INTERVIEW WITH ANDREA TURAZZI BISHOP OF SAN MARINO-MONTEFELTRO: «IN THE ANCIENT REPUBLIC WHERE THE REFERENDUM ON ABORTION WON WITH THE 77,28% OF VOTES, MONTE TITANO WILL BECOME LIKE MONTE TAIGETO?

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«I don't think it's relevant nor do I think it's right to compare the San Marino people to the Spartans. It is necessary not to identify that 77% Of “Yes” to abortion with the extremely aggressive and ideological attitude of some groups. The Referendum in San Marino was celebrated as a proactive referendum to ask for decriminalisation. However, the request also raises the possibility of an abortion without limitations. In fact, it only takes into account the woman's point of view. The rights of the unborn child are not adequately considered.".

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Author:
Jorge Facio Lynx
President of Editions The island of Patmos.

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INTRODUCTORY HISTORICAL NOTE: THE ANCIENT SERENISSIMA REPUBLIC

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(C)capital of the Republic of San Marino: the fortress, also called yelp, on the top of Mount Titano

In the Republic of San Marino this the most serene, 33.860 inhabitants, after a heated referendum campaign, those entitled to vote went to the polls where the 77,28% of voters voted in favor of abortion. A result that brings to mind certain oceanic majorities and that leads us to reflect also animated by understandable anxiety.

The theme of ours The interview that follows deserves a historical and hagiographic introduction. The Republic was born on 3 September 301. Its founder was Marino, a stonecutter native to the island of Rab who fled Dalmatia during the persecutions of Christians initiated by Diocletian. With a small Christian community he settled on Mount Titano, the highest of the seven hills where the capital stands today. The owner of that land was a certain Felicissima, rich noblewoman from the city of Rimini who donated that property to the community of Marino, who will later title it in his name. Together with Marino, the figure of another stonemason stands out, Leo or Leo. This second, after also arriving on Monte Titano it moved to Monte Feliciano, known today as Montefeltro, continuing to work on the extraction and processing of stones. On that hill Leo will build a church, in an area now called San Leo, co-cathedral of the Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro, which has its own cathedral and bishopric in Pennabilli, town of approx 1.000 inhabitants. Marino and Leo, according to the ancient deacon tradition, they are the patron saints of the Diocese. The community of San Marino became independent in the 8th century when it fell of the Byzantine army of Ravenna, metropolitan archiepiscopal seat of which the Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro is a suffragan. The bond between the ancient Republic - which was born from deep Christian roots - and the Church of Rome has always been very close and solid. In 1291 the Supreme Pontiff Nicholas IV recognized San Marino as a Christian republic.

Even today the Serenissima Republic it has diplomatic relations with the Holy See and the apostolic nunciature is located on its territory. The office of apostolic nuncio is held by the Apostolic Nuncio to Italy, who carries out his diplomatic office with double accreditation: to the Government of the Italian Republic and to the Government of the Republic of San Marino. This is why the diplomatic headquarters of the Holy See in Italy is called Apostolic Nunciature in Italy and in the Republic of San Marino. The penultimate Apostolic Nuncio in serial order, S. AND. Mons. Adriano Bernardini (2011-2017), he was a particular and appreciated expert on the history of that country. Even though he was trained at the Pontifical Roman Major Seminary and ordained priest for the Diocese of Rome, he was a native of Montefeltro (Piandimeleto, hamlet of Monastero). Another distinguished diplomat of the Holy See was also originally from Montefeltro, S. AND. Mons. Pietro Sambi, who was apostolic nuncio to the United States of America. The current Apostolic Nuncio is Swiss S. AND. Mons. Emil Paul Tscherrig. From the 2014 Bishop of the Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro is S. AND. Mons. Andrea Turazzi.

The Bishops of San Marino, although holders of the episcopal seat and having a residence in the territory of the ancient Republic, they do not reside there permanently, this is for political reasons linked to the particular nature of the government of that country, where the two Heads of State are elected on a short periodic basis, called Captains Regent. Their Most Serene Excellencies in fact they remain in office for only six months. In such a small country and with such a system of government, the Bishop, who can remain on his episcopal chair for up to twenty or thirty years, could take on a role of greater authority than that of the periodic Heads of State, especially if he had a strong personality.

