Philanthropic goodness and charity. Faced with the death of Gino Strada we are called to pray, in front of his work, at his thought, leave us the right of criticism and doubt to his image of a secular face
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In any case, thank you for posting both the comment and the reply (certainly a little’ aggressive to uncomfortable ) something far from obvious in a world of Catholic blogs that make systematic censorship the most solid argument. Thanks again.
There is a certain Catholicism that seems envious of people like Strada, and he must necessarily look for a way to dirty his life and intentions.
Many doctors give their lives to save people, and a single doctor can save a few thousand. However, Strada had the organizational and visionary capacity necessary to save tens of thousands of them.
E’ a charisma that he was able to use for good and not to earn enough to buy a yacht or a private plane, as others would have done.
Now we can only be grateful to God who occasionally sends a Mother Teresa or a Gino Strada to earth, to compensate for the hatred and evil that we human beings produce.
Exactly like Mother Teresa, even Strada was not perfect and objectively he will have made many mistakes. But he never backed down from the challenges of treating those who had no treatment.
Since unfortunately not many similar people are born it would be appropriate, when they emerge, Christianly seek to thank God instead of reproaching him for having bestowed charisms and a good conscience even on some atheists.
Unless you prefer those who use their skills for their own exclusive advantage.
Al mons. Zanchi , who writes “an atheist who spends his life to benefit others is equally inconsistent with his own beliefs” I'm just saying that fortunately some atheists are inconsistent, because evidently they are driven by an ethical energy that she, Mgr. Zanchi, does not know and under envy.
The author of the article, Father Ivano Liguori, he spent years of his life in hospital wards, the priest from Arezzo Mons. Giovanni Zanchi assists a sick and seriously ill elderly person daily.
She, which instead fires such poisonous judgments on people, in which section of the PD he confabulated, while we all worked in the field, at our expense and sacrifice, without any piddiot making us rain tens of millions of euros?
And may God bless you!
I also assist a disabled person at my almost total expense dear Father Ariel . Church assistance activities are funded by the Church , I don't think she buys the beds or rents the premises with her own money , but if you do it good, do it and it will all be worth a paradise.
But Strada's activities cost money, and funding needed to be found , and the only tool is to advertise and knock everywhere.
I don't discuss your charitable activities , I discuss wanting at all costs to look for the rotten in people who do good when they are not Catholics.
And I discuss the absurd position of those who think that if an atheist does good then he must have some practical advantage or he is stupid.. You offend the charisms and the grace that God pours out (Fortunately ) even to those who do not believe in him directly.
Christianity is knowing by faith and reason that God exists? Also, but not only: "You believe that there is only one God? You are right; even the demons believe it and tremble!” (GC 2, 19). Christianity is doing good works in favor of others? Also, but not only: there are avowed atheists who go out of their way to help others, but “even if I distributed all my substances and gave my body to be burned, but have not love [that is, the love of God], nothing benefits me " (1Color 13, 3). A Christian who does not live coherently with his faith risks eternal damnation and scandalizes others; but - in principle – an atheist who spends his life to benefit others is equally inconsistent with his own beliefs, because if God really didn't exist, then man would be nothing more than matter, momentarily alive without a reason and destined to sink into nothingness after the death of the body; At that time, helping others in distress would be nothing more than delaying the fall into nothingness after bodily death; and to what purpose? Christianity is becoming like Jesus Christ, that is, son of God the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit, to die for Christ to sin and to rise with Christ to new life: that is, during this earthly life to think, to want and act like the incarnate Word, then overcome death and live eternally in God, first glorified in the soul and then after the final resurrection also with one's own glorified body. Christianity is therefore the only possibility given to men to overcome death and live happily ever after.
Thank you Monsignor for these words of yours. E’ a precious catechism lesson to meditate on every day, maybe even doing an examination of conscience. In the end, if you allow me the expression, the concluding sentences are a splendid open window on what the Creed defines “the life of the world to come”.
Dear fathers.
