It is true that when you are born a lion, you cannot become an antelope, but in the face of the tragedy of impotence and uselessness, we must reflect that there is a time … there is a time … there is a time …

- ecclesial news -

IT IS TRUE THAT WHEN LIONS ARE BORN YOU CANNOT BECOME AN ANTELOPE, BUT BEFORE THE TRAGEDY OF IMPOTENCE AND USELESSITY, YOU MUST REFLECT THAT THERE IS A TIME ... THERE IS A TIME … THERE IS A TIME ...

.

A phrase that we often hear repeated within certain fringes of the Church is this: «There is no going back!». Phrase that sounds: in part as one of those triumphalistic mottos marked in what were the old squares for the military parades of the former Soviet Union, in part as a threat to those who dare to be perplexed or doubtful towards "the new course". Well, regardless of the underlying intentions, one thing remains certain: it is true that "there is no going back", because man, after tempting God and eventually replacing God, he launched himself from the plane door without a parachute. That's why this expression, although often driven by the worst clerical ideologies, it is entirely fair and relevant: «There is no going back».

.

Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo

.

.

PDF print format article

 

.

.

.

… threshold of no return

The Prophet Jeremiah thunders in one of his steps: "Cursed the man who trusts in man" [Gives 17,5], to continue a little further on "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and the Lord is his trust" [Gives 17,7]. If the second of these sentences is easy to understand, the first, may require explanations. Many, they are those who understand it as referring to a man who trusts another man. The sense is more complex and profound, because the Prophet does not refer to the physical man understood as another subject, but to what in Hebrew is enclosed in the term A person, hence the name Adam, therefore to what in Greek is enclosed in the term ἀνθρωπος [anthropos] translated into Latin with the term homo. These terms are used in the philosophical and theological fields to indicate man in general, humanity and the human condition.

.

The biblical term Jewish accursed [harur], the meaning of which is mostly "damned", it is translated into Latin Maledic, made up of words male e dicĕre, which literally means "to say badly". Always in philosophical and theological language, the expression "cursed" does not represent the launch of a curse on the man guilty of misdeeds, but the refusal of grace; which has not been taken away from man, but of which he freely deprived himself. The term "cursed" is therefore intended to indicate the unfortunate man in the etymological sense of the term: one who has lost the grace of others, in this specific case the grace of God.

.

The man who trusts in humans is "cursed", or if we prefer unfortunate, to the extent that he refused the actions of supernatural grace to rely solely on human strength and resources. Not only because he is sure he can do without God, but because heedless of his subsistence and presence. The man who trusts only in humans, it lacks any supernatural perspective, is the son of finished projected into what is destined to dissolve, without tending to transcend into the eternal infinite.

.

Trusting in humans it is a terrible trap which also attacks and consumes the so-called "religious animal", without him realizing that he has transformed the mystery of God into a pretext for better trusting only in himself and then imposing himself. This is the essence of what I usually refer to as the worst form of atheism: religious atheism.

.

There are numerous my writings, in addition to the various video lessons, to follow with various television debates during which I expressed and reiterated that today, at ecclesial and ecclesiastical level, we are experiencing a crisis without historical precedent. I also tried to find a precedent in the whole history of the Church, even without success. I have not found anything like this, just something vaguely comparable by analog process: the great crisis generated in the 4th century by the Aryan heresy and the fall of the Roman Empire at the end of the 5th century.

.

Over the past few years I have repeatedly explained that forfeiture becomes irreversible when the so-called "no-return threshold" is exceeded, thereby making the idea through the image of the parachute. Let me explain: let's say that a paratrooper ready to launch on the plane at a height of three thousand meters decides, for unexplained reasons, to jump into the void without a parachute. Simply said,: until it is in front of the hatch open on the void, he will be able to exercise his decision-making will and step back, put on the parachute and then jump. But if he launched himself without a parachute, in that case it will never, through any exercise of will, stop as it falls into the void, back on the plane, put on the parachute and launch yourself again with the appropriate equipment. And with this is represented the concept of exceeding the non-return threshold.

.

As already explained several times in the past, irrational spiritualists and eccentric mystics who try to veil themselves in absurd consolations place themselves in this tragic context today, for example stating: «The Church belongs to Christ and is governed by the Holy Spirit, He then will think there '. To these are then added the madonnolatri, unaware of what true devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is, about which it would be enough to read, but mostly to understand, the Treatise on true devotion to Mary of St. Louis Maria Grignion de Montfort. These venomous subjects, on their sites and blogs, where they tease the itches with announcements of impending catastrophes, followed by practice by a large audience thirsty in a morbid way of sensational. And so, mixing together apparitions recognized over time by the Church and numerous self-styled seers scattered around the world today, after extrapolating half sentences from the writings of mystical Blesseds and Saints still difficult to interpret, they proceed to tease the itches of the increasingly ignorant masses in matters of doctrine and faith, affirming that times are near and that soon the immaculate heart of Mary will triumph. Needless to say: we are faced with expressions of false faith, built on magical-mystery forms based on morbid instincts teased with the itch of trembling secrets that would loom over humanity, all characterized in practice by the element of fanaticism. Unfortunately, trying to correct and train these people in authentic faith is a waste of time: the fanatic is by nature ignorant to the extent that he is arrogant. So that, everything you can get, is that the ignorant attack with insults priests and theologians accusing them of being without faith, against Our Lady and subjected to the Demon. For this I have dedicated one Lectio to wisdom under the title "Wisdom, antidote to cancer of the emotions of priests and lay people » [see WHO], and previously two Lectio on obedience in faith recorded during the last Easter Triduum [see WHO, WHO]. All of this is obviously found on the "Our videos" page The Isle of Parmos.