The people of San Marino are deeply proud of their ancient Republic and they have never liked the jokes of certain Italians from the surrounding neighboring Romagna. Diplomatic incidents with Italy over time are far from rare, for example when on the occasion of Armed Forces Day a satirical magazine from Romagna alluded to the San Marino air force made up of four remote-controlled helicopters and to its naval fleet made up of ten small boats made to spin in the water of a tank. Perhaps unaware, the ironic geographers, that the Republic has no access to the sea and that San Marino could have a naval fleet on a par with Switzerland or the Principality of Liechtenstein, but also of European countries with a much larger territorial extension about which no one makes fun due to the lack of naval fleets: Austria, Hungary, Slovakia … Or when the San Marino Armed Forces went on maximum alert - which happened more than once - due to military vehicles of the Italian Army who crossed its territory. An episode understandably experienced as an invasion, until arousing the vibrant protests of H.E. Antonella Mularoni minister of foreign affairs. Because with all due respect to the laughing and joyous people of Romagna surrounding and neighboring, the San Marino people are proud of their country and their Republic, the oldest in the world. For this reason they deserve profound respect, above all profound historical respect.

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INTERVIEW WITH ANDREA TURAZZI BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF SAN MARINO-MONTEFELTRO

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

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S. AND. Mons. Andrea Turazzi, Bishop of San Marino-Montefeltro

(D). Excellency, you were born in Stellata di Bondeno (Ferrara) ordained priest for the Archdiocese of Ferrara-Comacchio (27.05.1972). He was esteemed by the then Archbishop of Ferrara-Comacchio Carlo Caffarra (1995-2003). For four decades he lived in contact with the People of God, exercising his sacred priestly ministry as a parish priest, dedicating himself in the meantime to the training of future priests as spiritual director of the seminary and teacher of pastoral theology. He was elected to the episcopal seat of San Marino-Montefeltro by the Supreme Pontiff Francis (30.11.2013) and consecrated bishop by Cardinal Carlo Caffarra (24.01.2014), Archbishop of Bologna (2003-2015). We can begin by asking you for your personal memories of this bishop and theologian who returned to the House of the Father on 6 September 2017, remembered today as one of the greatest experts on marriage issues, of the family and human procreation?

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R. I was lucky enough to have the then Don Carlo Caffarra as a professor. I remember perfectly the clarity and depth of his lessons. Extremely rigorous, but extraordinarily welcoming. The Ferrara episcopate of Cardinal Carlo Caffarra left an imprint on each of us priests, but I think it had a profound impact on him too: he added, to the robustness of the thoroughbred theologian, the delicacy of the shepherd (strongly and sweetly). I have many personal memories, which I jealously guard; I share two: his tears during a coffee break, at the Regional Episcopal Conference, due to the decline in vocations; his joy in telling me about the "spiritual" experience he lived in the Conclave that elected Pope Francis. I had no "doubt" about Cardinal Carlo Caffarra's attachment to the person of the Holy Father - Pope Francis - and not only to the "papacy". This is demonstrated by the fact that when some attempted to place Cardinal Caffarra in conflict with the Holy Father on family issues, he didn't hesitate to answer:

«I would have been more pleased if it were said that the Archbishop of Bologna has a lover, rather than it being said that he has a mind contrary to that of the Pope. Because if a bishop has a thought contrary to that of the Pope he must go, but just you have to go by the diocese, because it would lead the faithful on a path that is no longer that of Jesus Christ. He would therefore lose himself eternally and risk the loss of the faithful. It is something that deeply saddened me because it is slanderous, because not only has the Pope never spoken about this, but when he spoke he asked for a debate. And the debate is real if all voices can speak. I was born a papist, I lived as a papist and a papist I want to die" [N.d.R. see video of the interview].

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(D). As Bishop of the Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro he found himself faced with a referendum campaign for the legalization of abortion within a country that is the smallest and oldest republic in the world. She immediately made it clear that for the particular Church she governed, what was at stake was not a political issue but an issue that touched a very sensitive chord in our faith.: human life, considered as such by us Catholics from the moment of conception. Of course, everything was played out on the political terrain, that of the referendum, through the free expression of popular will. He believes that those in favor of the legalization of abortion understood that for the Bishop it was not a purely political question but a delicate question of conscience?

