The Russian-Ukrainian conflict. A people can be deluded by an influencer and ask Europe to participate in a suicide?

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THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN CONFLICT. CAN A PEOPLE BE ILLUSED BY ONE INFLUENCE AND ASK EUROPE TO PARTICIPATE IN A SUICIDE?

For us Catholics, the model of heroism is not the Ukrainians who ask for weapons convinced that they can defeat Russia and who also want to involve the European Union in their mass suicide while the United States of America is blowing the fire. E, I say suicide, if all goes well, because if things should end up getting out of hand we run the serious risk of a Third World War.

- Actuality -

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The ongoing war and the torment of Calvary. Jesus crucified in the contemporary drama with Mary and John the Apostle

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THE WAR IN PROGRESS AND THE STRENGTH OF CALVARY. JESUS ​​CRUCIFIED IN CONTEMPORARY DRAMA WITH MARY AND JOHN THE APOSTLE

While on social, on TV, in living rooms and even in cafés, more or less bizarre and bizarre debates took place between people expressing their opinion on what happened, thus two factions were formed: the pro-Russian and the pro-Ukrainian. Given that the right to express one's opinion remains absolutely free and legitimate, here the two different partisanships continue to contrast each other with clicks, post, shouts and above all insults of various kinds. On the contrary, I decided to appeal to the right to remain silent.

Actuality

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Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

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The Pieta, opera on Van Gogh

The 24 February Russia's invasion of Ukraine has begun. We all know this from the news that have started bombarding us with images, sounds, testimonies of the new conflict that exploded while Covid19 was weakening and therefore changing from a state of pandemic emergency into a state of almost ordinary life.

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Through the general house of the Order of Friars Preachers we have contact with our Dominican brothers residing in Kiev, for humanitarian and spiritual aid. Every now and again, if circumstances permit, we exchange messages on WhatsApp and others social media. Not too often, Furthermore …

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... who knows me, You will have noticed that in this period I have never spoken in public, nor in this magazine of ours, born sui social, nor on my blog. I have spoken very little even in private about what is happening internationally. And this not only for the beautiful and long apostolic labors that occupied me for a long time in the period from the end of February to the beginning of April.; not only because I have finally concluded the defense of my doctoral thesis in sacred theology, which led me to have great inner peace and serenity, as a definitive confirmation of the mission of brother priest and theologian to which I believe the Lord directs me. All these were certainly co-essential reasons for what I will now try to explain.

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While on social, on TV, in living rooms and even in cafés, more or less bizarre and bizarre debates took place between people expressing their opinion on what happened, thus two factions were formed: the pro-Russian and the pro-Ukrainian. Given that the right to express one's opinion remains absolutely free and legitimate, here the two different partisanships continue to contrast each other with clicks, post, shouts and above all insults of various kinds. On the contrary, I decided to appeal to the right to remain silent, recognized legally in several places, according to various legal and jurisprudential nuances, just think of the well-known phrase - which represents a fact and a legal right - "I make use of the right not to respond". So I decided to remain silent, because it would be a clumsy attempt to pose a socio-political analysis of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. I believe that this act is based on the virtue of prudence; prudence is therefore that virtue - a little’ intellectual and a bit’ practice at the same time – that is driver's virtues, guide of all the others, because she is the one who predisposes the right reason to the actions to be taken, according to the lesson of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Prudence is therefore the capacity that man has, with the help of grace, to rationally choose which action to implement and omit in a given circumstance. In this very delicate circumstance I believe it is prudent for me not to express judgements: in fact, not being an expert in international law or Eastern European history, I have no skills or basis to be able to give a well-founded opinion. Add to this that at the moment, even the most qualified experts, they do not have the necessary elements to be able to make judgements, because only one in the present is the fact, which is the same for this as for all wars: of the innocent, especially civilians, they are dying. By itself, don't take a stand, it is said to already take one. In this case, the position that concerns me, and for which I am praying and meditating a lot, it goes towards all those people, Ukrainians, Russian or resident in those territories, who are suffering because of the war. Because war is always a drama that has atrocious and terrible effects. These reflections go to the people who suffer death and suffering due to war and are dedicated to them. All those who suffer are in fact intimately united with the suffering Christ, also to Mary, our Most Holy Celestial Mother who suffers in seeing and experiencing all this. They are united in death, suffering, pain, loneliness and separation from loved ones. But let's see why. Jesus on the cross suddenly said an important phrase, that we all have engraved in our hearts: “Father forgive them, because they don't know what they're doing." [LC 23, 34]. This is one of Jesus' last sentences. Let us reflect on the first of the words he spoke on the cross in that terribly strong and true sentence. According to the American theologian Stanley Hauerwas, in that moment the intense relationship of love between Father and Son comes into focus first and foremost. This is the foundation of forgiveness bestowed upon man. From this unique and unrepeatable relationship comes forgiveness for each of us. Therefore God who is in himself, in the Immanent Trinity he decides to offer the gift of the Son and forgiveness and pardon for the benefit of humanity. It thus comes to meet man and in technical jargon it is said that it becomes the Economic Trinity: it brings man into the Economy of Salvation.