.

Wait for the Holy Spirit comes to settle such a disastrous and irreversible situation, or that by enchantment and magic everything is arranged by an unspecified triumph of the immaculate heart of Mary, they are thoughts and affirmations that have nothing to do with the fundamental theological virtue of hope [cf.. The Cor 13, 13]. Far from it: they border on the blasphemy of tempting God. And now it is necessary to remember that the terrible action of tempting God is to test, with words or deeds, that divine omnipotence whose main attributes are goodness and mercy. It was in fact this way, as the Gospel of temptations narrates [cf.. LC 4,9], that Satan tried to instigate the man Jesus to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple, in an attempt to force God to intervene. To all add: these "weird" statements denote first of all an erroneous perception of the divine will and of the actions of the Father and the Son through the work of the Holy Spirit.

.

To understand the true presence of God in human history, but at the same time when and why God cannot intervene, we must start from the first cause contained in the mystery of creation narrated in the Book of Genesis: human freedom and free will, which is a suffix of the mystery of creation itself: «God wanted, indeed, leave the man “at the mercy of his own will” (cf.. Sir 15, 14) so that it spontaneously seeks its Creator and comes freely, by joining him, to full and blissful perfection » [The joy and hope, 17]. From this first cause follow the effects generated by the exercise of this gift of God, which is precisely freedom. So think that God, after the man has exercised the gifts received, intervene to remedy the exercise of the supreme gift of his freedom, is equivalent to thinking that God can contradict himself, together with the entire mystery of creation, to defy all the laws of physics to bring back on the plane the imprudent that is falling towards the ground, causing him to wear the parachute and then launch again.

.

The irreversible decline connected to exceeding the "no-return threshold" it is linked to the principle of freedom and free will, that repeat: it is a structural element of the mystery of creation itself, that God will never be able to alter. Indeed, that God can do everything, as omnipotent, it does not mean that it can be contradictory and inconsistent, because it could never be. This is why I said a little while ago that to think this there is the risk of confusing God with Magician Merlin, the Holy Spirit with the magic wand of the Almighty Creator, the Blessed Virgin Mary in a middle ground between the goddess Athena and the Fata Morgana. Unfortunately, several faithful whose faith is based on forms of fragile devotionism, in the face of certain calls, I almost always react and practice badly, for example accusing, as it happened to me, to ... be against Our Lady. If on the one hand I can embitter myself for them, on the other hand, I note that these not a few devotees above and often outside all the ranks of sound Catholic doctrine, they don't even know what it is, in the context of theological disputes, the legitimate exercise of critical sense, in the absence of which, today, we would have neither the works of the great Church Fathers nor the great theological works, if anything we will always have omen, the fortune tellers who in religion pagan of ancient Rome stood on pons sublicio to study the flight of birds and the movement of water to predict the future, exactly like those who today announce that times are near ... they are near … and soon the definitive triumph of the immaculate heart of Mary will take place. In short, I think we should have something to fear, because if on the one hand Christ made himself too human and often only human, forgetting his dual hypostatic nature of true God and true man, on the other, in the face of our terrible and evident crisis of doctrine, the most degenerate devotionism reacted by shifting all the divine kingship of Christ onto the figure of the Mater Dei, changing it into the fourth person of the Holy Trinity, if not the first.

.

Incidentally: the symbol of Nicene-Constantinopolitan faith, namely the I believe that we recite in the expected liturgical moments, if I am not mistaken, it announces the triumph of Christ God, or not? Concept expressed through the phrase: «and will come again with glory, to judge the living and the dead, His kingdom will have no end … [and one day he will return to glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end]». Said this: you want to indicate in which meander of the deposit of faith the so-called is spoken: «Decisive triumph of the immaculate heart of Mary?». Or perhaps the Blessed Virgin will return one day to glory to judge the living and the dead, so that after the triumph of his immaculate heart his kingdom will never end? Explain to me, please, Explain to me ... because perhaps I misunderstood the Holy Father and doctor of the Church Augustine Bishop of Hippo, when he speaks of a single parousia of Christ God [Letter 198, n.1-5]. Definitely, together with Ipponate, I also misunderstood other Holy Fathers and doctors of the Church, from Ireneo di Lione to Girolamo and various others to follow, that I am nothing, or at least they are very little, in front of some of today's fomenters of morbid devotions, sensational and steeped in catastrophic events, which, exactly as the Blessed Apostle Paul foretold by writing to the disciple Timothy: they are allergic to the healthy doctrine of itching to hear new things, creating masters according to their desires [II Tm 4, 1-5].

.

A phrase that we often hear repeated within certain fringes of the Church is this: «There is no going back!». Phrase that sounds: in part as one of those triumphalistic mottos marked in what were the old squares for the military parades of the former Soviet Union, in part as a threat to those who dare to be perplexed or doubtful towards "the new course". Well, regardless of the underlying intentions, one thing remains certain: it is true that "there is no going back", because man, after tempting God and eventually replacing God, he launched himself from the plane door without a parachute. That's why this expression, although often driven by the worst clerical ideologies, it is entirely fair and relevant: «There is no going back».

.

To the concept enunciated and explained of exceeding the "no-return threshold", I've always added the key element: we are facing a great test of faith, on which we are granted the grace to be able to play our whole being and becoming Christians, that is, our salvation. I understand how ugly and unpleasant the image that now follows is itself, however it is what awaits us. Indeed, when we are smashed to the ground, the eternal destinies of our souls will be established through the immediate judgment of God. As for our bodies exploded and scattered in a thousand pieces just touched the ground after the fall from the hatch of the plane at high altitude, they too will have their usefulness: flesh and blood will be fertilizer on the arid earth for those who one day, with great effort and who knows when, they will have to start planting the first seeds of the Holy Gospel again.

