Ivano Liguori
Of the Order of the Capuchin Friars Minor
Presbyter and Theologian

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Father Ivano

The most manipulated phrase of this pontificate: «Who am I to judge a gay man?»

THE MOST MANIPULATED PHRASE OF THIS PONTIFICATE: «WHO AM I TO JUDGE A GAY?»

A distanza di anni, starting from certain poisoned pseudo-Catholics, we must continue to read these scandalized assertions: «… the Pope stated: who am I to judge a gay?». Per poi accusarlo di seguito d’aver sdoganato quello che per la morale cattolica rimane un disordine morale. È infatti proprio il Catechismo al quale il Santo Padre ha fatto richiamo che al n. 2357 chiarisce: «Gli atti di omosessualità sono intrinsecamente disordinati».

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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Il «chi sono io per giudicare un gay» è una frase che ha una premessa alla quale segue una precisazione, poi un’espressione in linea con la dottrina cattolica e una ulteriore precisazione conclusiva con richiamo al Catechismo della Chiesa Cattolica.

Anche se abbiamo a disposizione Internet e tutti possono andare a cercare e leggere i discorsi ufficiali corredati quasi sempre anche di documenti video, disponibili e accessibili sul sito della Santa Sede, l’esercito di analfabeti funzionali o digitali si limita con ostinata caparbietà a basarsi sul sentito dire e sulle mezze frasi riportate di blog in blog.

Consapevole che a ben poco varrà chiarirlo, lo faccio ugualmente: il Santo Padre ha premesso: «… le lobby, all, non sono buone». E come premessa non è cosa di poco conto, perché si sta riferendo alle potenti e ideologizzate lobby LGBT, anche se non le nomina, ma lo lascia chiaramente capire.

After this introduction passa a una precisazione inequivocabile: «… se uno è gay e cerca il Signore …». Non si parla, so, di un fantomatico gay in quanto tale, ma di un gay «che cerca il Signore…». Dopo la premessa e la precisazione un ulteriore chiarimento «… e ha buona volontà…». A questo punto il Santo Padre fa un’affermazione che sul piano della dottrina della fede cattolica è un’ovvietà: «… chi sono io per giudicare?».

Dico ovvia perché Dio solo può leggere e giudicare the conscience of a man, nessuno di noi può, perché anche volendo non sarebbe in grado di farlo. Espresso il tutto il Santo Padre conclude: «Il Catechismo della Chiesa Cattolica spiega in modo tanto bello questo, ma dice: “Non si devono emarginare queste persone per questo, devono essere integrate in società”».

Adesso leggiamo la frase intera with which the 28 July 2013 il Santo Padre rispose alla giornalista brasiliana Ilze Scamparini, corrispondente dall’Italia e dal Vaticano per Rede Globo, scatenando le tifoserie LGBT e facendo gridare allo scandalo quei cattolici ottusi ai quali il non capire sembrava far comodo più che mai:

«[…] Lei parlava della lobby gay. MAh! Si scrive tanto della lobby gay. Io ancora non ho trovato chi mi dia la carta d’identità in Vaticano con “gay”. Dicono che ce ne sono. Credo che quando uno si trova con una persona così, deve distinguere il fatto di essere una persona gay, dal fatto di fare una lobby, perché le lobby, tutte non sono buone. Quello è cattivo. If a person is gay and seeking the Lord and goodwill, who am I to judge him? Il Catechismo della Chiesa Cattolica spiega in modo tanto bello questo, ma dice: “Non si devono emarginare queste persone per questo, devono essere integrate in società” […]». (Official text, QUI).

The n. 2358 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, al quale il Santo Padre si richiama, recital:

«A non-negligible number of men and women have deeply rooted homosexual tendencies. This inclination, objectively disordered, constitutes a test for most of them. Therefore they must be welcomed with respect, compassion, delicacy. In their regard, any sign of unfair discrimination will be avoided. Such people are called to carry out God's will in their life, e, if they are Christian, to unite the difficulties they may encounter as a result of their condition to the sacrifice of the Lord's cross ".

A distanza di anni, starting from certain poisoned pseudo-Catholics, we must continue to read these scandalized assertions: «… the Pope stated: who am I to judge a gay?». Per poi accusarlo di seguito d’aver sdoganato quello che per la morale cattolica rimane un disordine morale. È infatti proprio il Catechismo al quale il Santo Padre ha fatto richiamo che al n. 2357 chiarisce: «Gli atti di omosessualità sono intrinsecamente disordinati». Cosa questa che implica, nell’intero contesto dei numeri 2357-2358, una netta distinzione tra il peccato, da respingere sempre e comunque, ed il peccatore, da accogliere sempre e comunque.

Bisognerebbe sempre evitare di prendere per buone le cose riportate di blog in blog. but yet, coloro che se ne guardano bene dall’andare a leggere i discorsi e i documenti ufficiali, quasi sempre con allegati filmati, disponibili e alla portata di tutti, costituiscono un penoso e pietoso esercito sempre più fitto, col quale spesso, we priests and theologians, dobbiamo sperimentare il grande fallimento dell’impotenza, dinanzi a chi, stubbornly, non vuole ascoltare ragioni, Why … «ma sui social ho letto che …».

 

Sanluri 29 May 2024

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I libri di Ivano Liguori, to access the book shop click on the cover

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Holiness, and from 2011 what a testimony and lament that «a universal cloudburst has broken out in the Church». If today you have decided to use my styles and phrasebooks, at least pay me the royalties

HOLINESS, AND FROM 2011 WHAT A TESTIMONY AND COMPLAINT THAT «A UNIVERSAL NUBIFROOM HAS Erupted IN THE CHURCH». IF TODAY YOU HAVE DECIDED TO USE MY STYLES AND PHRASE BOOKS, AT LEAST PAY ME THE COPYRIGHTS

To all the bishops that yesterday, not being able to deny the obvious problem I raised about poisoning lobby gay inside the church, they clung to the form to the point of calling me blasphemous, Today I have a very serious question to ask, this: the Roman Pontiff who speaks of "faggotness" is blasphemous or else, much more simply, it was finally discovered after a decade that his ghost-writer it's me?

 

 

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In my book of 2011, titled And Satan became triune, still distributed today by our Edizioni L'Isola di Patmos, in paragraph V of Chapter Two I deal with this delicate topic:

«Gay priests and careerists punished and expelled? nope: they lobby and are warmed like snakes in the bosom giving life to pornocracy clerical».

In the narrative of this chapter I made use of an expression about which some bishops with particularly sensitive uteruses - and therefore easy to be attacked by itching - complained to my then Bishop, the late Luigi Negri of blessed memory, that I needed to be corrected and rebuked for having resorted to blasphemy. In fact, it happened that this good Prelate of mine at the time, just arrived at the plenary of the Italian Episcopal Conference of 2012, during the first available break he was assailed by the jeremiads of several of his brother Bishops, those who incidentally, much to be understood, of the "nubifrossing» were directly responsible, as well as guilty before God and before men. The sentence judged blasphemous was the following:

«In this new, highly de-virilized ecclesial dimension, it seems that something has really broken out in the Church nubifrossing universal"

Thirteen years later the Supreme Pontiff Francis, during the plenary assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference this May 2024, speaking behind closed doors with the Bishops, perfectly aware that the matter would be reported to journalists within a few hours - certainly by some prelate who had felt stung to the core - he complained that "There is too much fagotism in the seminaries". Inviting the Bishops not to admit into our disastrous seminaries - which for years and years I have complained are real branches of the Gay village - people with homosexual tendencies. Pointing out and clarifying in another closed-door speech made to the same Bishops in May of 2018:

«If there is a doubt about homosexuality, it is better not to let anyone enter the seminary» (cf.. WHO).

To all the bishops that yesterday, not being able to deny the obvious problem I raised about poisoning lobby gay inside the church, they clung to the form to the point of calling me blasphemous, Today I have a very serious question to ask, this: the Roman Pontiff who speaks of "faggotness", is he blasphemous or, much more simply, it was finally discovered after a decade that his ghost-writer it's me?

