation and even more on a warm and enlightened faith, certainly not that of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini always in irresolvable discussion with the "interior" atheist.
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"Mercy and conversion", a lecture by Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, held in Ancona on 30 May 2016, to open the video click on the image
Regarding the personality of Carlo Caffarra, we talked about intelligence, culture, honesty, love for the Church, pastorality. All true. But in my opinion, the true heart of his spirituality, is testified by some episodes of his life, where love is intertwined with pain. With Saint Paul, he has been able to say and still tells us: "There is no other boast for me than in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ" [Gal 6,14].
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Like Father Ariel that two days ago preceded this memory of mine on The Island of Patmos with a memory of her [cf. WHO], I too can testify to having known Cardinal Carlo Caffarra very well. There was mutual esteem and friendship between us, which drew occasion and stimulus from four factors: first, having been my bishop until 2012, that is, as long as I lived in the Convent of Bologna; second, having been my Superior as Chancellor of the Theological Faculty of Bologna, where I taught until 2011, when I became emeritus; third, having been appointed by him as an exorcist of the diocese; bedroom, having been, until the end of his episcopal mandate, Judge of the Diocesan Tribunal for the Cause of Beatification of the Servant of God Father Tomas Tyn, diocesan inquiry in which, until the 2013, I have carried out the function of vice-postulator.
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homily of Cardinal Carlo Caffarra in the Papal Archbasilica of St. Peter in 2013, during the Year of Faith, to open the video click on the image
On the occasion of a visit to the Cardinal in 2012, linked to my office as vice-postulator, he told me with emotion that since he was a seminarian he loved to make frequent pilgrimages on foot, starting from Busseto, his hometown, a few kilometers away, up to the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Rosario in Fontanellato, near Parma, directed by the Dominicans. Carlo Caffarra lived his life in the light of Mary and when he was promoted from the suffragan see of Ferrara to the metropolitan archbishopric of Bologna, from then on his devotion to the Virgin of San Luca was fervent.
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I would like to mention three important episodes of his activity as pastor as bishop and cardinal. Despite their diversity, all three are linked by a red thread: Sante, opportune and noble initiatives, PREPARATIONS, initiated and conducted with righteous intention, competence, wisdom and courage, from which Carlo Caffarra had the right to expect much for the good of his diocese and the Church and the spread of the Gospel, and yet all three blocked and frustrated not only by obstacles coming from outside the Church, but above all from the inside, even by the higher authority.
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Carlo Caffarra appeared to some as a loser, as Father Ariel wrote recently making a subtle reference to "we Christological failures" [cf. WHO]. And perhaps he appeared defeated to a modernist like Andrea Grillo [1], who painted him between the lines as a man overcome by history. but yet, since the cause of Carlo Caffarra was just - indeed sacrosanct -, history will prove him right, and Grillo will be shamed, while from now on the holy Cardinal finds himself triumphant over his enemies in celestial glory, to which he ascended for having been a faithful servant of Christ.
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"I would have been more pleased if it were said that the Archbishop of Bologna has a mistress, instead of saying that he is against the Pope ", from an interview with Tv2000, to open the video click on the image
The three salient episodes of his life I'm: first, the deposition as Secretary of the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family by St. John Paul II in 1984; second, the obstacles posed by ecclesiastical authorities to the proceeding of the diocesan investigation relating to the Cause of Beatification of the Servant of God Father Tomas Tyn, which was approved, officially open and supported by the Cardinal; third, the refusal of the reigning Pontiff to answer the now famous dubia and to receive him at the hearing. Now vwe will be as behind all three of these episodes, which at first might give the impression of not full consonance with the Church and the Supreme Pontiff, actually they, if well considered and evaluated with the right criteria, instead they show the figure of a Catholic all in one piece, very faithful to sound doctrine, excellent in Christian witness, learned and wise, mirror of Christ crucified, splendid example of a shepherd and educator, especially of young people, in full communion with the Church and the Pope, about which a few years ago, to counteract the evil voices, he said with boyish candor that he was a papist from birth, he was then and he would be until his death. Man also gifted with elegant humor, who did not hesitate to answer: "I would prefer it to be said that the Archbishop of Bologna has a lover, rather than saying that he is against the Pope " [cf. video interview WHO].
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So let's start with the first episode and precisely from the antecedents. In the Church Carlo Caffarra chose, in his capacity as moralist and pastor, to devote himself, preferably to in-depth analysis, in full communion with the doctrine of the Church, of the study of the sacrament of marriage - great mystery [Ef 5,32] - in all its liturgical aspects, spiritual, humans, morals, psychological, sociological, canon law, civil and educational.