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R. I intervened as a pastor. As far as I know, the people of San Marino have never contested my positions expressed in my speech to the San Marino Vicariate, in two homilies in the Basilica under solemn circumstances (The body of the Lord and Solemnity of San Marino), finally two press releases close to the referendum, appreciated by many for their clarity and tone. Diverse vleisure of “sign yes” have taken on evident ideological tones, with typical slogans: «Nor God, nor Church, but women decide for themselves...". The “no” it was essentially supported by two formations: a secular one, with rational reasons, of science and anthropology; the other constituted by the Council of Ecclesial Aggregations (about ten). Officially the parties have appealed for freedom of conscience. But different parties (some of the government of the Republic) have given full support to the campaign for “Yes”.

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(D). According to the official statistics of 2019, on a population of 33.860 inhabitants the San Marino Catholics constitute the 97,2% of the population, made up of baptized people. Whereas the 77,28% of voters voted in favor of legalizing abortion, perhaps the result of this referendum is not a paradigm of the feelings of contemporary society? Faced with this quorum, How many Catholics could there be who, after having voted in favor of the law on abortion, then went to Holy Mass on Sunday after leaving the polls?, feeling with a conscience in perfect order? If so, does not believe that we would be faced with a split between being Catholic and putting into practice what our faith considers a good that is never and under any circumstances available, human life?

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R. Frankly, I didn't expect such a sensationally unbalanced outcome. It is evident that even in San Marino the conditioning of the dominant culture weighs heavily, secularization and the split between faith and life: many are Christians without ever having decided to be! Perhaps this referendum could have been avoided with mediation between the political forces. However, regardless of the outcome, it was the occasion of a leap of awareness and responsibility: for Catholics to be more coherent in bearing witness to the Gospel of life and for everyone to support a culture and politics favorable to the family.

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(D). In Monday's edition 27 September the newspaper of the Bishops of Italy, L'Avvenire, talks about many issues to be resolved after the "yes" from the Republic of San Marino. The Bishops' newspaper highlights the failure to indicate a time limit which could lead to the possibility of abortion up to the ninth month, with the risk of creating a free port for free abortion within Italian territory. He thinks this risk could translate into reality?

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R. I hope that the law that will be introduced in the Republic of San Marino is formulated in such a way as to take into account the sensitivity in favor of the lives of many San Marino people. At the Great and General Council (Parliament) requests to this effect have already been filed. The low turnout at the polls should be considered a real defeat, but this data also tells the relative value of the referendum outcome. Far from imagining a "Catholic abortion" - abortion is always and in any case a crime - I hope that we arrive at a balanced law, that truly manages to leave no one behind and does not limit itself to adopting the ideology of waste. The first commitment will consist in closely monitoring the evolution of the political debate on the subject, with the aim of preventing the failed Italian experience and the excesses of certain European abortive legislation, and to keep alive the humanitarian and Christian tradition of San Marino. The second commitment is “be close”: save lives, help mothers, support associations pro-life; not last, educational commitment towards young people and adults. Therefore, I have reasons to hope that a free port for free abortion will not be created.

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(D). During the referendum campaign the opposing parties also argued heatedly over the so-called "selective abortion" which would allow the killing of children with Down syndrome, or to children suffering from anomalies which are not incompatible with a life worth living. We ask her: the Titan (N.d.R. The hill where the ancient settlement of the Serenissima Republic of San Marino stands is called Monte Titano), it could not run the risk of changing into the ancient Mount Taygetos, the hill from which the Spartans, according to mythological tales, they threw down deformed newborns or those judged too weak to live and grow according to the aesthetic and physical patterns of Greek culture?

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R. I don't think it's relevant nor do I think it's right to compare the San Marino people to the Spartans. It is necessary not to identify that 77% Of “Yes” to abortion with the extremely aggressive and ideological attitude of some groups¹. The Referendum in San Marino was celebrated as a proactive referendum to ask for decriminalisation. However, the request also raises the possibility of an abortion without limitations. In fact, it only takes into account the woman's point of view. The rights of the unborn child are not adequately considered. There is no consideration of community responsibility. There are many possibilities for maternity protection in our time, considered scientific progress, economic resources, increased social sensitivity. It must not happen that a woman voluntarily terminates her pregnancy for economic reasons or due to lack of help and protection. Now the word goes to the legislator. It is hoped that a legislative framework of real help to women will be offered, of protection of life and acceptance of conscientious objection. There will certainly be legislation different from the current one; a freedom will be given that was not previously foreseen. I hope it is not an incentive to abortion, to a carelessness in decisions or - as Pope Francis recently said - "a very bad habit of killing".