Below is the excerpt of that fifth paragraph taken from Chapter Two of my work And Satan became triune, a book written between 2008 and the 2010, published at the suggestion of my then Bishop only at the end of 2011.

From the island of Patmos 29 May 2024

 

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GAY PRIESTS AND CAREER PEOPLE PUNISHED AND EXPOSED? NOTHING: THEY LOBBY AND ARE HEATED LIKE SNAKES IN THEIR BOMBS, GIVING LIFE TO CLERICAL PORNOCRACY

(And Satan became triune, Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo, Rome, 2011, Cap. II by. V)

A dirty body that gives off a strong odor of sweat should be stripped and washed thoroughly with soap and water, at the end of the wash it can be sprinkled with perfume; but if perfume is sprinkled on a dirty body that gives off a strong odor of sweat, the effect will be that the perfume mixed with sweat will end up making it stink more.

Involved in topics related to painful facts that afflict and humiliate the Church, at the end the prelate admonished me:

«The problem is not telling the truth but how it is said».

I replied:

«Jesus Christ did not die for the truths that the political and religious authorities wanted to hear, but for those truths that they were not willing to tolerate being merely sighed".

When the substance cannot be demolished, a last desperate defense is attempted by quibbling over the futile form, to best defend the right to spiritual blindness. When in fact it was not possible to rebuke Jesus for having healed a blind man by restoring his sight, he reproached himself with harsh criticism for having performed a miracle on the Sabbath, on a day when work is not permitted (cf.. GV 5, 2-16).

Or maybe we are, we modern Christians, so different from the Pharisees of ancient Judea? When we talk about Pharisees we tend to do so in the past tense, as if they were only one of the many Jewish sects present in Judea at the time; while the Pharisee is a being without time and religious connotation, it is a lifestyle that can take root anywhere, in every time and religious culture.

The desire for career, far from being a modern quirk, according to the words of Saint Paul it also existed in the apostolic era; even then there were those who aspired to the episcopate, so much so that the Apostle exhorts:

«What I tell you is worthy of belief: if one aspires episcopate, wants an excellent task, but the bishop must be irreproachable, husband of one wife, sober, prudent, decent, hospitable and capable of teaching, not addicted to wine, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not attached to money" (The Tm 3, 1-3).

Today the difference lies in the erotic-psychological approach. The careerists of the past were manfully driven by motivations that in the councils of the first centuries generated heated doctrinal battles, in subsequent political and religious struggles; social animals who believed in something beyond themselves and their lust for career.

For men of the past, making a career in the ecclesiastical world was a means of winning a battle, to impose their doctrine, their social or economic policy.

Today's is a careerism that comes to the surface in a world of little men e somewhere retreat into the hedonism of a social psychology that has reached the peak of collective narcissism. To the virility of the males who yesterday fought for the investitures and who were willing to risk their lives and the health of their souls to be able to impose what they believed in, the androgynous softness has been replaced by an aesthetic vision of social being and appearance, even through a privileged place like the Church, a set of international coverage which can bring bishops and priests into the limelight of the mass media, or in close contact with the world of politics, of culture and the public and private economy.

In this new highly devirilized ecclesial dimension, it seems that something has really broken out in the Church nubifrossing universal, led by a fierce army of monsignorini in career, friends of friends of friends... who have not yet been kicked out of the Roman Curia and who proliferate within it through the good offices of friends of friends of friends, often removing or keeping away everything pure that could enter it. But having to please and please to achieve the goal of pleasing and pleasing oneself, by intrinsic nature aesthetic careerists are not inclined to make decisions, this would imply the psycho-physical possession and use of those masculine attributes necessary to take on responsibilities, which in every society entail the high risk of pleasing two men and remaining unwelcome to two thousand, from time to time to be celebrated twenty years after their departure as far-sighted spirits by twenty million men against the negative opinion of only two obstinate fools.

The media ended up distorting the episcopal figure and in the collective imagination the bishop was transformed into a sort of Queen Elizabeth, representative icon for stamps, punts and Buckingham Palace parades. They speak of the bishop as a religious subject responsible for "representing his Church", starting from the first of the bishops, the Supreme Pontiff, which “represents the Catholic Church”. Which is true but also ambiguous, if the hand is pressed on those concepts of "representation" which have erased from the collective memory that the fact that the bishop is called to govern his Church, before being its religious "representative" and merely managing director, or worse, bankruptcy trustee [1].

Today the pastoral and spiritual figure of the apostolic father who governs the family has been lost, guaranteeing the protection and education of children and also making the bite of authority and discipline felt when necessary.

Bishops govern the particular Churches entrusted to them as vicars and legates of Christ, with advice, persuasion, the example, but also with authority and sacred power, which, however, they do not use except to edify their flock in truth and holiness, remembering that whoever is bigger must do like the smaller one, and who is the boss, come chi serve (cf.. LC 22, 26-27).

This power, which they personally exercise in the name of Christ, it is its own, ordinary and immediate, although its exercise is ultimately subject to the supreme authority of the Church and, within certain limits, with a view to the usefulness of the Church or the faithful, can be restricted.

«By virtue of this power bishops have the sacred right and before God the duty to give laws to their subjects, to judge and regulate everything that pertains to worship and the apostolate […][2] Under this, the Bishops govern the particular Churches entrusted to them, as vicars and delegates of Christ, with advice, persuasion, the example, but also with authority and sacred power, which, however, they do not use except to edify their flock in truth and holiness" […][3].

Lose all this, it means losing the spiritual and pastoral sense of the episcopate in the Church.

In his most important liturgical actions the bishop is called to proceed with the rod, the pastoral staff, which is a sign of his spiritual government and his Christian and psychological virility.

Even more so today it makes you blush with embarrassment, when certain aesthetic masters of ceremonies cover the poor bishops with cascades of lace and lace, which are more reminiscent of the bewitching female underwear rather than the vestments of the male Fathers of the Church.

Modern aesthetic and media careerism is based on a singular element: he is not virile but ephebic, feminine; asexual at best, at worst it leads to real sexual disorder due to obvious consequences of character.

In the unbalanced relationship with the ecclesiastical career, There are tremendously high numbers of individuals influenced by the typical instinct of the homosexual narcissist. And for the Church machine there is no worse engulfment than the devious personalities of repressed gays, ended up in considerable numbers like foxes in the henhouse in delicate roles where they end up "not to serve but to serve themselves"[4], not to please God, but to please others and please oneself, instead of exercising the power to decide according to charity and justice what that episcopal chair or that office of curia requires for the good of the Church and its faithful.

Hiding the truth does no one any good, especially to those who have to announce it to the world.

If we really want to seriously address this very dramatic problem, we must start from a sad fact of life: today, within the secular and religious clergy men, the number of homosexuals is alarmingly high, and is divided between gay gay practitioners and repressed; the most active seconds of the first exercise of their exhausting psychological homosexuality. Homosexuals for repressed psychic character in the body, They are far worse than those who practice homosexuality physical, causing always within the Church of sometimes enormous damage sometimes irreparable, always aiming to place itself in the highest positions and key government roles, the better to strengthen a powerful and united lobby inside, straight on pornocratici criteria.

what the pornocrazi to[5] is a drama that wounds the Church striking with deadly sinking. recent term of French origin, pornocrazi to It indicates a form of government characterized by the pernicious influence of fops and prostitutes on the men in charge of the exercise of power. Literally meaning "of prostitutes government", or government based in large part on the typical mechanisms of prostitution.

The hallmark of the pornocrazi to, It is not so much bartering for sexual favors with privileged positions, as in the usual relations between powerful and prostitute, because these power relations have not always been sexual connotations, species within certain pockets decaying, that they have formed in the past and present horrible ballast for the Church, where often the mechanism, far from being the completely natural one of heterosexual sexuality, It is based on asexuality, or of pure homosexuals mechanisms, often more psychological than physical.

In pornocrazi to clerical, homosexuality practiced at the physical level is just the tip of mental homosexuality radicalized and went often to power.