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And here I would like to pause with an aside to clarify: the use of Trinitarian theology that I draw from the notions of the Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner, don't scandalize some of our most astute readers Patmos Island. My theological foundation is rooted clearly and unavoidably in the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas, to follow also in the study of theological works Hans Urs von Balthasar, which I consider fruitful for my education and that of every contemporary theologian. Having said this, I clarify that in the context of Trinitarian dogmatics the concept of distinction is Rahnerian: Immanent Trinity / economical, it appears objectively more solid than that of von Balthasar. As for everything else, or the theological approach itself in and of itself, I have no doubts about who to choose and who to continue to draw from. In short, I have not become an “anonymous Rahnerian”, on the contrary: in the wake of the Dominican theological tradition in which I grew up, I think I am able to sift through evil to be able to discern and grasp even that little truth that there is in a totally disastrous and dangerous theological work like that of the theologian Karl Rahner, who however remains an undoubted and great speculative mind in the twentieth century. I close this aside by remembering that our Father Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo, with the apparent sugar-free hardness that sometimes characterizes it, in one of his articles written on the occasion of his death did not hesitate to recognize all the great speculative abilities of Hans Küng. This brother of ours highlighted how nature endowed him with brilliant abilities, therefore of superior qualities to those of the young theologian his contemporary Joseph Ratzinger. With the difference that Küng slipped into heresy by setting out to deconstruct the dogmatic system of the deposit of faith, while Ratzinger became a guardian of the doctrine of faith to whom we owe so much, starting from the great teaching of the Holy Pontiff John Paul II.

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After this necessary clarification we can then focus and meditate on Jesus. Starting from free choice, not due. In the love of the Holy Spirit, in union with the Father, Christ decides to love us until the end [cf.. GV 13, 1 ss]. In the years of public preaching, Jesus therefore takes a path of welcoming the cross, because he knows that this instrument of death can be turned upside down and become an instrument of forgiveness and grace. The consequences are truly very strong: Christ torn apart on the cross is the second Trinitarian person, which offers itself to integrate situations of death within oneself and within man, suffering, pain, loneliness from those we love. Jesus is therefore close to each of us in these situations.

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So also in the existential night longer, all those who suffer from war, in prayer they can feel embraced by Jesus in his passion. A prayerful embrace that breaks loneliness, knowing that in prayer we find inner peace even when we are far away. Jesus also breaks loneliness in his real Eucharistic presence, where he becomes intimate and close to everyone in his body, blood, soul and divinity. Precisely He who was without sin, he gave himself for us sinners to eliminate the yoke of sin. He did not consider his equality with God a divine treasure, Saint Paul tells us in one of his beautiful hymns, but he decided to strip himself - while remaining God - so that we could all participate in the divine nature [cf.. Fil 2, 6-11]. This is the final effect of so much pain.

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The glory of Christ, winner of suffering and death, then it will be our glory. We will not have suffered and cried in vain. But until then, let us not cease to be united to the Mystical Body and to the Holy Mother of Jesus. It is Jesus himself who requests it in one of his last words: «Woman, here is your son. Son, here is your mother" [GV 19,25-27]. Jesus turns first to Mary. She too is suffering, desperate. An enormous suffering, that of seeing a son condemned and killed in this terrible and unjust way. Maria is close to all mothers who are losing children in war for the same reason. Every time we pray a rosary, a dozen or even just one Ave Maria, we can turn to the Holy Virgin Mother to intercede with God for these suffering mothers. Maria, with his "yes" in the Annunciation, but also in welcoming the terrible pains of the Son, she is also our mother. I can't imagine how much fortitude the Handmaid of Nazareth had to use, how much courage in walking to Golgotha, without exploding into screams of anger and desperation. A reaction that perhaps would have been completely human and legitimate. Instead Maria, in his torment, trusts in God, living the drama of the Son and accompanying him. That Son, not only his, he now definitively gives to the Eternal Father and the Holy Spirit. We in Saint John the Apostle, we are all his children. Only in this way is she a cooperator in the redemption, giving us Jesus, and accompanying him in the Passion. Even in these dark times we remain united with her. Because all of us, in John the apostle, we are called children of Mary and therefore united as children also in the other Virgin Mother: the church. And in the Church understood as The church assembled we can all cooperate for the common good, to international solidarity and help suffering populations with humanitarian aid and spiritual closeness. First of all though, if we are assembling the church, we must all learn to be a little Saint John the Apostle. Therefore, learn to reread all the events of the time we live in with a view from above. With an eagle gaze. And in addition to doing it ourselves, testify at the same time that another horizon of meaning exists, another perspective that is within us and that at the same time surpasses us. It is the contemplative gaze of all things. In this Mary is an example to us in virtues and great maternal love. Giovanni, figure of the whole Church, it is an example of the Church that welcomes and brings together all peoples, indicating to them the paths of eternity and meaning that integrate the present time. On this Good Friday let's remember it, if we truly and intimately participate in the liturgical action of the Passion of the Lord.