.

Recently someone has alluded that I would boast of being confessor and spiritual director of numerous priests, including some that, following deep and painful crises, they asked for dispensation from celibacy and dismissal from the clerical state. I confess that I would like to be a braggart in this sense, why collect the pain these days, the bitterness, discouragement, the spiritual and existential crises of priests, besides not being pleasant, it is something that leaves its mark on you, together with so much bitterness and human pain. God only knows how many times, to dispose of certain talks, it took me even weeks. Because we priests, unlike many surgeons, we don't have those natural barriers that separate us from deep human pain, on the contrary: we make human pain our own and assimilate it in the way we are called to assimilate the mystery of the Most Holy Blood of Christ dying on the cross. Less than ever I wish any of my confreres to find themselves before an elderly bishop who questions himself: «What I have done with my life and how I have squandered my sacred ministry?». Why in this case, more painful and difficult than listening, it is then giving response and medicine for the soul together with absolution. Often, who is acquitted, with that inner torment remains all that is typical of the conscious person who, while asking for and obtaining God's forgiveness, at the same time it will never be able to repair certain serious damage done to the faithful, priests or entire dioceses ...

... and I will tell you: when it comes to priestly crises, the mind of the good people immediately runs to pink-tinged events and thoughts, as if in their humanity, in their spirit and consciousness, the priests were shaken only for having lost their heads for a woman. Well, let me dispel - my good lay people - this imaginative myth. The real big crisis that can affect a priest, it is the crisis of faith, that is the worst crisis ever, the most fearsome, the one that brings the deepest sufferings, especially when priests over fifty are affected. What generate certain crises? Many things and all of them uglier than the other: no longer feel the presence of God in your life, to be invaded by doubts, not being able to pray anymore, to feel pain every time the Holy Mass is celebrated only to fulfill a duty towards the parish community, but living it as something now distant, which almost causes discomfort, Why, with every word, the priest says to himself: "... what am I doing, but especially: Why?». It's true, over time I have been severe and aggressive in speaking generally of certain bishops. Too bad that none of those who resent my words, faced me and asked me: Why? If they did, I would have replied, for example explaining to certain bishops the so-called "new course", that while they were immortalized by photographers in Roma camps or in ports to welcome migrants, quite a few of their priests were suffering from internal crises that literally devastated their souls. And when someone of them, also on my suggestion, he tried to turn to his bishop, on the other side of the phone he heard the voice of an efficient secretary who invited him to call back the following week to make an appointment between a month and a month later. Understandable, come to think, because that between a meeting with the poor, a Roma camp and a reception of migrants, who knows if you can't even become a cardinal. Whereas, to save the life and soul of certain priests, no particular career seems to be taking place. I still remember, with deep tenderness, an elderly bishop belonging to that species of men of God that today seems almost extinct. After the sacramental confession he said to me: «During my twenty-five years of episcopal ministry, God's grace has given me the privilege of being able to save a priest from certain ruin. there, I believe that for having accomplished this one work, God will give me a light Purgatory as a reward ».

.

Expenses, like me, in the secret of the internal hole and the external hole, has lived for years in close contact with these forms of pain, it can only be hard and severe, even in its expressive forms, with those who generated this pain in certain priests. So I repeat: God wanted me to be a braggart who dreams of certain things, rather than experimenting with them for years on your own skin.

.

The few good priests who remain and that they will always survive in the Holy Church of Christ, in these times live situations of great pain and despair, often victims of unheard of injustices by their superiors, the same who are always ready on the public square with the tender tear of the eye for the poor and migrants, except to treat their best priests as rags. This is what often led me to roar the lion deliberately raising the tone, not hesitating to rail against some powerful bullies, animated by a sense of justice in front of their contempt for the very foundations of the ecclesiastical laws that regulate the life of the Church and the internal relations between ministers of the sacred and ecclesiastical authorities. What many of those who listened to my video don't know 18 May dedicated to pornocracy clerical [see WHO] is that none of this I would have ever done for myself, even though I was the subject of some documented facts reported as an example in order to give an idea. I only used myself to do justice to many of my confreres who had to suffer and suffer much worse, but of which I could not tell the painful stories. I will never be able to forget that I suddenly saw one of my brothers grow old in a few years, an authentic holy priest, that despite being my age, today he looks like my father. Unjustly accused and unprotected by his indifferent and insensitive bishop, after four years of criminal trials he was acquitted in the first and second instance, while the subject who had mounted to his detriment the whole false story was convicted of false and aggravated defamation in the first and second degree. He was even accused of witchcraft and occultism, this holy priest, with subsequent full acquittal given by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which recognized the falsity of the accusations against him. In the face of those torments suffered, his bishop was so paternal and participated in the Way of the cross of this his presbyter, to the point of not informing him that the document addressed to his ordinary diocesan in which he was cleared of all false accusations had come from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This poor priest was able to learn everything only two years later, meanwhile he continued to wait for the response of the Congregation. As his bishop later justified himself? Saying ... «I thought it was a private letter sent to me by the Congregation, that's why I didn't think I had to inform my priest ». You know what it means to wait for other years of life for the response of this Congregation, after being falsely accused of occultism and sorcery, while already two years earlier, this dicastery, the priest had been declared innocent and the accusations against him unfounded and slanderous? And this is just one of the numerous examples related to the various priests in difficulty to whom I have always been close while they were left alone to themselves, first of all by their bishops who did not want problems and troubles, committed to shining their own light like all people who aspire to honors but who do not accept the heavy burdens of their pastoral offices. Like this, drawing from my life, in that video I represented the truth of the facts with my face and my voice. And while I was talking about me - which I didn't care about and would never do -, to all these brothers of mine I said: I turned into a paradigm to talk about all of you, screaming in the face of those who have a heart that throbs only for Muslim migrants who land illegally on our shores, to what we are subjected within the Church, in the indifference of this prevailing politically correct spirit, open and welcoming to all that is not Catholic.