With the exercise of its influence on man power prostitute, or gay-prostitute, not so much they can indirectly exercise their personal power, because similar role mechanisms have been repeatedly applied in a quasi-institutional of the legitimate spouses of kings, or their various buddies-gay.

What is particularly stressful in the Church, more than in the secular civil power, is the prostitute ability to create their own personal power at times almost absolute, which often replaces the authority of the powerful, which often survives the same powerful.

Consider for example the young and adolescent secretary from whose lips hung the powerful, and that after an impact on the exercise of the power of the prelate - who was appointed to serve, not to drive by hitting it with the arrows of Cupid -, when he is about to retire from office for new arrivals age limit, he is promoted bishop, taking the place - in rank and sacramental dignity - of his platonically in love master[6].

The use of the term prostitute rather than prostitute, in a male society like the ecclesiastical one it is not accidental, whereas in the Church the pornocrazi to it tends to have eminently male subjects as driving characters.

The latter is the dramatic case of the powerful gay lobby, which within the Church has been able to impact and influence the driving force of the whole for some decades Orb Cattolica: the promotion of priests to the episcopate.

Predating by many centuries the classification of men placed by Leonardo Sciascia on the lips of the character of his novel, St. Bernard of Clairvaux[7] who is not a fictional character but an extraordinary saint and doctor of the Church, In the 1145 he wrote to his disciple Bernardo dei Paganelli, became Supreme Pontiff with the name of Eugene III, greeting his election to the See of Peter with a Treaty good for every Pope, carefully tailored for him. In this writing Bernardo does not fail to point out that certain mellifluous pages and young men with hair following bishops and cardinals are not happy at all around the Holy Father..

Wise exhortation addressed to a newly elected Pontiff nine centuries ago by a future saint and doctor of the Church.

Today some can say that we were not warned well in advance, regarding the damage that can be caused by certain smooth pages and young haired men to whom Saint Bernard of Clairvaux refers?[8] O, if to the medieval language of this Doctor of the Church, we prefer Sciascia's literary one from the 20th century: «take me e somewhere»?[9]

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NOTE

[1] On the governing power of the bishop and his ministry: Christ the Lord, n. 8 e n. 11, Apostolic Exhortation Herdsmen, n. 42, n. 54, n. 55 and the following.

[2] Dogmatic Constitution on the Church The light, n. 27.

[3] Apostolic Exhortation Shepherds of the flocks, n. 43.

[4] Meditation of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the IX Station ofthe Way of the cross, Colosseum in Rome, 25 March 2005. Benedict XVI: Way of the cross 2005, Libreria Editrice Vaticana Publishing House.

[5] Italian term coined on the film by Catherine Breillat whose original title is Anatomy of Hell. Prod. France, 2004.

[6] N.d.A. edition of 2019 - Made of record as reported by the press: «In the summer of 2017 the Vatican Gendarmerie arrests Mons. Louis Capozzi, of fifty years, Secretary of Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio and officer second class at the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, chaired by the cardinal. The fact: in his apartment located in the Vatican in the Holy Office building, Monsignor organized revels gay-based drugs, so much so that he was admitted to the Roman Pio XI clinic for detoxification therapies", cf.. Franca Giansoldati, The messenger, 29 June 2017; Francesco Antonio Grana, The Daily, 5 July 2017; Editorial, Free, 7 July 2017; Dominic Gramazio, The City of SalernO, 2 July 2017; Emanuele Barbieri, Correspondence Romana, 22 November 2017; Richard Cascioli, The New Compass Daily, 4 December 2017, etc..]. Referring to news they received from the inside of the Holy See, newspapers state that Monsignor "had already been proposed by the Cardinal to be raised to the episcopal dignity ', Francesco Antonio Grana, Daily fact, 28 June 2017. More than a year after the fact, journalists Maike Hickson and John Henry Westen LifeSiteNews they launch a piece of news later reported by the Vatican expert Marco Tosatti, pencil Court 11 October 2018 and Giuseppe Aloisi, The Journale, 11 October 2018 and various organs of Print: «Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio […] was present at party homosexual drug-based affair which the Vatican police raided in the summer of 2017 and he was arrested his secretary, Mons. Luigi Capozzi». At this news the same evening responds with a Tweet Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, at the time of the incident Substitute of the Secretariat of State: «The news is baseless. I was the one to inform arrest of the priest Cardinal. Coccopalmerio end of the day, I did not find, for a mistake, the morning. The priest was not arrested during a phantom party, but in the courtyard of the house". Let's clarify everything: for over a year Cardinal Angelo Becciu allowed the newspapers to smear a priest by writing without ever being contradicted that «the arrest took place inside the apartment during a party gay a base drug», then, spent sixteen months - when at stake was pulled a cardinal - the former deputy to the Secretary of State, with timing diligent and sudden love for the truth, reports a Tweet that the arrest did not take place «during a phantom party» but «in the backyard» (!?) … «Il 29 August 2018 the roof of the Roman church of San Giuseppe ai Falegnami collapses", The Republic, 30 August 2018, whose title is held by Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio. After having shown this faithful history not subject to denial, perhaps it would be good to keep close tabs, in order to avoid further sharp drops, the Etruscan necropolis of Roselle Maremma, of which Cardinal Angelo Becciu is titular Archbishop, so the roof of the Roman church of San Lino, of which he holds the title of Cardinals.

[7] Monk and then Abbot of the Cistercian Order (Fontaine les Dijon 1090 – City under Ferté 1153). He founded Clairvaux Abbey and other monasteries, including Chiaravalle Abbey in Italy. Canonized in 1174, he was declared Doctor of the Church in 1830. In 1953 the Supreme Pontiff Pius XII wanted to dedicate the Encyclical to him: Doctor Mellifluus.

[8] N.d.A. edition of 2019 – When in 2009 As I was writing these lines, the following reflection escaped me: perhaps, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, indicating «mellifluous pages and young men with hair», that is to say the gays present in certain ecclesiastical courts of the time, it could have been based on the Free Gomorrhianus written a few decades earlier by San Pier Damiani (Ravenna 1007 – Faenza 1072), work in which he begs the Roman Pontiff to dismiss those guilty of the foul sins of homosexuality from the priestly and episcopal ministry, ephebophilia and pedophilia. However, a powerful force already existed at the time lobby gay, and the Supreme Pontiff replied that these desired severe measures would be taken only in the event of a repeat offense.

[9] Leonardo Sciascia: The Day of the Owl. Torino, 1960, Einaudi publishing house.

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The Pentecost of the "called alongside" as defender, rescuer and comforter

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

THE PENTECOST OF THE «CALLED ALONGSIDE» AS THE DEFENDER, RESCUER, COMFORTER

The Synoptic Gospels say that Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit, descended upon him in baptism, he then promised it as a gift to the disciples, in particular for the hour of persecution, when the Spirit will be their true defense: speaking into them and teaching them what needs to be said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The lectionary of the Italian Church presents per this Pentecost Sunday two passages taken from the Fourth Gospel which in truth are somewhat artificial constructions, as they are made up of verses belonging to different contexts. In this year B the text is composed of two verses where Jesus promises the disciples the Holy Spirit (GV 15,26-27) and by four others in which he specifies the action of the same Spirit in the days of the Church (GV 16,12-15). Jesus pronounces these words while he is still at the table with his disciples after the washing of their feet (cf.. GV 13,1-20) and communicates words of farewell, because "the hour has come to pass from this world to the Father" (GV 13,1). Here is the evangelical passage of the Solemnity:

Pentecost, fresco by Quirino De Ieso (1999)

"During that time, Jesus told his disciples: «When the Paraclete comes, which I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me; and you too bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. I have much more to say to you, but by the time you are not able to bear them. When he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all the truth, because he will not speak for himself, but he will speak everything he hears, and he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything the Father has is mine; this is why I said that he will take from what is mine and announce it to you" (GV 15,26-27; 16,12-15).