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sweet Jesus, Jesus love (St. Caterina da Siena)

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Rome, 15 March 2022

Passion of the Lord

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Staff Blog

Father Gabriele

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Aristophanes, this great unknown. The Russian-Ukrainian war and the cartoonist Vauro accused of anti-Semitism between politically correct and limitations on the right to satire

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ARISTOFANE, THIS BIG UNKNOWN. THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR AND THE CARTOONIST VAURO ACCUSED OF ANTI-SEMITISM BETWEEN POLITICAL CORRECT AND LIMITATIONS ON THE RIGHT OF SATIRE

Mrs. Fiamma Nirenstein, also a former candidate in the center right, after a youthful past as a militant communist, like his companion Gad Lerner, who passed casually from Lotta Continua's truncheon to the direction of the capitalist newspaper of Casa Agnelli… well, I believe that these people - who incidentally are to religious Judaism and Jewish tradition like Cicciolina can stand to the healthy mores of Christian life - in front of Vauro and his satirical hooked noses have only to learn the great and increasingly rare virtue of consistency, of which in its own way it is an example, perhaps even teacher.

- Actuality -

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Russian-Ukrainian conflict: "Why do not you talk?». In wars, lies and manipulation are apart from nuclear weapons

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RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN CONFLICT: "WHY DO NOT YOU TALK?». IN WARS LIES AND MASS MANIPULATION ARE THE SAME AS ATOMIC WEAPONS

Example of aberration from talk show: I know Toni Capuozzo is invited to a television program, expert champion among our war correspondents, or if a highly competent historian such as Franco Cardini is invited to try to explain in a rational and impartial way the reason for the origins of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, What is the use of interspersing their analyzes with the tears of Ukrainian women invited to the studio for the sole purpose of striking the masses with that emotionality that will inevitably end up making listeners deaf and blind to any analysis, as soon as the crying woman pronounces the “magica” phrase: "They killed women and children"?

- Actuality -

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Dear Fedez, but when death takes you, that will remain of your desires, perhaps vanity of vanity?

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DEAR FEDEZ, BUT WHEN DEATH WILL GET YOU, THAT WILL REMAIN OF YOUR WISHES, MAYBE VANITY OF VANITY?

- Church news - Before life, to physical decay, to sickness and death, we are all truly the same. Then, that after death our lifeless body is placed in a monumental tomb inside a precious chest or buried in the bare earth wrapped in a sheet, decomposition is the same for everyone, from the emperor to the last of his yokels.

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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photo posted by Polynesia on social media from Fedez

Federico Leonardo Lucia, known to the public as Fedez, in his short video announced that he was suffering from a health problem. Of course, we must first of all see what is authentic, because these characters would be willing to do anything for publicity's sake. We therefore take it for granted - unfortunately and with sincere human regret - that everything is true.

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The reflection that I did hot was very short and I quickly let you know: it takes very little to find yourself as they say with your ass on the ground for one “variable” or for a “accident” that it is not possible to foresee and that - thanks be to God - it remains totally democratic by striking every man, because in front of life, to physical decay, to sickness and death, we are all truly the same. Then, that after death our lifeless body is placed in a monumental tomb inside a precious chest or buried in the bare earth wrapped in a sheet, decomposition is the same for everyone, from the emperor to the last of his yokels.

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This means that our life understood as a gift from God cannot be given any other purpose than that which has already been revealed to us by Our Savior Jesus Christ in the Holy Gospel. But we often think otherwise, as they are used to doing these influence who - as public figures - feel invested in conveying their banal, superficial and often vulgar lifestyles that should not find acceptance and justification either for social background or age, nor for a more or less turbulent past. And the reason is simple: we will all one day be judged on charity, therefore on the true riches of our heart which has been conquered by the Truth.

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The Providence of God, which is full truth, often puts the limit in front of us to remind us that we are «Vanity of vanity», as imprinted in Book of the Qoelet. Just so. And vanity cannot stand in the face of the inevitable confrontation sooner or later with the fear of disease, with the terror of losing those you love, with the realism of those who look back and discover that they are as fragile and poor as the rich Dives [cf.. LC 16, 19-31].

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In the blessing wish may the Lord assist Fedez, his family, his doctors, I pray that the superficial style, diseducative and arrogant with which he has often influenced others - perhaps in the illusion of having found his own truth - in particular our very young, from today to follow changes and take on a different perspective from the image that has spread up to now. And who knows, maybe he will come to find out that Christ that, as with the Samaritan woman, was waiting for him at the well of Sychar, that well of proof to quench his thirst with his presence as Savior [cf.. GV 4, 1-25].

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To say this is a Capuchin presbyter who served long and intensely as chaplain in a large hospital, in contact with sickness and death day after day, for years and years. E, incidentally: a few days ago I was discharged from a hospital where I stayed for a couple of weeks, running a serious and concrete risk. Despite this, I was calm, even in the face of the by no means remote risk of not getting out alive, despite having all in all "only" 44 year old. And this is because my hope has a name: Jesus Christ Son of God, who in spite of my many and grave sins gives me salvation from that ephemeral world, patinated, arrogant and vulgar in which the influence they delude themselves that they have found the new earthly paradise.

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God bless you Fedez, I wish you so as a priest and as an older brother.

 

the Island of Patmos, 17 March 2022.