.

I have a bishop who venerates because he deserves it and because he is an authentic man of God - which is an extraordinary grace for a priest these days -, and I have a holy bishop who has been my spiritual director for almost ten years, also a great man of God. Lately, during one of the various interviews, they asked me if in my opinion, in the Church today, to fight hard and face certain people and situations head-on, can serve anything. As far as I'm concerned, I must say that I never had a problem reviewing my actions, nor to deny it if necessary, or to adopt different communication techniques and styles. To which I reflected and then replied that in the current state of affairs, in our tragic historical moment, to act in the way I have repeatedly acted is useless, at least for those seeking true evangelical justice. Perhaps a certain style could have had some effect until a few years ago, but today it is no longer needed. Also because, when within the lawful exercise of the art of battle, if necessary, the error is attacked, we can and must do it for the sole purpose of defeating the error and possibly recovering the wanderer, certainly not to vent one's personal anger, which I also did.

.

Anyone wishing to understand this last step well, inside you will find the explanation as to why I have been harsh and severe towards certain lay Catholics several times, who would not hesitate to dance with their feet on the heads of bishops and priests moved by their irrational-emotional impulses. And the explanation is simple: to become wise teachers, first you have to listen to the wise teachers, to become solid and safe guides, first you must have followed solid and safe guides, because both in the way of faith and in the way of the development of theological sciences, there can be no room for self-taught people who form themselves and have only themselves as a point of reference, otherwise monsters like Kiko Arguello are born, Carmen Hernandez, Enzo Bianchi and so on ... That's why I got angry several times with certain Catholic lay people who use only the ... I think that ... I feel that ... and since I think and feel that ... this is true and right outside of any discussion, above everything and everyone.

.

Certain Jesuit strings enhance human consciousness, until it is above all: first of all obey one's conscience. Yup, however they do not hesitate at the same time to get angry beyond measure, if someone dares to act in conscience but in a way that does not conform to the ideological concept of conscience as they understand it. Consciences, they are exalted and formed to make them free in the evangelical sense of the term, not to manipulate them. I fly over this speech because I do not intend to speak of certain exponents of the present Company of the Indies which was in the past the rigid, great and precious Company of Jesus. Managing your conscience is not a joke, for those who live in the sacred fear of God, aware of the clarity of the Gospel warning he recites: "To whom much is given, much will be asked for; to whom men have committed much, It will ask the more " [cf.. LC 12, 48]. If before this warning, we priests reflect that Christ God has entrusted us with his Church, the mystery of his Body and Blood and his People, all we can do is tremble, animated not by fear, but from sacred fear of God, that of fear is negation itself: fear God, it means worrying about pleasing him and living in His grace, which is exactly antithetical living to those who seek instead of pleasing man and pleasing him in order to obtain benefits later, always to return to the previous discussion about the concept of religious atheism ...

.

The conscience of the faithful and devoted priest it is also animated by another great question: when we do the penitential act during the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Holy Mass, we invoke and ask God's forgiveness for sinning in thoughts, words, works and omissions. Simply said,: right conscience is led to fear the sin of omission very much, because it contains not so much the ordinary fearful spirit of the man who wants a quiet life without many unnecessary problems, but the terrible capital sin of sloth. This terrible capital sin is indicated by St. Thomas Aquinas as an apathy towards spiritual good, that is to say a sense of profound discomfort that arises in those who do not want to put divine service into practice and make use of it [QUESTION, II-II q. 35, a.1: On evil, q. XI, apathy]. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines sloth as a spiritual laziness that comes to reject the joy that comes from God and to feel repulsion for the divine good [Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2094], consequently to despise truth and justice, raising the worst whims of one's ego above one and the other, always as I accused in undoubtedly fiery tones in the video just mentioned [see, WHO]. The question is simple: to what extent, a right conscience, can flee from the truth, by failing to tell and serve the truth? To take courageous positions and decisions one can also be wrong, even seriously, But one thing is certain: who for fearful spirit or for quiet living does not take decisions and positions, for example, in the face of what is objectively bad, certainly always wrong in the worst way. there, if I really have to run the risk of making a mistake, they prefer to do it to oppose what is objectively bad, certainly not by omitting to decide and take positions for my peaceful and quiet life.

.

Several times it happened that someone, in no way denying that in some of my writings or videos I had said nothing but the truth, he stuck to the form saying ... "But you have to see how the truth is said". Phrases of this kind sound like the criticisms made by the Pharisees to Christ the Lord, when he can't deny that he healed a man born blind, in order to contest him at all costs, they attacked themselves to say that that miracle had accomplished him on Saturday, when it is forbidden to do any kind of work, so they sentenced: "This man is not from God, because it does not observe the Sabbath » [cf.. GV 9, 1-15]. Then, I know the important thing, more than telling the truth, it is the way or form in which truth is said, we must take note that Blessed John the Baptist said the truth badly and in an inappropriate way, because if he said it well, that great harlot of Herodias would not have been irritated to the point of asking and obtaining from the theatrarch Herod her head on a tray [cf.. Mt 14, 1-12]. After all, what the Baptist would have cost him, postpone the fact that Herod had taken his brother's wife as a lover and that I am not satisfied with this he was also sexually attracted to his granddaughter Salome? As you can see, consciousness and acting in consciousness is a terribly serious thing, it is not an ideological spot of the new guys Company of the Indies.