The Synoptic Gospels they say that Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit, descended upon him in baptism (cf.. MC 1,10), he then promised it as a gift to the disciples, in particular for the hour of persecution (cf.. MC 13,11 e par.), when the Spirit will be their true defense: speaking into them and teaching them what needs to be said. We find the same promise in the Gospel according to John (cf.. GV 14,26-27). It will come Parakletos (supplicant) a term that is not immediately understandable, the meaning of which is: «the one called next» as defender, rescuer and comforter. The sanctifying Spirit that Jesus, ascended to the Father, will send. Then the Spirit will bear witness to Jesus, just as the disciples themselves will do, who have been with him since the beginning of his mission. This is the decisive function of the Holy Spirit who, how he was "Jesus' inseparable companion" (Basil of Caesarea), after Jesus sent him from his glory to the Father, becomes the inseparable companion of every Christian.

He is that breath of God that Jesus breathes on the disciples after the resurrection and the very life of God which is also of Jesus becomes life in the disciples and enables them to be his witnesses. A synergy will be produced between the testimony of the Spirit and that of the disciples. And this regarding Christ. Even when men feel that Christians are strangers, in the persecutions or hostilities suffered by the world, in the power of the Spirit Christians will continue to bear witness to Jesus.

Pentecost then is the fullness of Easter. With it the Church celebrates the gift of the Spirit, on the one hand it recalls what God has already done in Jesus of Nazareth and on the other it invokes what is not yet, that is, the universal and cosmic extension of the energies of life and salvation deployed by God himself in the resurrection of Jesus. Pentecost is simultaneously celebration and invocation. The first reading of today's Solemnity (At 2,1-11) it shows the Spirit in his aspect of gift from above which makes the disciples capable of communicating the great actions of God in the languages ​​of men. It is an openness to the languages ​​and communication skills of others. The Spirit is thus at the origin of a mission that is at the same time one of inculturation, to reach the other where he is; and corresponding deculturation, so as not to announce as Gospel what is simply culture. Just as the Scripture says:

«The spirit of the Lord fills the universe and, embracing everything, knows every voice" (cf.. Sap, 1,7).

The second reading presents the fruits of the Spirit. He who is invisible makes himself recognizable by the fruits he produces in man if he welcomes his presence. The Spirit with his "indwelling" makes man go from being a closed and self-referential individuality, Paul alludes to this when he speaks of "satisfying the desires of the flesh" (Gal 5, 16-21); to be open to relationships with others and with God. Paul states: «The fruit of the Spirit, however, is love, gioia, pace, magnanimity, benevolence, goodness, fidelity, mildness, self-control… Therefore if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk according to the Spirit" (Gal 5, 22.25). Thus the Spirit shapes the face of the believer in the image of the face of Christ, guiding him on the path to holiness: fruit of the Spirit is the holy man.

In the second part of today's evangelical passage Jesus says a few more words about this divine breath which is the Spirit. He is aware of being the revealer of the Father as stated in the Johannine prologue: "It gave, no one has seen him: the only Son, who is God and is at the Father, it is he who has made him known " (cf.. exegetical Of GV 1,18, the greek explainer). He did it with events and words and above all by loving his people until the end (cf.. GV 13,1), but he also knows that he could have said many more things. Jesus warns us that there is a progressive initiation into the knowledge of God, a growth in this same knowledge, which cannot be given once and for all. In this way the disciple learns to know the Lord every day of his life, «from beginning to beginning, for beginnings that never end" (cf.. Gregory of Nyssa). The life of the disciple opens up to ever greater understanding and everything that a person experiences, thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit, acquires a new meaning in God. Each of us experiences it; the more we progress in personal life and in responding to the Lord's call in history, the more we know him: «In the illumination of the Spirit, we will see the true light that illuminates every man who comes into the world" (cf.. San Basilio).

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (EB 13,8), does not change, but the Spirit will guide us to the whole truth. These, sent to the disciples, remind them of his words (cf.. GV 14,26), it deepens them and new events and realities are illuminated and understood precisely thanks to the presence of the Holy Spirit. Christ is not succeeded by the Holy Spirit, the age of the Son is not followed by that of the Spirit, because the Spirit who proceeds from the Father is also the Spirit of the Son: “All that the Father has is mine”. Where there is Christ there is the Spirit and where there is the Spirit there is Christ. He is the perennial source of the Spirit who never runs out and always renews the Church, as John himself reminds us: «On the last day, the big day of the party, Jesus, pillow block feet, he shouted: «If anyone is thirsty, come to me, and let him who believes in me drink. As Scripture says: From her womb rivers of living water will flow. This he said of the Spirit that those who believe in him would receive: in fact there was not yet the Spirit, because Jesus had not yet been glorified" (GV 7, 37-39).

For this reason the Church continually invokes this water, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, which is also the ever-creating breath of life, according to the words of the Psalm: «Send your Spirit, everything will be created and you will renew the face of the earth" (Shall 104, 30).

 

From the Hermitage, 19 May 2024

 

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Sant'Angelo Cave in Ripe (Civitella del Tronto)

 

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The disastrous episcopal appointments of a Church that despises and destroys talent to make ideology prevail

THE DISASTROUS EPISCOPAL APPOINTMENTS OF A CHURCH THAT DESPISES AND DESTROYS TALENT TO MAKE IDEOLOGY PREVAIL

Nhe 1960, while in the United States there was racial segregation between blacks and whites, abolished only 4 years later from Civil Rights Act, in Rome, the Tanzanian Laurean Rugambwa, newly elected cardinal, dressed in purple with ermine and cappa magna, he received a kiss on the knee from members of the most ancient pontifical nobility. Does the Holy Father Francis know these edifying pearls of history linked to a Roman curia kissing the hand of a black cardinal while in the United States blacks were not even allowed to ride public transport?

 

 

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Take parish priests with consolidated experience and promoting them to the episcopate would not in itself be wrong, because what they vitally need the many small, but also in medium-sized Italian dioceses there is the figure of a bishop with pastoral experience, who knows how to deal with his priests and welcome and guide the portion of the flock of the People of God entrusted to him. But being a parish priest, or have been, It's not a guarantee at all, because the bishop is required to have a particular thoroughness that few parish priests have, especially those who, in order to reach the episcopate, managed to sew on themselves the “fortunato” curriculum of "frontier priest" or "periphery", essential and decisive under this pontificate. The Bishop must first of all know how to govern his priests with authority and authority, confirming them day after day in faith (cf.. LC 22, 31-34) then drive in a decisive and credible God's People.

Cardinal Laurean Rugambwa, archive photo, Vatican CITY,1960

Bishops must avoid the attitudes of the spineless who, in order to please everyone and not displease anyone, create situations of self-destructive paralysis, because in fact they do not govern their particular Church and let arrogance govern it, quarrels and priests arbitrarities divided among themselves, where light is only the arrogance of the strongest in the time that you are placed in the right places after collecting the worst weapons of blackmail. Priests in some dioceses, although representing a small number of three or four elements, they put three or four bishops in check and silenced one after the other, after making them understand that they had in hand instruments of blackmail both on the moral side both on the economic side to blow up an entire diocese, with all the implications of a criminal nature in the event that certain information reached the competent civil and criminal judicial authorities. And not a few Italian bishops, in such situations, They remained with their beautiful pastoral in his hand used solely as Liturgical trinket to do done anything, or rather yes, to only be extras on the theater scene.

The bishop must be a master of doctrine. And here note that I did not say an excellent theologian, but a master of doctrine, able to teach and if necessary enforce compliance with the Magisterium of the Church which the supreme guardian in his particular Church deposit of credit. However, considering the recorded homilies that were pronounced both for their installation in the chair and during the first acts of episcopal ministry by several of these bishops coming from parishes-existential-devices, the doctrine of several of them is not all that exciting; and when you don't know well and thoroughly the deposit of credit, safeguard it is not easy, although of course no limits to the grace of the Holy Spirit, which however is best not to challenge to the levels of certain unfortunate appointments.

The bishop must also be a connoisseur of law and have a strong natural sense of justice. And here you notice: I did not say that it should be a supremely doctor in canon law, but a person with the sense of entitlement, because if it is not, easily slip in free agency, factory all the worst injustices. Even in this case, many of the new recruits, They also leave a lot to be desired in this sense, despite having been parish priests Peripheral-existential for many years and presented themselves as champions of the poor Church for the poor which looks out for refugees and Roma.