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The transfiguration of Jesus is that event that invites us to transfigure ourselves and then rise again with him

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Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

THE TRANSFIGURATION OF JESUS ​​IS THAT EVENT THAT INVITES US TO TRANSFIGURE OURSELVES AND THEN RISE WITH HIM

prayer also gives us the authority and courage to account for the hope that is in us. Therefore to bear witness to the faith even in environments that reject it

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Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

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The transfiguration of Jesus, by Raffaello Sanzio

On this second Sunday of Lent, in readings from the Liturgy of the Word we remember the moment of the Transfiguration, an event that gives life to a celebration in which God asks us to be intimately united with him in prayer and to listen to him. About listening, feel a bit’ what does Clive S write?. Lewis, imagining he was the imp Screwtape, who gives instructions to his nephew Malacoda to lead man away from God:

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“My dear Wormwood, the amateurish propositions which appear in your last letter suggest to me that it is high time I wrote to you at length on the painful subject of prayer […] the best thing, if it were possible, would be to keep the patient completely away from any serious intention of praying".

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For the devil it is really important that we cease to pray because in doing so we cease to be under the gaze of God and heart to heart with Jesus. Let's take a closer look at these points.

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“About eight days after these talks, Jesus took Peter with him, John and James and went up on the mountain to pray".

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Trying to imagine a bit’ the scene, we can see mount tabor. Desertic, hot and high. Perhaps inhospitable place for a walk. But Jesus calls three apostles right there. To be alone with him. So Jesus makes them leave the desert tracks of Palestine to make them climb the high mountain. This image is a reminder of the Church that walks with Jesus. But that's a bit’ meaning for us too in this Lent: walk and let ourselves be taken by the Lord, that comes in our moments of desert, of misunderstanding, in the moments when our souls grow, in a moment of deep prayer. Like Peter, James and John so we too can enter the secret space between God the Eternal Father and God the Eternal Son, wedge ourselves together to be alone. Alone with God to renew our view of all things and observe them from above. From a divine and human point of view together. Jesus himself while praying changes in appearance. His tunic turns white. Color of the presence of God. Suddenly Moses and Elijah appear. A sudden appearance [cf.. vv. 29 – 32] as Jesus begins to speak of his coming days in Jerusalem. A truly glorious and at the same time tremendous scene must have appeared to the three apostles. Moses, the one who received the law, Elia, the great prophet. The two Old Testament messengers par excellence. All while Jesus is offering the central message of his mission: offering himself on the cross for our redemption. Probably the three apostles are a bit’ dazed. Until a few moments later the cloud breaks over the mountain, and then they begin to fear. To make matters worse, immediately after, the most important announcement happens. The very reason why the Lord had brought them there. We feel:

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“A voice came out of the cloud, who said: "This is my Son, the chosen one; listen!».

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This voice is the Eternal Father who asks to listen to Jesus his Son. A revelation shock for the poor three, who had also been spectators, until that moment, of various extraordinary events. Jesus is man but also God. God is also the Eternal Father who announces him and asks to listen to him. Indeed, after moments of intimacy with Jesus, in deep prayer one must listen.

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What does this mean for us today? Listening means transforming prayer into concrete actions. Like this, as happened to Peter, prayer also gives us the authority and courage to account for the hope that is in us. Therefore to bear witness to the faith even in environments that reject it [cfr.1 Pt 4]. Exactly like in Giacomo's experience, prayer allows us to carry out the material and spiritual works of mercy, to show the beauty and fullness of faith precisely through works [cf.. GC 2]. In the end, like John, prayer allows us to contemplate the profound mystery of the Incarnation, to meditate that who was in the beginning of the World, God is also the principle and sap of our life [GV 1, 2 -4].

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The transfiguration of Jesus it is therefore that event that invites us to transfigure ourselves in order to then rise again with him. By listening and putting it into practice, all of us, day by day, we are transfigured in Christ, with a changed face, smiling and open to the dimensions of the sacred, to marvel at a love that welcomes us to the end. For this we ask the Lord, with the example and help of Mary, humility of heart to open ourselves to attentive listening to God to give the world the hope of eternal life.

 

Rome, 12 March 2022

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Staff Blog

Father Gabriele

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Visit the pages of our book shop WHO and support our editions by purchasing and distributing our books.

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The conflict in Ukraine and ecclesiastical diplomacy. A fundamental element is contained in the charioteer virtue of prudence: that silence unknown to a certain Russian Orthodox Caesaropapism

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THE CONFLICT IN UKRAINE AND ECCLESIASTICAL DIPOMACY. A FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENT IS ENCLOSED IN THE AURIGA VIRTUE OF PRUDENCE: THAT SILENCE UNKNOWN TO CERTAIN RUSSIAN-ORTHODOX CAESAROPAPISM

Moscow Patriarch Kirill I added a religious war to the war, paradigm of the war that has characterized orthodoxy internally for ten centuries. Let's try to ask ourselves: what would happen, within the Catholic Church, if during the First World War the Austrian bishops had turned against the French ones and the German ones against the Italian ones, fearing reasons of a metaphysical nature?

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«In God we trust». The crisis in Ukraine. Any war waged by bullying and selfishness will always be lost to everyone

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«IN GOD WE TRUST». THE CRISIS OF UKRAINE. ANY WAR MOVED BY PREPOTENCE AND EGOISM WILL ALWAYS BE LOST BY ANYONE

Another dirty economic war hidden behind the worn underpants of a now miserably failed Western liberal-capitalist democracy, thanks above all to those who trust in the dollar, but does not trust in God. While we, that instead we trust in the God of peace, we can do nothing but pray at the gates of this sad Lent.