.

The Holy Gospel is not one stock of tailoring fabrics, where everyone can carve out what is most comfortable for them based on the color and cut of fabric, it is necessary to take it in its entirety, not through clumsy cut and sew, to make Christ God say what he did not actually say. And that's because, Christ gave, is the whole, not a piece to use at your own need, or worse in its own justification, much less to justify those omissions that enclose that sloth that essentially rests on the contempt of truth and justice.

.

Leo cannot become antelope and lion antelope, given that in the mystery of creation and in the economy of salvation both are needed, because everyone has a specific role, until the day when, when after the parousia the primordial natural order will be restored, at that point "The wolf will live together with the lamb, the panther will lie down next to the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child shall lead them " [Is 11,6]. Of course, if today an antelope goes to do the snooty in front of a lion, then no one should complain if the poor thing ends up torn to pieces. On the contrary, logic and common sense would dictate that the lion played only its role, it's the antelope that made the mistake. But, as known, in the Church of the lack of logic and common sense, imprudent antelopes affected by delirium of omnipotence and poor relationship with reality, they think they can put the lion down.

.

I don't want to go back to the topic of the inversion principle, I wrote a book about it ten years ago, titled And Satan became triune, within which, who wants it, on this and many other topics you will find everything [see WHO]. One thing is certain: to the proven proof of the facts, it seems that a decade ago I saw it right, when in fact I illustrated that principle of inversion through which good becomes bad and bad becomes good, vice virtue and virtue vice, the healthy heresy doctrine and the healthy heresy doctrine ... and all this has finally led us to overcome the "threshold of no return".

.

Roar, or tearing up the snooty antelopes, today, it serves some purpose? No, not anymore, after launching the plane without a parachute from the hatch. The only one who seems not to have understood it, despite its sacramental grace, is Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, surrounded by his court of journalists reduced to humoral "furious anti-Bergoglian", who raised him on the ruins like his own modern golden calf. Having said that, it is good to clarify why I consider Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò much worse than those bishops and cardinals than between omissions, pavement and plagiarism, damage is being sown within the Holy See or in the dioceses entrusted to them as diocesan bishops. First of all, he should know that to touch the stone placed by the Incarnate Word on the rock of Christ [cf.. Mt 16, 18-19] the whole building will collapse. Then, if he cannot understand that Peter is the stone laid on the rock of Christ on which the Church is built, then it would be a good thing that on the threshold of the eighties you go back to studying the basics of fundamental theology. Indeed, the reigning Pontiff, he was also one of the worst popes in the history of the Church, he is the legitimate successor of the Blessed Apostle Peter, given to us by grace or by misfortune. It will be only the future time to tell us if this Pontiff who has gone through history in this particular moment completely unique in its kind, it has avoided much greater and irreparable damage to the Church of Christ than those on which today all the worshipers of the golden calf paralyzed in the present are tearing their clothes, nostalgic for the past and above all lacking a future eschatological perspective.

.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, which around itself has coagulated all the worst opponents of this pontificate, all the soured retired journalists and bloggers who from day to day make serious accusations and insults on the legitimate Successor of the Blessed Apostle Peter ... well, I'm afraid I didn't understand the Antiochene episode. Indeed, when the Blessed Apostle Paul felt it necessary to recall the Blessed Apostle Peter to Antioch, she appeared before him, then, as he himself narrates: «[…] I opposed him openly because he was evidently wrong " [Gal 2, 11]. Doing this «open face», first of all he recognized the authority conferred on Peter by Christ God himself, therefore to all his Successors. It is quite another thing to launch periodic poison bullets in an increasingly painful game that has been going on for some years now, using executors of sour journalists and furious bloggers as armed men.

.

It is therefore easy to say that this "heroic" golden calf erected on the ruins of our house by the new idolaters, it is comparable to those snipers who during the war in former Yugoslavia, they were lurking hidden above the roofs of the buildings and firing at the shoulders of unarmed civilians who, at the risk of their lives, had to necessarily go out to try to get something to eat for their families. Just like all of us we seek today, with increasing difficulty, nourishment for our souls, with the first and last aim of overcoming this great and painful test of faith.

.

In September of 2018 I wrote an article in which I explained the importance of creating a "seed bank" [see article, WHO]. This article was titled: "Faced with a visible Church suffers from a doctrinal and moral decay irreversible, you must open as soon as the seed bank ". In this regard, you will be told about that island in Norway where the institution it conserves is located 84.000 samples belonging to more than 60 genres and 600 species of cultivated plants and wild species threatened by "genetic erosion" or extinction.

.

For some time I have come to the conclusion that it is not possible to grab those who launched themselves from the hatch without a parachute and bring them back on the plane to make them wear it. God can't do it, except thereby contradicting itself, maybe we can do it? In the face of certain irreversible situations due to which the faithful are subjected to a great test of faith and many priests are in conditions of profound suffering, no need to roar to the crazy antelopes, least of all tearing them apart. But above all it is not necessary - indeed it is immoral as well as shameful - to start snipers hidden in the shadows or above the roofs of the buildings of our modern Sarajevo. Accept the bleak reality and admit to the evidence that nothing can be done, nor that certain routes can be reversed, it is not at all an act with a weak or spoiled conscience, it is neither a failure to take responsibility nor a serious sin of sloth, only logical and painful acknowledgment of reality: a terrible test of faith to pass.