The bishop is the supreme liturgist and celebrating the Eucharist depends on the validity of all the Masses celebrated in his own particular Church. And even in this case it is good to gloss over the sloppy manner and approximate with which certain bishops from parishes-existential-devices, true or presumed, They have been taken for years and years by many cameramen while celebrating liturgies that you may want to draw a veil.

Run the mode, both conformism, lead by different routes but both parallel to the same disaster. Indeed, before the conformist fashion of peripheral-existential bishops-parish priests, we experienced both the fashion of curial bishops with John Paul II and the fashion of professor bishops with Benedict XVI. these seconds, mostly linked to the last part of the pontificate of John Paul II and the subsequent pontificate of Benedict XVI, that realizing how inside the Church of the ferment of heresy or doctrinal errors had pushed up huge panettone, to remedy, instead of closing the factories of panettone, instead of stripping certain pontifical universities and pontifical universities of the title "pontifical", we begin to have more or less illustrious professors of theology appointed as bishops, often coming from these same factories of heresy, inside which were themselves the first and most pernicious speakers. Unfortunately these professors, some of them true theologians, others pure puffballs, over time they have sown so much damage around the dioceses that in many cases it will take decades before it can be remedied, especially when such serious damage are related to the priestly ordinations of many wrong subjects as such should never have become priests.

Problems are not solved by moving from one fashion to another, He has already done politics. Or perhaps the Church wants to repeat the mistakes of politicians? Does anyone remember the times when before the political fall to historic lows of credibility, Italian political parties attempted to entice voters by nominating actors, singers and players on the electoral roll? To tell the truth, a famous person was also nominated and elected pornstars. We want to repeat these same mistakes in the Church, pornstars included?

The problem is only to become bishops it is necessary to have been a parish priest, or professors of theology, or who work in the Curia duties. It is not in fact the role that makes holy man, but the man who sanctifies the role that has been appointed to. A good bishop can emerge from a suburban parish priest as from a luminary of theology, by an employee of the diplomatic service or by a priest who has served the Church in a hospital specialized in the care of terminally ill patients, from a missionary who spent many years of his life in the poorest villages of the Congo as well as from a researcher who spent much of his life inside historical archives and libraries, because it is the man who makes the good bishop, not the specific position he held. Otherwise we risk reasoning and assigning episcopates on the basis of ideological stereotypes, with the bleak results that end up shining in the sunlight today.

Talking about the drama of the self-candidates and the clerical mafia that promotes them, in a book of mine published at the beginning of 2011[1], speaking of the episcopate and of our natural vocation to holiness, written in the water of our baptism, It said that it is up to the Church to establish how consecrated in the sacrament of Holy Order should play and pay their grateful and valuable services; the assumption that what is at the basis of the nature of the sacrament of Holy Orders. It is unacceptable that the priests are proposed as candidates for the episcopate, or bishops propose to major metropolitan locations, office of the Roman Curia or the honorary title of Cardinals. Anyone, in direct or indirect way it did, the penalty should be excluded from any possibility of promotion. No one is in fact promoted and consecrated bishop for his personal prestige but to be a faithful servant and devoted to the particular Church entrusted to him, always bearing in mind that God became incarnate in Jesus not to be served but to serve (cf.. Mt 20,28). Therefore we should work towards a day to an important result: a Catholic clergy formed by secular and religious priests are well aware that being bishop of a large and important diocese or be pastor of a small country parish is equally dignified and important for the Church, within which the Bishop of the largest diocese and the parish priest of the small country church offer both an essential service, united by their very nature of servants.

In the Church there is precious inspiring figure and the high example of the Holy Bishop Carlo Borromeo, but there is just as valuable inspirational figure of no less high and example: John Mary Vianney, elected patron saint of priests not by chance. No wise mind would have ever sent Carlo Borromeo as parish priest to Ars e John Mary Vianney as bishop in Milan; but it is precisely the Church that is the only one, the only one to establish who should become bishop of Milan and who should become curate of Ars, to better develop its natural vocation to holiness and to preserve and save the faith of the People of God.

However, when common sense takes over from fashions or market strategies played on real advertising slogans, the risk we run is to put Giovanni Maria Vianney as the Bishop of Milan and Carlo Borromeo as the curate of Ars, with a sad consequent results: neither will become saints. The first, will not become holy because be an inappropriate subject as not up to the Bishop of Milan; The second one, will not become holy because it is an inappropriate subject as not up to the priest at Ars, and both sow damage to no end.

In the state in which we find ourselves, it is useless to look small, futile and clerical strategies, today targeted the baked professors and curial, tomorrow in the parish priests who have taken upon themselves in some way - or really clever joke - the smell of the poor and of those existential suburbs that seem to go out of fashion today. Each of these choices are only palliatives that lead to total failure. What in fact does not seem to enter into the ever smaller heads of certain ecclesiastical, is that to arrive at being truly perfect in unity (cf.. GV 17, 23) We must proceed if necessary with dramatic divisions, mindful that Christ the Lord also came to bring a sword and war, not just peace understood in the manner of dreamlike ideological pacifists (cf.. Mt 10,34), Mindful that sooner or later, at the right moment, wheat will be separated from the chaff, when it is certain that not even an ear of wheat will be sacrificed to tear out the weeds. That doesn't mean that: ups weeds that choke the good grain permanently, as we are doing these days (cf.. Mt 13, 24-30).

Today's fashions prevent golden eagles to access ecclesiastical offices where they could render excellent services to the Church. Because trends are always harmful, of whatever kind they are, including the current research of parish priests with past real or imagined between Caritas, the slums and Roma camps, because that means that in the present, a man of God of extraordinary human completeness, morale, theological, juridical and pastoral as Rafael Merry del Val, not only it would never became cardinal, but not even bishop and perhaps not even priest, because just the sound of his surname would turn up many noses who pretend to only want to smell the smell of sheep to take on themselves, without having at all understood what the Holy Father Francis wanted to say and convey to shepherds caring for souls by claiming to be shepherds with the smell of sheep on them (cf.. WHO). Nor ever he would have done any road a man like Giovanni Battista Montini, guilty of coming from a family of the old and rich Lombard bourgeoisie[2]. Let us not dwell on the unfortunate fates of the Church trendy today they would have fallen to someone like Eugenio Pacelli, which is better to ignore and move directly to Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, but to the real, not to Santino from popular iconography. Today as today, the future St John XXIII, at the peak of the diplomatic career as apostolic nuncio in Paris, It would never become Patriarch of Venice - most ultra seventy -, after spending his entire life in the diplomatic service of the Holy See? Of course not, because if the logic had been applied fashionistas Today would have been tried definitely a pastor of some Veneto province that between 1945 and the 1950 he had enriched his CV after having dedicated himself to refugees and war orphans or for having served meals to the homeless left homeless after the Allied bombings of Italy.

If at certain bishoprics Bishops who have already gained pastoral experience in other dioceses where they have given good evidence of governance are usually sent., there is a reason, or not? If some Italian archbishop's offices have for centuries also cardinals locations, it is because there are ancient traditions linked to history and the past kingdoms and principalities of the Italian peninsula; this has established a tradition that is said to be maintained. Rules and habits can be changed and in fact, to do it, Peter does not have to ask anyone's permission. Limit it, if he wants, or if it has the necessary humility to do it, can ask people who are certain historical and ecclesial mechanisms may know them even better than him; but he alone, remains equipped with a full tank power to act as considers most appropriate. So that the current Patriarch of Venice was not created cardinal, perhaps to the person concerned does not affect anything, but the Venetians who have been accustomed to having a patriarch also awarded the honorary title of cardinal for centuries are very interested, so much so that they experienced this lack of a red hat as a humiliation, some even as a personal affront.