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From the right of criticism to the humility of Francis of Assisi: maybe we will not be asked to plant cabbages backwards but at least let us say what we think, not so much for us but for those who would like to do it and cannot do it

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FROM THE RIGHT OF CRITICISM TO HUMILITY OF FRANCESCO D’ASSISI: MAYBE WE WILL NOT BE ASKED TO PLANT THE CABBAGE IN THE OPPOSITE BUT AT LEAST LET US FREE TO SAY WHAT WE THINK, NOT SO MUCH FOR US BUT FOR THOSE WHO WOULD LIKE TO DO IT AND CANNOT DO IT

- Church news - Mine previous article on pretini trendy in which I quoted a poem by the presbyter Luigi Maria Epicoco, it can be criticized or mocked with complete freedom. But it is beyond any reasonable doubt that in it we can find only and only a clear criticism of a well-determined priestly style that is gaining ground in the Church today., a way of being a priest that competes with the world and not opposed to it, certainly not an attack on individual people of some “image priests”.

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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PDF print format article

 

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St. John Mary Vianney, patron of presbyters and parish priests

I don't normally use appendages for clarification regarding the articles I write. And this for a very simple reason, I care a lot about the expository precision and I try to use the words in the right context and with the right sense, avoiding leaving to wild misunderstanding and personal interpretation conclusions that do not represent me and that I have never even thought in the least. The rest, as any editor knows perfectly well, you are only responsible for what you write, not for what others want to understand or misunderstand.

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Clarified this, although I do not consider it necessary to add superfluous clarifications to what I wrote and signed on the columns of The Island of Patmos both today and in the past, I wish to take a cue from my last article on pretini trendy to underline and deepen certain issues that seem to upset some of our fellow readers who feel hurt, or even offended by a healthy criticism that it is right and proper to introduce even and above all within ecclesiastical circles where the strange belief that the Holy Spirit is often present as a magical agent through which it is possible to fix everything and save everything.

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That it is right and proper to operate a healthy criticism we are told first of all by the freedom that we have received as a gift from God together with that capacity of sentient beings who have been given a head not only to divide the ears or rest the hat on them but also to exercise critical reasoning through the which one comes to the knowledge of things, therefore ultimately to the truth also incurring physiological errors. Criticism is therefore a sacrosanct right, even when exercised by a baptized Christian, and it is right to exercise it just to resize, contextualize or de-mythologize certain situations or people who would otherwise risk proceeding at full speed. All of this, in Catholic tradition and in ecclesiology it has a very specific name, is called: freedom of the children of God.

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First a question: exercising the freedom of the children of God and with it the right to criticize means harming one's neighbor? Absolutely not. In the right to criticism, attention is paid that abstains from personal judgment by sticking only to the facts. Indeed, the many beautiful souls who today read our articles de The Island of Patmos, they still confuse the right of criticism that touches ideas, the choices, the writings, the public positions of public individuals with contemptuous judgment on the person. And this is as dangerous as it is wrong, because by doing so, criticism is prevented from generating that gentle - sometimes pungent - touch which is essential for the personal improvement of the individual. Criticism is an indispensable factor for human growth - Sacred Scripture itself criticizes man - it leads to a healthy humility so as to preserve the individual from insidious drifts and transform difficulties into opportunities for growth.

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I would like to remind our readers that there is nothing wrong with expressing one's critical opinion towards any person and that we are all subject to criticism, including the writer. On the contrary, judging someone is always and only evil because a position is expressed that is not critical but which is detrimental to the life of the other, something that Christ has expressly forbidden in the Gospel [cf.. Mt 7,1; LC 6,37] and which was reserved for the Father, who is the only one who has a full and intimate knowledge of everyone's heart.

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If anyone claims: "I don't like Father Ivano's articles because they are banal and not at all in line with the theology of the outgoing Church desired by Pope Francis", as Author I cannot and must not feel offended, because I know that it is in the reader's full right to criticize what I have written and not agree with what I have expressed. The most appropriate thing would be to bring the evidence of the criticisms that have been made so that the Author can confront them and decide if these critical findings are well founded and can help him do better.

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If, on the other hand, one affirms: "I don't like Father Ivano's articles because they express the wickedness of a repressed person who became a friar to escape the fatigue of the world and live behind society", this is a malicious and malevolent judgment on my person who claims to have intimate knowledge of the heart and its intentions.

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In more than twenty years of convent I have personally met religious who certainly did not shine for personal hygiene, convinced that even a lack of personal care was an indication of poverty and adherence to evangelical simplicity. To make such a criticism of those friars: "You neglect your personal hygiene so much that your suit stinks" is not the equivalent of saying "you are a dirty and filthy bum".

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I also met pretini which perfumed themselves exaggeratedly enough to impregnate the consecrated particles of Hugo Boss and of Giò water while distributing Communion to the faithful that not even a Puerto Rican prostitute of the late nineteenth century could have done better. Well, It is one thing to tell him "friend you suck like a prostitute" equating him with a woman of easy virtue, another is to say "try not to overdo the care of yourself so that it is exaggeratedly vain". In short, the examples are clear and there is nothing to add.