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Rome Life Forum 2017, intervention by Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, news agency Correspondence Romana, to open the video click on the image
In this field it gained prestige and international fame. For this St. John Paul II, another great Master in this delicate and important subject, he named it, at just forty-three years old, In the 1981, at the head of the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family [cf. WHO]. The good Carlo Caffarra, mild character and confident in the goodness of others, perhaps he did not realize the terrible and insidious war zone in which the Successor of Peter had placed him. But he left confident, strong in his faith and his solid preparation. But here's the power of darkness, concealed both inside and outside the Church, he was preparing a treacherous ambush for him. In 1984 was interviewed by a reporter, who asked him what he thought of abortion. And he, with all candor, with simplicity, clarity and sincerity, according to the dictates of the natural law and the precept of faith, without imagining what would happen, he answered calmly as usual: "Abortion is murder!». E sthus the storm broke out: something like 450 "Catholic" theologians, actually modernists, what Blessed Paul VI had already called the "parallel magisterium", they were unleashed not against poor Caffarra, but against the Pope, with hot accusations of being a medieval tyrant, in groups of 40, 50, 60 theology, from various European countries, several of which, in the following years, raised to episcopal dignity. Belgium began, to follow one after the other with other countries of past Catholic tradition: in Germany, Holland, France, Spain, and finally Italy, which acted as a "tail light", as my head office Monsignor Tommaso Mariucci commented, at the time I was working as a theological consultant at the Secretariat of State of His Holiness. What did he do, in that circumstance, the Supreme Pontiff? He removed Carlo Caffarra from office. Some in the Secretariat of State commented: “It hurt, he had to leave it in its place!». But Carlo Caffarra received a terrible wound in any case. It was a frightening test for him and, which probably upset and pained him even more, received from a Holy Pontiff, who also esteemed him, and to which if there was something that was really close to his heart, it was just the family. He must have felt all the mockery and triumph of the modernists fall upon him like a boulder. He must have felt treated with immense ingratitude for all the commitment he had lavished in that delicate office and probably had to have the impression of surrender to the laughing enemies of the Church. Why ever please them, rather than rewarding and confirming the faithful servant?
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Carlo Caffarra «Marriage, Eucharist, Communion", 20 March 2014, by the television channel of the Archdiocese of Bologna, to open the video click on the image
In the history of holiness, in truth, there are other cases of this kind, in which a saint, without knowing or without wanting, or simply because deceived by malicious subjects or because they are badly advised by others, does a grave wrong to another saint. But he remained silent, he did not defend himself, he didn't protest, continued in his moral uprightness, prayed and offered to the Lord. Only after long years on this line of holiness was he able to heal, a rasserenarsi, increasing his pastoral commitment, until St. John Paul II, In the 1995, he appointed him Bishop of Ferrara. Eight years passed, In the 2003 he promoted it to the metropolitan archbishopric of Bologna, the learned and the pleasure-seeker. In 2006, Benedict XVI created him a Cardinal.
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Second episode, the Cause of Beatification of Tomas Tyn. I am not here to remember the figure of this holy and learned Dominican theologian, of Czech origin, dead to 39 years in 1990, lived in the convent of Bologna since 1972 until his death and lecturer in the Dominican Theological Study in Bologna. Father Tomas, of which you can visit the two sites [WHO e WHO], is well known to the readers of The Island of Patmos and now known in the Catholic world.
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opening of the beatification process of Father Tomas Tyn, Bologna 25 February 2006, introductory speech by Father Giovanni Cavalcoli in the presence of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Bologna Carlo Caffarra, to open the video click on the image
Carlo Caffarra admired Tomas Tyn, as well as for its virtues, also for his theological wisdom, and in it he saw a guide in the search for God and in the foundation of moral values, to remedy the errors of our time. He had guessed well, as well as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger himself wrote to Father Tyn [2], how important it was, following the best Dominican tradition, give ground, justification and certainty to moral assertions with a solid philosophy and theoretical theology. And here rI remember some significant words of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Bologna Carlo Caffarra, with which, In the Decree of Introduction of the Cause of 2006 praises the Servant of God for his fidelity to the doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas and notes how:
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«[…] today his beatification and canonization is requested by many people who keep alive the memory of his virtues and fame of holiness already recognized by many, when he was among us " [3].
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From the 2 al 3 December 2011, at the Convent of San Domenico in Bologna, an international conference was held organized by the Cenacolo di San Domenico Association of Bologna, from the theme "The figure and thought of Father Tomas Tyn" [4]. Cardinal Carlo Caffarra opened the proceedings with a short speech, in which he reiterated his high esteem for the Servant of God as an exemplary faithful theologian, because Thomist, to the Magisterium of the Church.
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Prolusion by Cardinal Carlo Caffarra on the thought of Father Tomas Tyn, Tele Radio Good Advice, December 2011. To open the video click on the image
For Carlo Caffarra, the Cause of Father Tyn it was therefore a source of pride for his diocese, an Archdiocese like Bologna, ancient and prestigious university seat, in which the main philosophical currents of our time meet and clash. The dynamic and incisive presence of Father Tomas in this complex and difficult environment provided support and defense for the Archbishop's pastoral care in the cultural and theological field.