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(D). The condition of decadence in which we find ourselves at an ecclesial level is evident, the Church being world in the world, as evidenced by the dissociation between being Catholic and living and thinking Catholic which leads to a majority of 77,28% in favor of the abortion law. Allow us to ask a question that is not easy to ask a bishop: as pastors caring for souls and as theologians, how many serious responsibilities we have, in the face of all this? We have recently had cases of Italian priests who have publicly declared themselves in favor of euthanasia with great coverage in the national media. Of course, these are few cases, but the resonance of these few is destined to create scandal and disorientation among the People of God, already too disoriented. It's not that we have lost the perception of the sacredness of The gift of life within the very context of training for the ministerial priesthood? This is why we ask you: where we can start again?

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R. I repeat: one cannot be Catholic and deny the very principles of Catholicism, such as the absolute right to life and the human dignity of the conceived, as I had the opportunity to underline on the feast of the Patron Saint and Founder Marino, the 3 last September. There are Catholics involved on the social front, on human rights and on the major issues of ecology. Some others accentuate the attention to the protection of non-negotiable ethical values; sometimes it seems that a gap emerges between the two perspectives. I felt the duty to reiterate to both of them the Gospel of God's love for man, the Gospel of the dignity of the person and the Gospel of life are one single and indivisible Gospel. I also offer another consideration to be interpreted in the right direction. We are paying close attention, spending resources and effort, to human promotion. We can only appreciate the work, eg, of the diocesan Caritas, the testimony of volunteering, Pastoral programs in favor of the emergencies and needs of the people. However, I would like just as much impetus for evangelization. I would like to highlight the primacy of the announcement of Jesus Christ more: be hope in a wounded world! In the next few days we will draw up a sort of "roadmap" in our Diocese:

– support for our faithful in the experience of a faith capable of interacting with the world and raising hopes;

– accompaniment of people in difficulty, spiritual guidance and appropriate catechesis;

– convergent work of the pastoral offices on the theme of life;

– sustainability of a family counseling center;

– celebration of the Vigil for emerging Life e, like in Italy, of the Day for Life.

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(D). Rod Dreher wrote the book The Benedict option, to be understood as the escape of Benedict from Norcia who dares to separate from the Empire now corrupt and devastated by the barbarian invaders in order to rediscover his own origins, one's roots and the Christian identity which today in the world sounds like an unpronounceable blasphemy". Think about us Catholics, without ceasing to be world within the world, but also adverse to certain logics of this world, from abortion to euthanasia and for this reason hated by the world when necessary (cf.. GV 15, 18-21), we will end up arriving at a new "Benedict option" suitable for our contemporary society?

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R. I know Rod Dreher's book The Benedict option. We also talked about it for a long time. We were able to appreciate interesting and certainly positive results. I wouldn't want the vocation of "yeast in dough" to be weakened, the will to take on and "inhabit" this time of ours. We cannot give in to the syndrome of feeling besieged. Also a "Catholic" agricultural cooperative, or a “Catholic” school, more than commendable initiatives, they must engage in dialogue and offer inspiration to everyone.

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(D). We asked one of its presbyters to paint their Bishop for us, he responded like this: «My Bishop is a believer of solid faith and a true pastor. He is always ready to go out of his way for his priests, which he would never abandon in the solitude and discouragement of the dark night. It is always present, and he is very jealous of his priests, knowing full well how jealous God is of all of us". What effect does it have on you to know that one of your priests responded to us like this??

R. (The Bishop responds with a smile)

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From the island of Patmos, 6 October 2021

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THE LETTERS OF BERLICCHE AND THE EULOGY OF MADNESS ABOUT EUTHANASIA, CATHOLICITY AND "LAY BELIEVERS"

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An atheist can also feel right and right euthanasia and express the reasons at any location. I do not dispute the freedom of thought and expression, both sacrosanct and guaranteed for all. But how well these ideas can be considered firmly grounded in Christian roots and in the Enlightenment or in modernity?