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In my previous article a few days ago [see WHO], I was inspired by a reflection made by the presbyter Luigi Maria Epicoco on the figure of the priest. This writing of mine was not born primarily as an article but as a personal critical opinion given to a dear reader of The Island of Patmos who asked me for light on this reflection on the priesthood that, to say of this same Reader, it was considered valid even if with too many redundant rhetorical phrases of circumstance. For this reason, I felt compelled to exercise my right to criticize and answer the question, going to read the text by Luigi Maria Epicoco and then draw conclusions about it.

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Less than two hours after the publication of my article resentful and sorry comments flocked to the page Facebook of Father Ariel in which the grievances for my article were expressed that, according to some, he targeted his confrere for free, exposing him to public derision in a merciless way. This reminded me of the classical high school years, when as a boy I saw my classmates complain because they had received a failure from the literature teacher on the subject of Italian, justifying themselves by saying: “He did it because he doesn't approve of my person, is mad at me ".

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Mind you well, in my article I answered on the merits of that text on the priesthood of Luigi Maria Epicoco, for its content, for its ecclesiological and social value and for what a text like that can mean today, in a context of the Church and the laity very often burdened by conformism and that omnipresent patina of clerically correct which is none other than that attitude that, in lay sauce, it is reintroduced within the political life of the country, in the social realities we are experiencing and in post-pandemic interpersonal relationships. No hint, so, of personal attack on the person of the brother or initiative aimed at discrediting his good reputation.

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After having had the opportunity to respond to our Reader who had asked me for clarification regarding those scattered thoughts on the priesthood, I also had the opportunity to think about a new ecclesial category which is that of pretino trendy - an adjective that does not constitute a criminal or canonical offense and is therefore exempt from any sanction - within which today many priest confreres, right or wrong, they have centered their ministerial style to relaunch the Gospel message with some success.

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Nowadays, in the media era of Big Brother, everything can be traced back to the trendy, to feel fashionable: any pretino image with a clean face who wears his handsome flawlessly clergyman sartorial as well as the former disco throne player who from the cube and the ball glitter passes to the rectory. We are often tickled by bewitching stories in which a former TV host enters the seminary, or fascinated by the events of a former drug addict converted to monasticism who, from the peace of the cloister, become a viral evangelizer of cry through YouTube O TikTok. In short, wanted characters, fashionable, in a word trendy.

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They will tell me, Luckily there is someone like that, we need these examples of hope. Yes and no. I wouldn't be so thrilled, in fact, it has been seen that over time many of these subjects remain trapped within their previous lives, in what has been their past and which becomes the pedometer to mark and evaluate the present condition even when this coincides with the priest or consecrated choice.

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But that is not all, you can be trendy even within the Catholic Church. This is the case, for example, of those priests who immediately after sacred ordination begin the climb that will lead them to a doctorate in a prestigious pontifical academy., then towards a dazzling career that could begin as rector in seminaries or institutes of religious sciences, as an animator of important university chaplaincies such as the Gemelli in Rome or the Cattolica in Milan and then continued as a writer, lecturer and finally speaker of spiritual exercises with some hosted in broadcasts cult - the episcopal TV2000 - and all this as soon as you cross the canonical threshold of forty years. I don't know about you, but for me all this borders on exaggeration.

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This priestly style today it is more present than ever in many dioceses where we see the bishop asking for everything and more from these priests child prodigy deemed the not any more of the presbyteral order. And precisely in the name of this intellectual value, the poor priest sees himself burdened by ever more intense diocesan offices, from the formation of permanent deacons to conferences to the monthly retreat of the clergy. Obviously, also the pretino trendy child prodigy, which remains like everyone else burdened by the wound of original sin and concupiscence, he will soon feel like Romeo er mejo cat of the Colosseum. He will come to justify himself in conscience for what he has become, done and obtained, recognizing their personal merit and self-denial to studies. The esteem he will have of himself will be ascribed above all to his mentor, to that good devil who was able to lead him to certain goals by instilling in him the veiled illusion that within all this there is the permission of God who has placed around the pretino trendy a hedge of protection as we see happening in the life of good old Job before his calamities [cf.. Gb 1,10].

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At this point we return to the discourse on the right to criticize and let's associate it with the image of pretino trendy that I have just described. If I say that perhaps this confrere is burning his steps a little too quickly and that perhaps he needs a reshaping, also through serene criticisms of what it looks like, on the image he transmits of himself to others and on the things he says and thinks, this - in my view - can only help the pretino trendy because it will force him to keep an eye on the style of his priestly life and to take into due consideration the criticisms leveled at him. In other words, this is the style of humility of the saints that we usually magnify, only to then imitate and understand why such an example of humility is also reached through criticism, something that we poor sinners almost always struggle to accept, mistaking criticism for judgment.

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In the Fioretti the episode in which St. Francis of Assisi is narrated he asks Brother Leo to say the divine office in a singular way. Because they did not have the breviary, Francis orders Brother Leo to repeat prayers which are nothing more than the recognition of his own poverty and misery presented to God as hymns of humility and a request for help:

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«O Brother Francis, you did so many evils and sins in the century, that you are worthy of hell; and you, Brother Lyons, you will answer: It is true that you deserve the deepest hell " [cf.. FF 1837].