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At the same time, Tomas Tyn he spared no criticism of modernist tendencies, secularists, Liberals, Marxist, you laicized, Masonic idealists, Protestants and existentialists present in the composite Bolognese culture, of which some infiltration was not absent even among his colleagues in the Theological Study, then called STAB (Bolognese Academic Theological Study).
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Even in this enterprise the Cardinal was hindered, to the point that in the 2013 the diocesan investigation had to temporarily suspend his regular work, due to an intervention of authority evidently hostile to the Servant of God, incompetent and illegitimate intervention piloted from outside the diocesan court, who suspended the vice-postulator from his office, so that this office, still later 5 year old, it is still vacant, although until the time of suspension in 2013 the court had not found any facts or irregularities so serious as to justify the suspension of the vice-postulator's activity.
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Giovanni Cavalcoli, o.p. presents the figure of Tomas Tyn in Ferrara in March of 2011, to open the video click on the image
More pain and humiliation for Carlo Caffarra, who, in finding an interference in his functions as Judge of the Court, he gave up asserting his right, but we can imagine that on this occasion too he found consolation in the Cross. During the visit I made to him and which I spoke about earlier, having asked him if, even after the dismissal of the vice-postulator, he continued to be in favor of the Cause of Father Tomas Tyn, mi said: "And". Then, sitting as he was next to me, bowed his head in his hands, he was silent for a minute and said to me very seriously: "I can't understand why your Order's hostility towards him".
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In the years following the 2013 until today, de facto, on a mandate from the General Postulation of the Dominican Order, the former vice-postulator continues unofficial work for the Cause, also with reference to the existence mentioned by the Decree of the numerous devotees of the Servant of God, especially in Italy and the Czech Republic [5], who maintain an interest in the thought and life of Father Tomas, they study his writings and imitate his examples, they defend it from criticism and deepen its thinking, continue to show up, they wait and pray for the resumption of the process.
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“Faith and culture in the face of marriage”, conference held in April 2015 from Cardinal Carlo Caffarra to the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, to open the video click on the image
Third great cross of Cardinal Carlo Caffarra was the tormented story of the dubia. Once again, a pain that came to him from the Pope, his, that if there was a man on earth who since he was a child was for him the object of his tender trust and the guarantor of his absolute security, this was precisely the Roman Pontiff. And the tremendous test had to be about that great mystery to which he had dedicated the main part of his studies, of his interests, of his publications: marriage and family. He had already suffered from this in 1984: now it was his turn to be crucified again. Even now, again, i lazzi, the derisions, the slander.
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Not that his faith faltered under the authority of the Supreme Pontiff Francis I. Not even talking about this. But in his eyes there love joy it contained ambiguous passages, they needed to be clarified by the Pope, by virtue of his authority, also because in fact, around those steps, an enormous discord was unleashed, still not sedated. The Pope had to reiterate the dogma of marriage with unequivocal clarity.
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But why the Pope did not answer? How come it didn't reassure him? This was his distress. Moreover, Caffarra's attitude was very different from that of Card. Raymond Burke. He illegitimately spoke of "correcting the Pope". Caffarra has never dreamed of presenting such irreverence. Evidently the two have interpreted i in the opposite sense dubia, although they have formulated them together.
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meditation by Cardinal Carlo Caffarra on the value of martyrdom in a sick Christianity, April 2015, to open the video click on the image
Realizing the exploitation to which the dubia, he took care to make this moving declaration of fidelity to the Successor of Peter: "I wish to renew my absolute dedication and my unconditional love to the Chair of Peter and for your august person, in which I recognize the Successor of Peter and the Vicar of Jesus: the “sweet Christ on earth”, as Saint Catherine of Siena loved to say " [cf. WHO]. But what hurt him was the Pope's failure to respond, for a long time waiting, which was followed - further wound - by the refusal to receive him at the hearing. Here the Pope behaved badly, quite a lot of. Carpi's embrace was very little, also because it was a greeting of a few seconds, just the time it takes for a photograph. While the wound, to Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, remained.
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Cardinal Carlo Caffarra died crucified. On the contrary, let's explain better: he died as the Crucifix and with the Crucifix.
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Varazze, 9 September 2017
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NOTE
[1] See our refutations of the accusations and arguments - if we can speak of "arguments" and not rather of insults - by Andrea Grillo against Caffarra published on this site. The Cardinal was grateful to us for this defense brought forward by me and Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo on The Island of Patmos, see the following articles: WHO, WHO, WHO.
[2] Text of the letter in my book: Father Tomas Tyn. A traditionalist post-conciliar, Editions Faith&Culture, Verona 2007, p.129.
[3] Full text of Decree in my mentioned book, pp.147-149.
[4] The proceedings of the conference were published in the single issue of sacred Doctrine, entitled "Tomas Tyn", edited by G.Cavalcoli, n.2, 2013.
[5] But also in other countries, as for example in the United States, in France, in Germany, in Spain, in Brazil, in Mexico, in Argentina, in the Philippines.
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