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

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PDF interview print format
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Michel pacher [1435-1498]. Munich, Old Pinakothek, from the monastery of Novacella: «Agostino, the Devil and the Book of Vices " (1480)

in this period of uncertainty and social confusion due to the covid19 pandemic, it seems strange and out of place to propose a referendum on euthanasia, almost as if it were a topic to be resolved quickly, like the pandemic.

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I don't want to go into it in long legal discussions, of which I am not an expert, I just want to become a careful observer of the surrounding reality. I don't even like to end up in controversy, as already explained in the past in our book dedicated to super saucepans of cybernetic theologians, however, I feel I have to say something about the effects that the collection of signatures for the referendum is having on the Catholic faithful. Especially after having endured the antics of a priest who "as a priest" said "yes to Euthanasia" and to whom Father Ivano Liguori dedicated precise and severe words.

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We are obviously talking - again on the subject of supercazzole of supercazzolari - of the team of adult Catholics that, based on acute and in-depth research on Wikipedia which confirm their outlandish theories, they agree to sign easily for the referendum. Then, if anything, they head to Mass without batting an eye, to receive communion, convinced that they have done their utmost; convinced that religion is one thing and politics one thing (!?).

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Leafing through days ago The Corriere della Sera, among the letters sent to Aldo Grasso I came across the undefined category of the "lay believer", in fact, he called himself a reader. I won't go into judging the person who wrote the letter, of which I have no knowledge and desire to express my judgments. I repeat: I do not know him, apart from the name that I will gladly omit, and I don't even know his education level. Actually though, from the content of the topics offered, I seem to notice that between the lines there is an evident confusion in the contents: confusion maybe a little’ sought and a little’ spontaneous.

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In this text it seems to re-read an argument that recalls the interlocutory writing of the character Berlicche, in the best known Letters of Berlicche of C. S. Lewis. In this book the little devil Berlicche, while retiring, teaches the youngest Malacoda, which will replace it, to insinuate non-existent but apparently well-founded doubts and thus lead man to sin. The argumentative mode seems very similar to me. The author of that letter is not comparable to the devil, but his writing and arguing recall the idea as described by Lewis.

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The central reason I would like to focus on lies in the fact that it appears to contain a small summary of what the mainstream cultural holds as sacred truths regarding euthanasia. Above all it is a summary of what the mainstream he believes he is unquestionably aware of the relationship between Catholic morality and euthanasia. Writes the Author: «[…] as a lay believer I ask the uncompromising believers ". The letter begins with the words "lay believer", which does not clarify anything of the writer's knowledge of faith and morals. Even assuming that by layman we mean Greek laos (people), one perceives immediately and intuitively that the writer has not been ordained bosomes, nor is he the son of some religious institute and subsequently ordained a priest. Therefore, logically, it is evident that the Author is not a presbyter. Baptized or not, the writer therefore presents himself as a non-priest who says he believes in something. Subsequently it seems to read one of his contrasting with the so-called "uncompromising believers". Therefore, if there is a conflict, it means that the Author believes he is more understanding, reasonable and open compared to "closed-minded" hardliners. What kind of believers will they be, if he defines himself as a lay believer and by contrast, uncompromising? From here it does not seem to be able to give a certain answer, although at the moment we have not had any clarifications about the content of the author's beliefs. Continuing the reading, however, we have some clarification: «[…] it is permissible for man to extend life for months / years by delegating all vital functions to a machine?».

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The first question shows a picture of ideas that the Author offers with a series of suggestive questions. Here the rhetorical question technique is used: that is, within questions that are asked as conscientious and scrupulous questions, suggests answers that seem self-evident and that can be deduced from the same questions. So, admitted and not granted that they are, the Author begins with a topic of a medical scientific nature (vital functions / machine). The argument expressed, however, seems a bit’ mistaken. Which means prolonging life and being attached to a car? We would have expected at least a series of explanations with concrete examples and scientific arguments with which it is shown that the existing therapies would have done nothing but delegate all the vital functions to a machine.. All this is instead absent.