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This episode precedes the question of Friar Masseo who asks the Seraphic Father for the secret of his success:

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«[…] because the whole world is addressed to you, and each person seems to want to see you and hear you and obey you? You are not a handsome man of the body, you are not of great science, you are not noble; Where, so, to you that the whole world comes after you?» [cf.. FF 1838].

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Francesco does not disdain to answer Friar Masseo that God has seen no more cowardly among sinners, more insufficient and greater sinner than him. He has no problem confessing his human inadequacy, neither to affirm his own intellectual poverty nor to flee at the same time what could be a source of pride for him, because he lived the paschal experience of the risen Christ who transformed him by removing him from the condition of a son trendy of Pietro di Bernardone and making him a small and humble disciple of the Crucifix.

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I who am not San Francesco I can be touched with pride by a criticism, also offended by a judgment but this will have in me the only good merit of making me aware that I am still far from being humble as Christ commands me.

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In the history of the Capuchin Order I have heard from the elderly friars of the cabbage test. Some novices were subjected by the novice master to the test of cabbages planted upside down to test their humility and obedience. This evidence recalls what Saint Francis did at the Montecasale hermitage located in Sansepolcro in the province of Arezzo. Friar Bartolomeo da Pisa narrates:

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"Once, two young men came to Blessed Francis, begging him to be received into the Order. Blessed Francis, wanting to prove whether they were truly obedient and prepared to deny their will, led them to the garden saying: “Come on, let's plant cabbages and as you see me doing, so in that way you plant too ". While the blessed Francis, planting, it put its roots upwards towards the sky, and the leaves under the ground, one of them did everything like Blessed Francis, the other did not imitate him, but he said: "Not like that, Dad, cabbages are planted, but on the contrary ". And blessed Francis answered him: "Son, I want you to do like me ". But he does not want to do it, because it seemed wrong to him, Blessed Francis told him: "Brother, I see you are a great teacher, go your way, because you are not suitable for my Order "".

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The proof is certainly singular but it has its own profound and meritorious meaning. S. Francis has no intention of making fun of the young man's intelligence by commanding him something nonsense, it wants to contradict the reasonableness of the agricultural reality that foresees planting a vegetable according to the right direction. The Seraphic Father just wants to accustom that young man to deny his fashion mentality - trendy ―, which is the legacy of that worldly way of acting that one must necessarily leave behind to follow the crucified Christ as priests or consecrated persons.

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I conclude by saying that my article on pretini trendy it can be criticized or mocked with complete freedom. But it is beyond any reasonable doubt that in it we can find only and only a clear criticism of a well-determined priestly style that is gaining ground in the Church today., a way of being a priest that competes with the world and not opposed to it.

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No personal attacks then towards his brother Luigi Maria Epicoco who remains lovable as a popular national singer whom everyone loves, a sort of Gianni Morandi in short. But if for someone the reference to the priests with a clean face and Instagrammable or to the poems from Perugina chocolate kisses it could constitute an infamous offense to be prosecuted, well they can only be disappointed because all this is just a way to convey a message, a style, which I hope will produce some good in the future. For you see, perhaps to us Fathers de The Island of Patmos we will not be asked to plant cabbages with the roots in the air and the leaves buried but surely we will be required to continue to criticize, to use reasoning and to pursue the truth to give voice to those who think the same things we think and who for a thousand reasons or for reasons of high ecclesial and ecclesiastical office, unfortunately they cannot tell you.

 

the Island of Patmos, 22 February 2022

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Father Ivano's latest book is on sale in the online shop of The Island of Patmos

to go to the shop click on the image

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The Minutella's flop story narrated by a bishop of Brazil. In the appendix an explanation by the Bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas on the fake news of the Pachamama venerated in the Vatican

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THE MINUTELLA’S FLOP STORY AS TOLD BY A BISHOP FROM BRAZIL. IN THE APPENDIX AN EXPLANATION BY THE BISHOP OF SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS ON THE FAKE NEWS OF THE PACHAMAMA VENERATED IN THE VATICAN

Pachamama is not a deity or goddess, is an allegorical mythological figure, like those figures of which classical Greek and Latin literature is full, but in front of which certain characters do not seem to feel uncomfortable. Perhaps because mythologies and allegories of the ancient Greeks and Latins are culture, while mythologies and allegories of our peoples are the stuff of idolatrous pagan savages?»

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PDF Article in print format

 

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The author of this private letter that the person concerned has allowed me to make public in the times and forms indicated by him is a dear Brazilian brother of mine with whom I lived in Rome at the time of ecclesiastical studies.. Appointed years later auxiliary bishop, after other years he was promoted to a metropolitan archbishopric in Brazil.

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Dearest Father Ariel,

2019, archive photos: Pachamama in the Vatican Gardens

a te, and to the confreres who carry out the meritorious work The Island of Patmos, that many of us read by drawing information, food for thought and comfort: pace, thanks and blessings from God.