I understand that the Holy Father declared himself to be from "the other side of the world", However, this does not mean attempting other-worldly extravagances, because it is common ground that the Italian Church, its bishops and clergy, soprattutto alla sua storia bimillenaria, at least the same respect is due that the Holy Father shows he has for real or presumed refugees who disembark for an average of sometimes 700/800 per day in a country - ours - unable to contain and assist such a flood of people, because we are talking about 400.000/ 500.000 people per year who arrive in a territory - the Italian one - which is certainly not as large as Argentina.

To the Italian Church and its history at least the same respect that the Holy Father has for the inhabitants of the Roma camps is due, whose workers in the begging industry blaspheme Christ and all the saints along Via della Conciliazione, in front of the Papal Archbasilica of St. Peter, behind those who dare not give him money. It is not beautiful nor good, even for a Roman Pontiff, albeit surrounded by a "liberal" aura that only those who don't enter churches even for Christmas and Easter believe in, let it be understood: "I am and I do what I want". For us there is no doubt that you are Pietro, for your Lutheran or Pentecostal friends I don't know, but for us yes, you are Peter. Therefore, first establish precise rules, you have full authority to do so. Before Abolish customs and practices, then you should appoint a cardinal who you want and when you want, preventing a slice of your faithful, who for centuries they have been at the head of their diocese a bishop always created cardinal practices, they must ask themselves what they have done wrong to the Church and to the Holy Father to receive such a slap from him.

The Church needs its own strength and its own stability, which they contribute to some extent the traditions and customs of all accidental and quotas as such are changing and may be abolished at any time by the Supreme Shepherd. But I think that the least likely candidate to make the dangerous game to destabilization without first having established rules, is the Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, also because sooner or later, the People of God, that has never been a fool in the whole course of the history of salvation, You might begin to wonder: in which pro 'all this, but especially, at what price must we pay for the eccentric deeds of this subject who seems to be suffering from a great thirst for originality? And at least according to our increasingly empty churches, more than in front of faithful who ask themselves certain questions, we are faced with an increasingly numerous army of faithful who are so disaffected that they do not consider it useful to even ask questions, they prefer to desert or abandon the churches directly.

The Church cannot give up being mother and teacher beyond the time, of fashions and ideologies, because the greatness of the Church has always been that of being a mother and teacher. And a good teacher, which it is also mother, primarily educates. This is the reason why this extraordinary mother who is a body whose head is Christ (cf.. With the 1, 18) He never made the class distinction, race and nation. We know all the flaws of our Church, holy and sinful according to the old definition ambrosiana. Historical defects that the undersigned know enough to have stigmatized several times in compliance with the wise warning of the Supreme Pontiff Leo XIII who stated:

"The Church historian will more strongly emphasize its divine origin as has been loyal in no way conceal the evidence that the sins of her children and sometimes of his own ministers did suffer this bride of Christ" (Speech to the academics of France, 8 September 1899).

This mother and teacher, at the same time saint and sinner, even in its most controversial eras and you contrasted saw up to their so-called leaders many men from very simple and modest families. Even in his most controversial and conflicted eras he managed to spot talent, rather: I was looking right. Who today says, with a spirit that is both Romanophobic and anti-historical, which until not so long ago, to become bishops and cardinals had to be called Borghese, Orsini, Column, Odescalchi, Chigi, Doctors, Sforza ... wrong and mind, or rather he doesn't know the history of the Church at all. The chronologies of the bishops who have succeeded one another in our numerous Italian dioceses, They include many names of men from poor families, they entered the seminaries with the outfits given to them by a poor country parish priest who had collected donations from equally poor faithful.

Do not forget that to succeed Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, who had a blood concentration of the oldest noble families of Europe, it was the Cardinal Peter Gasparri, who was secretary of state under Pope Benedict XV and Pius XI, as well as a signatory of the Lateran Pacts which put an end to the long Roman Question that began with the capture of Rome 20 September 1870 lasted 59 long years until 1929. Peter Gasparri, born in the Marche in a village of the province, He came from a family of farmers pastoralists. In the Roman curia, where not even the Supreme Pontiffs have ever been exempt from the attribution of a nickname, he was nicknamed, not by chance, he shepherd. Pietro Gasparri was a canonist of rare refinement and his contribution to the drafting of the Code of Canon Law of 1917. From modest family came the Holy Pontiff Pius X, who also he wanted beside him in the role of Secretary of State, Cardinal Merry del Val. The Cardinal was born into a poor family Alfredo Ottaviani, in the Trastevere, where his father worked as a laborer at a baker. The Cardinal Giuseppe Siri he was the son of a janitor and a concierge. We stop at these few examples because the list of men whose names are today included in the history of the Church would be long, not at all marked by the surnames of the most powerful European princely families.

What can we say then that nohe 1960, while in the United States of America there was racial segregation between whites and blacks, abolished only 4 years later from Civil Rights Act, in Rome, the Tanzanian Laurean Rugambwa, newly elected cardinal, dressed in purple with ermine and cappa magna, he received a kiss on the knee from members of the most ancient pontifical nobility. Does the Holy Father Francis know these edifying pearls of history linked to a Roman curia kissing the hand of a black cardinal while in the United States blacks were not even allowed to ride public transport? He is informed, the Holy Father Francis, that his Supreme Predecessor Benedict XIV, nee Prospero Lambertini, In the 1741 he did not hesitate to challenge - despite all the risks involved - the major European powers, condemning without appeal slavery and declaring illegal, under penalty of immediate excommunication, the sale and the reduction of the Indians to slavery? Condemns, however, already delivered earlier by his predecessors Supreme Eugene IV (1435), Paul III (1537), urban VIII (1639), none of whom came from the "existential periphery" nor had they ever carried out any apostolate in the villas miseries.

I fear that for some decades delicate and ancient balances have been shattered and that today we have reached the apotheosis. man ever, in the past, a Rafael Merry del Val prevented a priest of recognized talent with him to sit in the pews of the College of Cardinals, as guilty of coming from humble beginnings. However, what should be feared today is that numerous Pietro Gasparri and Alfredo Ottaviani are totally devoid of the great talent and great piety that characterized these men of God, but filled with ambitions in return for which they never could aspire in the civilized world, can prevent a Merry del Val to become bishop and cardinal, because it "does not correspond to what are the criteria and pastoral styles today" - from villas miseries - "The Holy Father Francesco", with all the immense damage that would result and that has already occurred to the Church which has been deprived of this faith for years now, talent and rare intelligence.

Today the Church is no longer capable of educating and valorizing precious talents given by God to certain of his children. I don't know if anyone will reflect on all this, in a Church no longer capable of grasping talent, to educate and as a logical consequence to grasp the talent and transform the Gasparri and Ottaviani into authentic principles, making them the principles for nothing less principles of a prince of birth as Merry del Val. I fear that in these sad times, where many men of the Church seem addicted to the immediate and to living day after day without thinking about the future and building for the future, few will make similar reflections. When in fact the one hand they make a coup and the other one gives in to fashions, first of all, the freedom of the children of God is lost and we try with the worst coercions and the worst arbitrariness to force others to also lose this precious gift of grace. A church that no longer free teetering between bankruptcy and fashions equally unsuccessful experiments is bound to collapse, from his heart: the College of the Apostles, in which to recruit a mediocre after another into effect the coup of mediocrity in power. Never as today is in fact echoed the false and misleading warning which Judas:

«[…] then Mary, took a pound of ointment of true nard, very precious, He anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair, and the whole house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. Then Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, who would betray, he said: “Because this perfumed oil was not sold for three hundred denarii and then given to the poor?”. He said this not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and, He had the bag, to take what was put therein. Then Jesus said: “Let her do it, let her keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you have always with you, but you don't always have me"" (GV 12, 3-8).

Together with the excuse of the poor we risk also having an army of Judah, thieves and traitors, as well as pimps, ready to use the poor as false and measure as a new pretext for their personal gain, always moved by those irrepressible ambitions originating from the queen mother of all deadly sins: the Superbia, which always blinds, preventing to correctly perceive the present and the future to build a holy manner to the praise and glory of God.

the Island of Patmos, 5 May 2024

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NOTE

[1] See. Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo, And Satan became triune, Iª ed. Rome 2011, reprint, Rome 2019, Editions The island of Patmos.