.

Nobody likes being helpless, but yet, Christ God himself, in his perfect humanity he experimented on his own blood and tortured flesh during his painful passion, the sense of total impotence. In the face of that supreme test inflicted on his humanity, how he reacted? His reaction is enclosed in one sentence: "Dad, sorry, for they know not what they do " [LC 23, 34]. To share this total powerlessness with the Word of God, there were two evildoers, one on his right and one on his left. In the face of pain and helplessness, the two had opposite reactions, one insulted him with anger, the other, after scolding him, he turned to Christ saying: «[…] remember me when you come into your kingdom ". Christ the Lord answered: «In truth I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise » [LC 23, 43]. there, this second, better known as the good thief, it was certainly not Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò with his associates, all busy shouting their anger together with the other criminal. This, it is our situation: we are nailed to the cross next to Christ God, you just have to choose which of the two thieves we want to be.

.

Finally, the very serious question is the following: what can we do, in this situation? First of all, save the seeds of the Holy Gospel and the deposit of faith, then stay close and assist all those members of the People of God who feel lost and who seek a secure priestly guide, therefore an authentic and precious spiritual comfort. With everyone else, it doesn't deserve to waste time, better to leave them to their blind rage, to their catastrophisms or to the transformation of snipers of modern Sarajevo into golden calves of our contemporary age. And mind you that it is not an act of abandonment of certain rebellious and unmanageable members of the People of God, on the contrary, this entails putting into practice precisely what the Holy Gospel indicates:

.

«[…] if someone then will not welcome you and not listen to your words, leave that house or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly, I say, the day of judgment the land of Sodom and Gomorrah shall be more tolerable fate of that city ' [Mt 10, 11-15].

.

There is safe driving to live this moment of great crisis and great trial? Exists, and is contained in the Qelet or Book of Ecclesiastes:

.

To everything there is a season, its time for every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot the plants.
A time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build.
A time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;.
A time to search and a time to lose,
A time to keep and a time to cast away;.
A time to tear and a time to sew,
a time to keep silence and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace [Ec 3, 1-8].

.

It would be enough to read and follow the Holy Scriptures, at the same time following those who know them and are able to transmit them, instead of drinking from those poisoned sources in the shadow of which many poor Catholics bivouac in disarray, between catastrophes and itchy mysteries, among the vain and lying words of those who claim to keep trembling secrets personally given by the Madonna, waiting for the great magic twist that will mark the imminent decisive triumph of the immaculate heart of the Blessed Virgin, transformed, blasphemously, in a middle ground between the goddess Athena and the Fata Morgana.

.

There is a time, there is a time, there is a time ... everything had been written, it would be enough to read the Ecclesiastes, instead of reading the ramblings of an ecclesiastic reduced to being a sniper who shoots from behind in the shadows towards the end of his life … there is a time, there is a time, there is a time ….

.

the Island of Patmos, 21 June 2020

 

.

.

.

«You will know the truth and the truth will set you free» [GV 8,32],
but bring, spread and defend the truth not only of
risks but also the costs. Help us supporting this Island
with your offers through the secure Paypal system:



or you can use the bank account:
.1

payable to Editions The island of Patmos

IBAN IT 74R0503403259000000301118
in this case, send us an email warning, because the bank
It does not provide your email and we could not send you a
thanks [ isoladipatmos@gmail.com ]

.

.

.

.

17 replies
  1. Giuseppe
    Giuseppe says:

    Contrary to other comments, on the other hand, thank you very much for your comment on Vigano ’. In my opinion, his latest charges have been completely inappropriate, and the silence around them (apart from the approval on some sites as you pointed out) they had given me a bad feeling. Knowing his thought, father ariel, I was very inclined to believe that he would distance himself, as he finally did, in my opinion more’ that rightly. Vigano's statements’ among other things that lately were not even restricted to the theological / ecclesiastical world, but which went far beyond the scientific one, where you are not’ understood on the basis of what his skills can be expressed in this regard, and promote paranoia (on this too, in some respects he reminded me of his article in which he mentioned the curtain between Burioni and Cattelan). If we get angry when exponents of science are easily expressed in theological terms, can not be done’ then do the opposite. Thank you Father Ariel!

  2. Luigi
    Luigi says:

    Dear father Ariel, I share your thought. In this historical moment the temptation of many Christians (and I'll take it too) is to turn into angry mastiffs towards it “hierarchy” in disarray. Ma, apart from the fact that in this way spiritual serenity is lost, there is the risk of ultimately playing the game of the Enemy..
    In practice, however, his advice, especially for families with the responsibility of passing on the Faith to their children, it is a kind of “Benedict option”? Look for holy priests or places of healthy Christian life (exemplary monasteries or convents) as a reference of spiritual life?

    • father ariel
      Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo says:

      Dear Luigi,

      what she calls “Benedict option”, more than an option, I think it's the only survival system, first of all for the faith and for what remains of our faithful.
      I'll give you a concrete example: today I finally confessed, which I had not been able to do before Easter, for reasons known to all, then later, because I was far from the two confessors to whom I usually turn. In fact, I needed a confessor, which is increasingly rare today, since there is a huge difference, not only formal but really substantial, in a boredom “sender of sins” and a true confessor.
      And a priest, in a particular way, needs a good confessor. Everyone, they need it, but we priests most of all, given that the care and assistance of souls falls on us.

      I think I have illustrated in my way what you rightly call “Benedict option”.