While admitting that he does not fully know the events and history of Gino Strada, I wanted to ask.. he could not fit into that ranks of “anonymous Christians” theorized by Karl Rahner? Said in other terms, the famous Gospel passage from “I was hungry, and you gave me food, etc.” It assumes who is feeding, to drink, etc. must necessarily have faith in Christ? I understand that it is a complex and controversial issue, however, in my humble opinion, Rahner's intuition about anonymous Christians is not entirely to be rejected. Otherwise it should be concluded that doing good, do good, is the exclusive prerogative of believers, but we all know that's not the case. I know believers (at least, so they define themselves) all rosaries and holy masses, but totally devoid of fraternal charity. To quote the Gospel: “not who says: man! man! He will enter the Kingdom of Heaven ..”
When the “charity” becomes system, becomes an organization to produce a “well”, then it is no longer such, at least not in the sense pursued in the Gospel. I have always been wary of the various NGOs, ONLUS, etc., which I have always seen as forms of soulless welfare, who are self-satisfied with the work done more than the effects possibly produced, e “quasi” never free from more petty secondary interests or very often priority over the declared claims.
If there was any good in the concept of “anonymous Christians” ie Rahner, I would see this perfectly painted in the episode that Our Lord tells us in the parable of the Good Samaritan, who does not seek an opportunity to stand out… he simply follows the good that his soul suggests he do in that instant, one among many, of his daily life… his, Yes “anonymous”, compared to those who could boast of being a priest, a levite. Yet it is the only one that, without looking for it, he distinguished himself among the three as a man of God.
Now, who seems to her closest to the attitude of the Samaritan? Those who systematically “they produce charity” or those who make an effort in the face of the circumstances of life, as far as they can, to take a charitable attitude?
With this thought of mine I do not want to deny at all that there are people with sincere good intentions, among those who are part of these organizations.
I take this opportunity to thank Father Ivano for the beautiful and illuminating reflection.
Dear Andrea,
I answer you to tell you that Father Ivano had prepared an articulated answer to your question. But when we read it in the editorial office, we took the liberty of suggesting that he publish an article on the delicate topic you touched upon “anonymous Christians”, which is a bold and nebulous hypothesis of the German Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner.
Several times it happened that different readers, with their questions, have inspired the Fathers of the articles.
In this case, she was the inspiration and we are grateful to her.
Mr. Andrea, his statement is one of the hackneyed clichés that continually reappear on the horizon without ever showing signs of fatigue . I refer to the topos of “those who go to mass and say the rosary and then as for Christian charity,….”.
Meanwhile, you who really know what is in the depths of people's hearts, their anxieties, worries and problems? Then there is the basic idea that if one goes to the mess, pray, says the rosary, in short, he is a convinced Christian so he must suddenly become I don't know which saint. Almost as if a Christian is remote controlled and must move like a programmed robot. In reality, when one “goes to church, at mass , pray and say the rosary” it is only at the beginning, and so every day. A struggle against oneself and one's own internal and external harshness, that prayer, however, gradually softens and smoothes. Try it and you will understand, these are not things you learn with theory. You have to live them and you have to do them. How much patience the Lord really has with us, to?
As for the bizarre idea of “anonymous Christians” (for Rahner the Taliban would be too, not just atheists”) it can be said that it was Rahner's ego manifestation of wanting to appear at all costs as a genius in the eyes of his colleagues, of course always seen as inferior. All disguised as an anthropological-transcendental philosophy (Kant e Hegel) that nobody really understands, let alone him (try to read it and tell me if you can do anything about it, a powder’ as for modern art, woe to say that they are scribbles and shit, you pass by…
Dear Mr.. Alexander, it is not commonplace for me, but direct experience lived on my skin. People who said the rosary and went to mass all their lives, but remained as they are. Not to mention my father, became anticlerical following years of college, where the rosary was said every day and went to mass, but for everything else, calling it a hellish place is an understatement. Instead, knew how much good I have received from people who barely know how to make the sign of the cross. So, be careful to do the Pharisees de’ noantri, “I pay the tenth, I go to the temple ..”
good morning , the video on the channel is currently private! Thank you!