[2] See. Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo, Digressions of a liberal priest, about the true curriculum of Giovanni Battista Montini, pag 61 e ss.. Rome 2023, Editions The island of Patmos.

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Bible, homosexuals and theology. The substantial difference between those who speculate and discuss and those who want to introduce a dangerous Trojan horse into the Church

BIBLE, HOMOSEXUALS AND THEOLOGY. THE SUBSTANTIAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THOSE WHO SPECULATE AND DISCUSS AND THOSE WHO WANT TO INTRODUCE A DANGEROUS TROJAN HORSE INSIDE THE CHURCH

«Today an increasingly large number of people, even within the Church, they exert very strong pressure to bring her to accept the homosexual condition, like it wasn't messy, and to legitimize homosexual acts" (Joseph Ratzinger, 1986)

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Homosexuality has always been a thorny topic, generates destined discussions and polarizations, like the famous parallel lines, to never meet. To give an example, I could cite the fuss raised last year by the publication of a book written by a General of the Italian Army containing decidedly clear positions on this aspect.. Of course homosexuality, During the years, it was also a debated chapter in the Catholic Church, more and more; escaped from fleeting mention in old manuals of moral theology and has become the subject of magisterial pronouncements, with specific dedicated documents, which denote how much the topic is felt in society and in the Christian communities that question themselves on this. Various meanings are found in the same documents, decisive or timid openings and closures which can also be ascribed to the sensitivity or position of that ecclesiastical representative or pontiff in office in a particular historical moment.

The Second Vatican Council he also asked that Sacred Scripture be given back the veneration it deserves as the source of divine Revelation and to it and to Sacred Tradition he dedicated one of the four dogmatic constitutions issued from that meeting, with the name of God's word. Since then every magisterial pronouncement, but one could say any theological or pastoral reflection, every single act of the Church cannot ignore the reference to the Bible. Even a topic that would seem delicate like that of homosexuality. Now, what sometimes emerges in many who want to refer to the Bible when speaking or writing about this topic, it's that they can hardly put aside the desire to polarize or necessarily emerge victorious from controversies, as we already noted at the beginning of this speech. Like this, the Holy Scripture, in debates or writings, it ceases to be that source that nourishes to become a weapon brandished by those who condemn short homosexuality, and by those who would instead like the Church to apologize to homosexuals for its closures and for the suffering it has caused them. How can you get out of this impasse? I think, first of all, recognizing the right value of the Holy Scripture which is evidently not a weapon to be used at will or a handbook and leaflet to be opened to comfort one's ideas and positions in the world. I read some passages of the voluminous commentary published last year under the name of Bibbia queer for the types of the Dehonian editions (WHO), where among other things, in the Gospels there is fear of a homosexual relationship between the Roman centurion and his sick servant for whom the former asks Jesus for healing, only because the Evangelist Luke says that "he was very dear to him" (LC 7, 1-10). The same interpretation was recently relaunched by a blog that is usually very polemical towards the current Pontiff and the leaders of the Church, but decidedly lenient on the subject of homosexuality, so much so as to state in an article dedicated to the relationship between this topic and Sacred Scripture that:

«Reading these texts carefully, so, there is nothing against homosexuality".

For real? Why leafing through the documents of the ecclesiastical Magisterium, the Catechism of the Catholic Church to cite an example, and of course those sites or blogs with a more conservative orientation, so to speak, it seems instead that for these the Bible is decidedly positioned on an attitude against homosexuality.

What I want to remember here it is how the Council wanted the Bible to be interpreted and it talks about this in nr. 12 of the Dogmatic Constitution God's word:

«For God in the Holy Scripture spoke through men in the human manner, the interpreter of the Holy Scripture, to better understand what he wanted to communicate to us, he must carefully research what the hagiographers really wanted to say and what God was pleased to demonstrate with their words. To obtain the intention of the hagiographers, among other things, literary genres must also be taken into account. In fact, the truth is proposed and expressed differently in historical texts in various ways, or prophetic, or poetic, or even in other genres of expression. It is therefore necessary for the interpreter to seek the meaning that the hagiographs in certain circumstances, according to the conditions of his time and his culture, through the literary genres in use at the time, he intended to express and has in fact expressed. In fact, to understand exactly what the sacred author wanted to assert in writing, due attention must be paid to both habitual and original ways of feeling, to express oneself and tell stories in force in the time of the hagiographer, both to those and in the various places they were then in use in human relationships. Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by which it was written, to derive the exact meaning of the sacred texts, care must be taken with no less diligence the content and unity of the whole Scripture, taking due account of the living tradition of the whole Church and the analogy of faith. It is the task of the exegetes to contribute, following these rules, to the deepest intelligence and exposition of the meaning of Sacred Scripture, so that through their studies, somewhat preparatory, let the judgment of the Church mature".

This is important and in some ways the passage of the passage is still not fully understood God's word reminds us, in its first part, the sacramental quality, as it were, of the Holy Scripture. Since the Word of God is presented in the form of human writing that is subject to the conditions of time and culture of the writers and to the original way of organizing that literary genius that every biblical author possesses. Just as it underlies their "ways of feeling, to express oneself and tell stories... which were in use in human relationships". In the second part, instead, there is an invitation to further excavation that goes in the direction of searching for the deeper meaning or meaning of the same Scripture. A spiritual sense, it is no coincidence that the Spirit is mentioned with a capital letter, and theological, in accordance with the entire deposit of faith, for an ever fuller understanding of the text and because the Church, in particular that part of it predisposed to driving, can express a judgment on the things that concern the Christian experience in accordance with the Word of God and its tradition. In light of this, we understand that we are facing a long and patient job, quite another thing than unsheathing the sword of the Bible and brandishing it to assert, or worse to impose their ideas.

Returning to our topic, it is clear that the Church's judgment on homosexuality has undergone progress, as well as maintaining some considerations. This can be seen in the documents, it gives Human person the 1975 to the recent Begging for Confidence the 2023, passing by Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the pastoral care of homosexual people the 1986, issued by the Congregation, now Dicastery, for the Doctrine of the Faith. This last document is the one that more than the others makes explicit reference to the biblical passages that condemn homosexuality, he lists them all and on this basis and on that of Tradition and the Magisterium, that document states that the Church:

«He maintains his clear position on this matter, which cannot be modified under the pressure of civil legislation or the fashion of the moment" (no. 9).

Shortly before the same text mentioned that:

«Today an increasingly large number of people, even within the Church, they exert very strong pressure to bring her to accept the homosexual condition, like it wasn't messy, and to legitimize homosexual acts" (no. 8).

Even the most recent document Begging for confidence it relies on Scripture, tradition and the Magisterium, in particular of the last Pontiff. This grants the possibility of giving the blessing under certain conditions to irregular couples and to those of the same sex because in this way:

«The Church is thus the sacrament of God's infinite love. Therefore, even when the relationship with God is clouded by sin, you can always ask for a blessing, holding out your hand to him, as Peter did in the storm when he cried out to Jesus: "Man, save me!” (Mt 14, 30). Wishing for and receiving a blessing can be the best thing possible in some situations." (no. 43).

Without forgetting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1992, what he says about homosexual people:

«Homosexuality refers to relationships between men or women who experience sexual attraction, exclusive or predominant, towards people of the same sex. It manifests itself in very varied forms over the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychic genesis remains largely unexplained. Relying on the Holy Scripture, which presents homosexual relationships as serious depravities, Tradition has always declared that "acts of homosexuality are intrinsically disordered". They are against natural law. They preclude the gift of life from the sexual act. They are not the fruit of true emotional and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved." (cf.. 2357). «A non-negligible number of men and women have deeply rooted homosexual tendencies. This inclination, objectively disordered, constitutes a test for most of them. Therefore they must be welcomed with respect, compassion, delicacy. In their regard, any sign of unfair discrimination will be avoided. Such people are called to carry out God's will in their life, e, if they are Christian, to unite the difficulties they may encounter as a result of their condition to the sacrifice of the Lord's cross " (cf.. 2358). «Homosexual people are called to chastity. Through the virtues of self-mastery, educators of inner freedom, through support, sometimes, of a disinterested friendship, with prayer and sacramental grace, they can and must, gradually and resolutely, getting closer to Christian perfection" (cfr.2359).