  3. Filelleno
    Filelleno says:

    Reverend Father Ariel, I would like to ask you two things:
    1) What was the event that helped you understand that we have crossed the threshold of no return?
    2) Given the free will of man, that God respects, it makes no sense to pray a dozen rosaries a day (how can I do) for the conversion of sinners? Unfortunately I note a widespread indifference (when I don't really hate) towards God among relatives, acquaintances and pupils (one thing that makes me particularly disgusted is to hear swearing even of the girls of 15 year old). One time, in the classroom, for scolding a pupil who had cursed, I was looked at with astonishment by the whole class and they asked me: “Prof, but she is a Christian?”.
    Thank you for your attention and remember it in prayer.

    • father ariel
      Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo says:

      Caro Filelleno,

      more than one event in particular, it was a set of situations, of social transformations that began in the late sixties, in that 1968 that Mario Capanna defined in one of his books “Those years were formidable”; situations that between the late eighties and the early nineties reached a level of total degeneration.

      If the guy you mentioned, instead of cursing he had issued an invective against gays and lesbians, the whole class would rise against him with motions of great indignation, why now, these authentic monsters, were raised between the reversal principle – the good that becomes bad and the bad that becomes good – and a politically correct nauseating.
      So they can easily insult an 80-year-old on a bus in general indifference, like the lady who was forced to stand on a bus full of students, for having recalled a young man who occupied his place and with his feet the one in front, he heard himself answer “don't break my old shit balls”. But, that same young man, he would never have dared to say, for example to an African, “don't break my shitty balls”, first, because it is politically incorrect and everyone would have risen instantly, second why, the African, she would tone him down, and he would have done very well to do it.

      This, it is the threshold of no return.

  4. nonversolottopermille
    nonversolottopermille says:

    Dear Father Ariel,
    I believe that Msgr. Viganò simply is one who does not resign himself to the idea that the Church has already jumped from the plane without a parachute, if it is expressed so harshly it is because, According to him, the fatal jump can still be stopped. He will be right? I do not know, I am pessimistic, unless at this moment unpredictable events, the slope currently taken will be traveled to the end. Personally I feel I belong to the Church because I am baptized but I am ashamed of this church. If the Baptism were comparable to a membership card I would have already returned it 6 years ago when I realized what type the party secretary is. Believe me, father ariel, it is a drama for a faithful not to trust the pope and to feel annoyed every time he mumbles something. The thing I can't handle is the Pachamama affair with those “Catholic religious” prostrate in the Vatican gardens and the subsequent procession in S. Pietro. But these people still have a modicum of faith in Jesus Christ? For years now, this church has no longer been financially subsidized in disarray, I would feel complicit in his bad operation. I am sorry for many good priests who still exist but a simple faithful must send a signal, or not? One last observation: we try to avoid a formal schism, but in fact it is already there, at least so it seems to me.

  5. Robert of France
    Robert of France says:

    Father Ariel Estimated,

    The question is : Archbishop Viganò has told the truth, Yes or no? And if he told the truth, because the Pope, vicar on earth of Truth itself, should fear it? Why later 2 years in which any doubt about certain accusations could have been annihilated by burying the former nuncio under tons of evidence, nothing happened?

    We are not all exalted gospari, are (also) faithful stragglers, who seek words of Truth and Eternal Life, where they think they can find them.

    That is to say to churchmen who, like her, “if I really have to(no) taking the risk of making mistakes prefer to do it to oppose what is objectively bad, certainly not by omitting to decide and take positions for one's own peaceful and quiet life.”

  6. Antonio Bertuzzi
    Antonio Bertuzzi says:

    father ariel,

    For once, I don't agree with you. The most warned faithful have long understood that today's pontificate is damaging to the Church. Propagating a false concept of mercy, the Holy Father provokes, both in those who have faith and in those who do not have faith, the belief that they are justified regardless of the acts they perform. A poisonous conviction is spreading outside and inside the Chisa that has already taken the form of a claim: God must save me as I am. Jesus' many appeals and warnings to conversion are a dead letter in the current pontificate. On the contrary, worse: the only conversions we are talking about are ecological and that of the feeling of welcoming pro migrants. Far from being a worthy successor to Peter, the Holy Father favors the perdition of millions of faithful.
    We know how obstinately he has ignored any appeal made to him by cardinals and theologians. He mocked it by continuing in the demolition of the Church that certainly someone other than God ordered him.
    This being the picture, I believe the emergence of a visible criticism is essential. It would take many Viganò, one in each parish. In my opinion, every priest should pray for the conversion of the Holy Father and at the same time openly inform the faithful on the errors spread by the Holy Father. It would not be going against Pietro, but a way to contain the damage.

    I believe that God inflicted Pope Francis on us to make us understand the horror of a world without him. Retribution and warning widely…

  7. Emanuele
    Emanuele says:

    Good morning Father Ariel, I can only prove esteem for whom, priest or layman, manages to remain firm in faith despite the tragic situation of the present situation. I have now lost faith. I have become one of those whom the Supreme Pontiff has ironically defined “nonbelievers practitioners”.
    I don't know what will become of me but I know that I can no longer believe in the indefectibility of the Church or that God cares about his destiny.

    • Ornella Antoniutti
      Ornella Antoniutti says:

      Dear Emanuele,

      I never thought I should say it: I feel instead a believer but not a practitioner. But not as it was many years ago, when many claimed to believe in Jesus Christ, but not in the Church.

      Now these followers of a very human and merciful Jesus crowd parishes and festive functions (or at least they did it before the covid) that I started to desert when I had the distinct sensation of finding myself, more than in the presence of God the Trinity, in a cheerful picnic with a final Eucharistic snack. ….