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The Bishops of this region of mine were informed of the presence of Mr.. Alessandro Maria Minutella, Italian presbyter excommunicated and discharged from the clerical state, in stay in our country. Having assessed the phenomenon, we deemed it not to issue any press release. I'll explain why: such a subject cannot have any hold on our faithful, especially in those who for various reasons declare themselves dissatisfied with our local Churches and with us their Bishops. Being you a cultured man, polyglot, who studies language and different cultures, you know that approaching the people of a country like ours implies knowing its history, traditions, customs and traditions.

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Remember when we lived in Rome in an international priestly house, how carefully we have tried to learn to deal with and have human and fraternal relationships with Chinese people, Koreans, Vietnamese and other brothers from totally different mental habits from what might have been ours, your Italian, mine of Brazilian? In greater Brazil there is no single culture that characterizes our people, this can happen in countries like France, Germany, England. With us there are many cultures held together on the great geographical territory of our nation made up of 26 States that form the Federal Republic of Brazil, with a common language that was given to us by the Portuguese, because until the end of the 16th century many dozen indigenous languages ​​were spoken. This is to say that this colorful character presented himself as an extraterrestrial from another planet, unaware of the customs, of the traditions and psychological complexity of our populations, and therefore doomed to total failure. Aware of this, we Bishops could have given him with a communiqué the publicity that he would never have had?

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In the video documents you sent me and that I have listened carefully, this agitated Lord talks about things like "liberation theology" and "modernism". He obviously does not know that the majority of our faithful do not really know what liberation theology is. To find connoisseurs you have to go to theological studies and talk to experts. Then saying to a faithful Brazilian "modernism" or "modernist heresy" is equivalent to pronouncing an incomprehensible word. If this Lord wants to talk about modernism condemned by Pope Saint Pius X, he must go and discuss with our historians and our ecclesiologists, who are a few educated and experienced people. He cannot even talk about it with the priests of ordinary training, only with educated historians and theologians.

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After talking about unknown concepts such as "liberation theology" and "modernist heresy", this Lord made more references to Pachamama, ignoring the locals where he stayed (Ed. Sao Paulo of Brazil) they don't know Pachamama, which he confused with the Brazilian indigenous culture. If he had talked about the protagonist of Mission impossible o di Matrix, they would have understood it. But above all it is wrong and false to attribute to the indigenous peoples of our Amazon the "creation" and "cult" of Pachamama, because it is an ancient mythological figure of the Peruvian Inca, then spread among the various Andean populations. Pachamama is not a deity or goddess, is an allegorical mythological figure, like those figures of which classical Greek and Latin literature is full, but in front of which certain characters do not seem to feel uncomfortable. Perhaps because mythologies and allegories of the ancient Greeks and Latins are culture, while mythologies and allegories of our peoples are the stuff of idolatrous pagan savages? Christianity of the first centuries, perhaps it did not develop by inculturating and Christianizing many ancient uses, customs and symbols that originally belonged to the pagans? We don't have maybe, you and I, Holy Mass celebrated several times in Roman basilicas whose original structure was that of the ancient pagan temples?

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An Italian gentleman who arrives in our country and gathers 20 people is not a problem but something that does not exist. We are used to evangelical preachers, Pentecostals and various other sects whose gatherings they flock to 1.000 people when attendance is low. The famous ones gather 20.000/30.000 people and sending the preaching live on social where they are followed by 100.000/ 200.000 people.

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You told me that this Lord it will continue to Uruguay and Argentina. If this is his style he will have less following yet. For our people, a Lord who, as the videos document, comes to explain that the legitimate Pontiff has been invalidly elected, who, not speaking our national languages, uses non-professional translators who do not understand his confused concepts already difficult to understand in Italian, it will not be taken into consideration even by the simplest, let alone educated people!

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You know the great love I have for Italy and how proud I am to have studied in Rome, but I was unaware that there could be subjects like this Lord, I would have expected it elsewhere, not in your country, however, where the most educated and educated clergy in the whole world continue to exist.

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Yup, I allow you to make my letter public, but I ask you three things. First, do not put my name because unfortunately it would imply the involvement of my Diocese and this I cannot and must not do. Second, wait for this Lord to leave Brazil, then publish it as well. Third, correct my text, like when you revised my doctoral thesis many years ago, because if at that time I made mistakes in writing in Italian, which is not my mother tongue, now that I no longer speak Italian on a daily basis like when I was in Rome my writing has certainly deteriorated.

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A fraternal hug, you know that I am always waiting for you and that I am counting on your visit to Brazil. There are those who say that these are difficult moments for the Church, honestly I ask myself and I ask you too: when the Church has lived easy moments?

Pray for me!

Letter Signed

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Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, Bishop emeritus of San Cristobal de las Casas

How many wish understand how insubstantial they are fake news on the now famous e “notorious” Pachamama "venerated in the Vatican with idolatrous cults", careful reading of the article written by Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel is recommended, Bishop emeritus of San Cristobal de las Casas, Published on L'Osservatore Romano in November of 2019.

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the Island of Patmos, 21 February 2022

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Dear Readers,
this magazine requires management costs that we have always faced only with your free offers. Those who wish to support our apostolic work can send us their contribution through the convenient and safe way PayPal by clicking below:

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We thank you for the support you wish to offer to our apostolic service.

The Fathers of the Island of Patmos

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