Now it is visible, by mistake it had been left private rather than public
“Jesus brings him back to earthly life and shows him the way to inherit eternal life, that is, concrete love for one's neighbor… Jesus changes the perspective: invites him not to think about securing the afterlife, but to give everything in earthly life, thus imitating the Lord…”
If the words above and spoken by an authoritative pastor of the Church are true, Gino Strada should be in heaven.
Mr. Lorenzo, Pope Francis says “concrete love for one's neighbor” and it means selfless love. And this is where the whole point of the matter lies. Mother Teresa felt annoyed and horrified by the media hype about her, Gino Strada was constantly looking for him to the point of seriously using exasperated slogans for their own sake (I remember “war must be abolished” …then, to surprise, to say disconsolately that even Emergency still benefited from the war because it made them work; in conclusion, what he wanted in the end? Why not just work in silence? A little’ of balance, it takes a cool head and a spirit of self-denial , also and above all in the humanitarian field where we work in a team and emotions are strong and can play tricks.)
No love is selfless:
– there are those who love to go to heaven,
– there are those who love for personal gain,
– there are those who love to please the world.
Invite someone “not to think about securing the afterlife, but to give everything in earthly life”, it is an anti-evangelical message that justifies Gino Strada's behavior.
One can only fully agree with such a well-articulated and well-argued factual exposition
BOOK SIXTH. I can not alas ( and I feel guilty) to remove some of my doubts about Gino Strada that I had even when he was alive. A complex picture between sincere altruism and political and personal opportunism, his. But it is true that God forbids us to judge our neighbor morally. We just have to pray for him knowing full well that Jesus in the parable made everyone understand and for the good of all of us that whoever collects merit and applause on this Earth does not necessarily expect to find the same welcome with him..
I believe this is the right fear of God that helps us to enter Heaven with humility and hope
Dear Alessandro,
your answer gives me the opportunity for a necessary clarification. There are doubts about Dr. Gino Strada. It is certainly not you and I who highlight them but illustrious politicians, military, intelligence men, investigative journalists etc..
Several have found a clear swing between altruism and political opportunism and personal visibility. Thing, the rest, which characterizes many NGOs including Emergency, which certainly does not stand out among the most discreet and invisible.
As for the discourse on the judgment of God, I will immediately indicate a key to the reading. Judging for Sacred Scripture means presuming to know the heart in depth enough to formulate an intimate and personal judgment.. We know that man cannot and must not do this because he is not God. Instead, we can correct the one who errs, admonishing him to repent.
In the case of Dr. Gino Strada many things would have been the object of a warning and they would have been for the very fact that these things were flaunted with pride., not least his often aggressive verve against his opponents and towards Italy.
I don't know her, but personally I would expect a different pro-social action from a philanthropist, without political coloring, ideology of sorts or broken passion, something that the deceased doctor has never denied or from which he has repented.
The rest, even the devil when he's old, he becomes a monk.
Thanks Father Ivano,
objective article. Nothing to complain. I share every word.
I don't judge Gino Strada but the 68 yes and I was there. The 68 it was a great maneuver of the Freemason oligarchs that made the most vulgar communism flourish in the minds of arrogant undisciplined, intolerant to order and rules and mainly to God and the Catholic religion, masking the atheism and disintegration of the society they tended to, with slogan of pecoreccio enlightenment. So the 1968 people felt they were children of the state, as they wanted it for everyone, and not children of God. To attack society and institutions, they flagged the exception to destroy the generality. The sixty-eight would never be able to share ideas so harmful that the black Masonic hand slipped, among so many inconclusive ambitions, without many hallucinogens, which were made to flow to the river accompanied by fatigue chronic and wanting other people's stuff without giving one's own to others. Brainy people who without the illicit sponsorships of those who wanted to subvert and subvert the rules without having the right and without the consent of others, he wouldn't shit a spider out of the hole with his own strength.
But Mother Teresa was alone but with God. Mother Teresa worked only with God. Mother Teresa did not sell God, he has not disowned him, Mother Teresa showed everyone the courage of faith. He did everything as a poor Albanian. He worked for God. At the superficial the positions appear the same. But is not so. Mother Teresa abhorred what God does not want.