What about all this? Evidently these are not schizophrenic visions of the same reality. Rather, in the aforementioned documents there is a desire to maintain anchoring in the Word of God, seen precisely as a source. It is clear that the different writers wanted to press a certain type of register instead of another. Thus the most recent document relied on the teaching of mercy, so dear to Pope Francis and prefer biblical passages that underline God's welcome rather than condemnation. It is probable that the texts most decisive in condemning homosexuality have been interpreted in light of that "sense that the hagiographer in certain circumstances, according to the conditions of his time and his culture, through the literary genres in use at the time, intended to express and has in fact expressed", of which the Council spoke. Thus some expressions of Saint Paul and already of the Book of Leviticus which condemn homosexual relations for some exegetes are such because "the notion of homosexuality did not exist, that is, the normal attraction that a person can have towards another of the same sex, Paul saw this behavior as a deviation, based on what he believed was the "natural relationship". His opinions on the matter have the same value as when he states that it is "nature itself that teaches us that it is unseemly for a man to let his hair grow" (1 Color 11,14) (WHO). Likewise the Old Testament prescriptions of Leviticus, they are not related to sexuality, but rather to procreation, as it contravened the divine commandment "Be fruitful and multiply" (Gen 1,28) (WHO). The biblical text par excellence, then, on which every openness towards the homosexual condition is based and, lately, it is also used for the request for female ordination and is the Pauline passage from the Letter to the Galatians:

«There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is no slave nor free; there is no male and female, because you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3,28).

Text variously interpreted and sometimes forced to say what he really doesn't want to say. Yet all the documents, and the more closed ones, is the last one that presents some openings regarding the blessing of homosexual couples, you have to say it and accept it, they do not declare themselves openly Gay-friendly, as they say today; quite the opposite. Also Begging for confidence, which speaks of mercy, he does not withdraw from traditional doctrine nor does he wish to create confusion between the marital union and other types of union:

«This belief is founded on the perennial Catholic doctrine of marriage. Only in this context do sexual relations find their natural meaning, adequate and fully human. The doctrine of the Church on this point remains firm." (no. 4).

There is yet another aspect that needs to be mentioned. Joseph Ratzinger who drafted the aforementioned Letter the 1986 he spoke of very strong pressures, even manipulation, to ensure that the Church accepted the homosexual condition. The document clarified the Church's position on this matter. Yet it must be admitted that in that document and in the others the Church's attitude towards homosexuals had already changed a lot and this, it cannot be denied, because the sensitivity and opinion of contemporaries in this regard has profoundly changed, at all levels. Thus the Church today also deplores the oppression of homosexual people, as expressed by the Catechism of the Catholic Church cited above, therefore the use of violent language and actions. We appeal to the "proper dignity of every person". The term sodomy has disappeared and instead of "against nature" we are instead talking about a tendency, even if the "orientation" used by the World Health Organization is not adopted. Homosexual people are Christians like everyone else and invited to live chastity. there, Homosexual acts are not accepted, but that document, in the final part, it is all a promotion of the welcome and pastoral care of homosexuals who are not denied the Sacraments, under the appropriate conditions.

But as always happens with the topics that interest us In the Christian life, discussions are never closed, the reflection continues. The same Letter by Joseph Ratzinger invites bishops to solicit "the collaboration of all Catholic theologians" (no. 17). This aspect is probably the most difficult, the most tiring, what we miss most and also the most delicate as I will mention shortly with an example. But also what we need most, precisely because the Bible, to return to the heart of our discussion, is not used as a handbook. There is a further and decisive step. So that people, immersed in contemporary culture, can appreciate the intelligence of faith, we need the continuous effort to hermeneutically re-understand the data of faith and translate it into coherent organizations of thought. The Bible must retain its character as a source, but we need theological reflection for which the Holy Scripture, according to a beautiful expression of God's word, it is like the soul that keeps it always young:

«Sacred theology rests as if on an everlasting foundation on the written Word of God, inseparable from sacred Tradition; in it it is vigorously consolidated and always rejuvenated, scrutinizing in the light of faith every truth contained in the mystery of Christ. The Holy Scriptures contain the Word of God and, because you are inspired, they are truly the Word of God, let the study of the sacred pages be the soul of sacred theology" (no. 24).

I come to the example I wanted to refer to: the known theologians who have reflected on the topic of homosexuality almost all belong to the Anglo-Saxon area, often with decidedly open-minded positions in this area. Yet in Italy we had a theologian, a priest, who has thought a lot about this topic, but few know it. I am referring to the presbyter Gianni Baget Bozzo who many know for his orbiting vocation, that is, capable of making choices and expressing opinions first in one direction and then in the opposite direction. Embodying a controversial character alive he is now almost forgotten, Unfortunately. But according to him "in God the opposites are not contradictory" and "there is nothing more fascinating for the human imagination than seeing the two sides of a contradiction at the same time"[1]. He had Giuseppe Siri as a professor of religion in Genoa, future archbishop and cardinal of the same city who ordained him as a priest, he will want him to be a professor of theology in the seminary, he will entrust the magazine to him Renewal, he will take away these two tasks and suspend him peep. He changed his mind about everything, but on a subject he never changed his opinion: about homosexuals. His comments on the matter, which date from 1976 until the 2008, so that they do not fall into oblivion, they were collected by the Vatican expert Luigi Accattoli in a book entitled: For a theology of homosexuality [2].

These are texts that appeared in newspapers, magazines or speeches at conferences in which he tenaciously made his claims, for over thirty years, the rights of those who live in the homosexual condition. And as a theologian he encouraged Christians to rethink the theology of sexuality and to develop within it the unprecedented chapter of homosexuality. With his extraordinary aptitude for speaking about God in the language of his time, he wondered and asked what the divine intention is regarding the existence of homosexuals. He did so with sharp arguments and learned quotations, to the point that in the end he even had to repeat in more than one interview that he was not homosexual. Defended homosexuals, but also virginity and celibacy and did not spare criticism of the movement gay, to the organization of Pride, in particular that of the Holy Year of 2000, jubilee year, which caused such a sensation in the city of Rome. He advised homosexuals to have stable partners, instead of variables and also accused the European Union of using i gay as a weapon against the Catholic Church. He considered chaste homoeroticism not incompatible with sanctity and wrote things like this:

«Homosexuality, anyhow, it can never be considered by society as a model. It cannot be so first and foremost for biological reasons. A society that is biologically aseptic is incompatible with the teachings of Christ. This should not be forgotten. The Church cannot accept the equalization between the heterosexual and homosexual conditions. This is valid on the level of social morality. To be clear, on the political level. But on the level of individual morality, the discussion is still open and will need to be addressed" (The Gazette, June 2020).

What I want to underline here it is not so much defending Baget Bozzo's opinions, although it is nice that they are not forgotten and that there was an Italian intellectual who was not afraid to expose himself in this debate, but that we need such a cultural and theological effort, of sharp minds that help us think about difficult issues and therefore deal with those who don't think like us, but with the same diligence. Let's leave the shortcuts of those who take the Bible and read it like a medical handbook to the dear fundamentalists from overseas or to some blog of little fortune. The Catholic tradition that has never made use of shortcuts, much less the intellectuals, has always invited us to think, after meditating on Holy page, to quote Thomas Aquinas, what it was magister.

From the Hermitage, 3 May 2024

 

Gianni Baget Bozzo, Genoese presbyter (1925 – †2009)

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NOTE

[1] Baget Bozzo G., Vocation, Rizzoli, 1982, pg 68 e 142).

[2] Baget Bozzo G., For a theology of homosexualityat, edited by Luigi Accattoli, Ed. Months, 2020.

 

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Sant'Angelo Cave in Ripe (Civitella del Tronto)

 

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