      I already hear Father Ariel thunder to my theological ignorance and liturgical arrogance.
      Alas.
      I will end my earthly existence among the followers of Monsignor Lefebvre.
      I cannot forget the answers of the Catechism of Pius X:
      Who is God? God is the Most Perfect Being, creator and lord of heaven and earth.
      Because it created us ? God created us to serve him, pray to Him and worship Him in this life , to then be called to enjoy Heaven.

      Maybe they are not the exact words. But the concept has remained, after I studied them by heart sixty years ago.

      • father ariel
        Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo says:

        cara antonella,

        things are two: or she overestimates me, or she underestimates me, in fact I have nothing to complain about, much less "theological ignorance and liturgical arrogance".

        You illustrated, with his clear and precise words, what are our sensational pastoral failures, to which if you want I will add the worst element: arrogance, or rather the clerical pride of whom, for hardness of heart and above all for ideology, does not have humility, not even before the evidence, to wonder: “… is that perhaps, in something, or more, we were wrong?”.

        Just take all the latest documents from the Italian Episcopal Conference, not to mention that unclean one bad news to which it is reduced L'Avvenire in its new role as the fifth column of the international Left: poor and migrants … migrants and poor …

        I did not become a priest to be a social worker and socio-political scientist but to cure, teach, administer the sacraments of grace and save souls. Whether it's the soul of a poor migrant or the soul of a poor Italian who travels with a Ferrari for half a million euros, I don't care, even because, of poverty, I have a spiritual and evangelical concept, not ideological, non-socio-Marxist. And often, the one with the Ferrari for half a million euros, he is poorer than the migrant. Wanting with a difference of no small importance: when the poor man with Ferrari for half a million euros really gets converted, is able to donate millions of euros to create an institution for the assistance of disabled children or abandoned elderly people, unlike the poor Muslim migrant, who complains instead that the sound of the bells of the nearby church traumatizes his wife and frightens his children.

        You have therefore simply expressed what many of our faithful think that have emptied the churches, in indifference – to the test – of our bishops who perhaps will understand this bad mood of Catholics only the day they do, the Catholics themselves, they will begin to leave them with empty coffers and precipitate the Italian Church into a serious economic crisis.

        There are always holy bishops and holy priests, always less, but they exist and, as I often repeat, they will always exist. Look for those and put yourself under their guidance, on everything else spread a pitiful veil. At the moment we can not do anything against this totally degenerated system and plunged into an irreversible crisis and decay, a fortiori, at the right moment, God's judgment on these people will be terrible.

        From the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah: 23, 1-4

        «”Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the flock of my pasture”, says the Eternal.
        Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who graze my people: “You have scattered my flock, you chased them away and did not take care of them; there, I will punish you for the wickedness of your actions”, says the Eternal.
        “But I will gather the rest of my sheep from all the countries where I scattered them and bring them back to their pastures, and they will be fruitful and multiply; I will build pastors on them who will pasture them, and they will no longer be afraid or afraid; not even one will be missing”, says the Lord ".

        And with this I think everything is said.

        • Ornella Antoniutti
          Ornella Antoniutti says:

          Dear father Ariel,
          Thank you for your reply. We too scattered sheep desire pastors who speak of God and administer sacraments. Luckily we have known about them in the past, and we will continue to search for them.
          With sympathy I allow myself to tell her that my name is Ornella. But you are not the first to make this merger between my surname and name. Practically all the colleagues called me Antonella….. ????
          Good evening everybody.

  8. Iginio
    Iginio says:

    The silence of the Lord was not silence. And lukewarmness (or mediocrity) it is not a Christian virtue. Much less is it to set a bad example by believing oneself authorized by the role you play.

  9. Iginio
    Iginio says:

    well, to herald the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was Mary herself in Fatima.
    So I would say to change the subject. Years ago I met some Salesian priests: one had founded a lay movement, the other, young, succeeded him in the university chair, he was talking about me and making fun of me from behind because I disliked him because he was more serious and more cultured than he was (he did not know Greek or the year of canonization of Don Bosco, p. it is.). When, after many sad adventures, I protested to the first, pointing out to him like him, in addition to promoting this type of mediocre priests, he frequented frightened priests like a certain left-wing extremist Girardi, the angry reply was: “And you who care?”. So, priests like them feel entitled to sentence on the lives of others but do not tolerate someone to pronounce on their.
    Then there is such a Roman monsignor, I use to speak ill of everyone he knows, especially if not leftist or modernist, in a clearly compulsive and neurotic way, while he spoke well of immigrants who, if they kill someone, they do it according to him out of hunger. I pointed out the contradiction and stuffed myself. But they gave him the title of monsignor, as they gave him a university chair at the Gregorian and a place in the Vatican.
    Conclusions: 1. genuine priests suffer as serious lay people suffer; 2. if you have to speak frankly, it must always be done. Viganò has noticed some big contradictions: explain to her, instead of taking it out on him as a character (puppet topic). The silence of the Lord does not…

    • father ariel
      Ariel S. Levi di gualdo says:

      «well, to herald the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was Mary herself in Fatima.»

      She did not read what I wrote and if she read it she decided to misunderstand what I clearly expressed, so I repeat myself:

      the “mystery” the “decisive triumph of the immaculate heart of Mary”, it is a dogma of faith? E’ an element inserted in the deposit of the Catholic faith? Believers, they must lend to this an adhesion of faith? In the Creed, perhaps we profess to believe in “triumph of the immaculate heart of Mary” or in the triumph of the glorious Christ who will return to glory … ?

      I am sorry that you did not understand, or wanted to understand, these elements so elementary.

Comments are closed.