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It takes a little effort’ to understand, whereas there is indeed an objective condition in which a person can delegate all vital functions to a machine that, without any medical intervention, nurses and operators, can by itself take care of its vital functions completely. The indefinite machinery, it may perhaps completely replace the heartbeat, the pulmonary exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide and also the production of secretions of the internal organs? The person who needs this machine, more reasonably it will need an auxiliary technology but never a completely replacement one. In fact, as is known from the concept of the machine itself, it can never and in no way completely replace the integrity of a man's functions, it can only help him live a difficult but still satisfying life, until its natural fulfillment. This person, even if atheist, it can enhance moments of suffering, of pain and addiction as moments in which it expresses all its uniqueness and beauty, where auxiliary technology can make him discover hidden talents and resilience abilities that not even he knew he possessed.

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There is to remain quite perplexed faced with the question posed, almost as if euthanasia were the only and authentic solution to a lifestyle in which the support of another person or technology is requested. But if so, also the person who lives with prosthetic legs or arms, he may feel he is living an unworthy life and ask to unplug the car and be killed. A quel point, any subjective interpretation of "life worth living" would have free rein and should be taken seriously without even discussing it, replacing the value of the person understood as a moral and legal subject.

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So far I have not cited any text of the Catholic confessional tradition. Just think only of the Aristotelian ethics of virtues, whereby man experiences harmony in the right virtuous means that helps him to live the tragic moments of life without falling into despair; but also going to philosophers close to the Enlightenment, regarding the centrality of the person I think back to the Kantian lesson of the second categorical imperative, inserted inside the Foundation of the Metaphysics of Costumes:

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«Act in a way that you treat humanity, both in your own person and in that of each other, always also as an end and never simply as a means. " (I. Side, Foundation of the metaphysics of morals, BA 67-68)

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Therefore keep a person alive it means recognizing its centrality, uniqueness and purpose: each person is a propulsive center of ideas, values, creativity, actions that must be accompanied at any moment of one's life and not murdered by an arbitrary and ideological act.

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Going further, the picture of the arguments becomes complicated:

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“We should not consider creating an artificial life as a 'mortal sin', contrary to the will of God who had set the time for a natural death? Pulling the “plug” will not mean placing the destiny of one of his creatures back into the hands of God? The two thieves crucified on Golgotha ​​had their legs broken to hasten their death, as the beginning of Passover is imminent. To the crucified Christ, as per prophecies, they were not broken because his Father gathered him to himself in spirit before this extreme torture. It would have been euthanasia "?

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The Author of the letter immediately it moves from a more or less medical-scientific analysis to a more or less theological one, dwelling on the terms of sin, vita, will of God, predestination. E, in two lines, it claims to propose its own schematic synthesis of the Christological mystery of the Cross and of the Redemption. Needless to say: the two floors, the medical scientific and the theological one, they are assimilated and placed in a rather confusing way. I suspect that the anonymous writer has no notion of the biblical terms and of the Trinitarian mission. He is in fact convinced that he has invincible arguments to support his thesis, that, If I'm not mistaken, it seems to me now that I can say euthanasia in nature. That said, it is clear that the answer is no to all the questions asked. But to answer, we “uncompromising believers” - that we are so insane as to believe in Tradition, to Scripture and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church - we must draw precisely on the content of the deposit of faith that constitutes us precisely as "uncompromising believers", according to the Author's meaning. So the answer is no, because giving health to a person who is suffering is not creating artificial life. The man, indeed, it cannot create anything, but only build, manipulate, reworking an existing subject. In Genesis and the second Book of Maccabees [cf.. 2 Mac 7, 28] all this is clear, even to a simple textual analysis: God creates from nothing (in Hebrew only), man builds, produce. Furthermore, God does not first predict what will happen next, that is, definitively the precise date on which a man will die. God indeed, according to Catholic theology, it lives in a state of simultaneous eternal present. He lives in a timeless state in which there is neither before nor after. Therefore he cannot prefix something before or after Him.

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Unplugging is the act of killing a person wrongfully in need of support and therapy; I don't understand how this can be called a typical act of God's plan. In the logic of the anonymous Author, Jesus, to stay in God's plan he would have to kill the paralytic whom the four friends lowered from the roof onto his little bed [cf.. MC 2, 1-12], the blind people of Jericho who asked him to listen to him [cf.. Mt 20, 29-34], or even murder the centurion's servant, suffering and paralyzed on the bed. Maybe, perhaps the Evangelists did not really understand what Jesus meant. But our anonymous Author understood it better, about two thousand years later, donating "pearls of faith" not uncompromising on the de readers page The Corriere della Sera.

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I think it is clear that unplug is to disobey God's creative plan, which gives man life and freedom. Only He can call these gifts to himself, because he is its original Giver. It is up to us men only to guard these gifts of God. It should also be noted that the two thieves are broken their legs and Jesus Christ is not, because according to the interpretation of our Author he should have been spared the torture of the cross. To the crucified Christ, as per prophecies, they were not broken because his Father gathered him to himself in spirit before this extreme torture. And this would have been euthanasia?

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I had a hard time not smiling in the face of this evident fallacy of a theological nature: in fact the Father sends his Son precisely to give his life on the Cross. This is the ultimate goal of the Trinitarian mission of the Incarnation. The Son is sent to generate an effect of grace and redemption in all humanity, through the torture and death of the cross. May the Roman soldiers not break his legs, it is absolutely accidental compared to the terrible sufferings already received and to the death of Jesus which was in fact imminent. The Father does not protect the Son from any pain, indeed Jesus himself is aware of this, of the arrival of his dramatic moment, when he decides to love to the end [cf.. GV, 13-1].

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The argument does not even work from a logical point of view: if a person is on the cross and is called to himself in spirit, it means that he is already suffering and simply, as is normal, suddenly dies. In fact, the cross was a terrible punishment that was inflicted in ancient times precisely because it generated atrocious suffering and an identifying stigma on the condemned person.. Being crucified meant having previously suffered a large number of slaps, beatings, whipping, spitting and personal insults, after walking a long journey carrying a heavy wooden cross on his shoulders over a body already heavily wounded by a thousand pains. Then ended the journey to the point of raising the cross, the condemned man was nailed hands and feet with long spikes beaten with large hammers directly into the flesh. Eventually hoisted high, exposed to bad weather and atmospheric agents, till death, that given the set of violence suffered was imminent.

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In the logic of the anonymous Author all this would not be thought of as a torture, I believe and hypothesize, but as a kind of cruise on a luxurious Costa ship, with lots of cocktail e happy hour. It is evident that speaking of taking away the torture of Christ suffering in the Passion exclusively because the Father does not allow the soldiers to break his legs, it shows that the story is unknown, nor the sanctioning institutions of Roman law of the time and least of all the basic notions of faith and Catholic theology. Why then do we launch ourselves into such a curious and imaginative analysis of the Passion of Christ? To the dear reader "lay believer", perhaps it will annoy him to hear that he is wrong about his Christological convictions, based on arguments of the Catholic faith? It would therefore not have been more prudent for him not to express himself on topics that he does not know in depth?

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Perhaps the most comical part of this exchange correspondence to the reserve itself answer by Aldo Grasso, that by replying to the writer, he testifies that Umberto Veronesi himself - a well-known supporter of euthanasia - had had multiple testimonies from the sick, none of which «in the many years spent at the bedside of terminally ill patients, he explained, no one had ever asked him to die. Everyone had always asked him to heal; even against all evidence, even when it was clearly no longer possible ". What to say: honor the principle of non-contradiction!

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All this long discussion of a public letter, readable by all and analyzed in a national newspaper, it is therefore destined to show the incredible mentality that underlies the culture of death, so defined by the Holy Pontiff John Paul II. A mentality that has its own dogmas and beliefs, ready to invent and modify ex new also concepts, objective ideas and notions in the biblical context, theological, doctor, juridical, ethical, moral in order to be considered absolutely unassailable.

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Mind you: an atheist can also feel right and right euthanasia and express the reasons at any location. I do not dispute the freedom of thought and expression, both sacrosanct and guaranteed for all. But how well these ideas can be considered firmly grounded in Christian roots and in the Enlightenment or in modernity? These bizarre arguments are instead only the result of a total ideological reinterpretation that undermines the very freedom of thought and expression on which it presumes to be based. Indeed, a euthanasic mentality will tend to inculcate his ideas in an ideological and propagandistic way, proposing those that contradict it as “bigoted, uncompromising, medieval, confessional "without leaving the freedom to build a critical space in the conscience of man. Which is an intangible shrine and the original source of any freedom.

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I conclude by greeting the unknown Author with affection clarifying that I am not angry with him, but publicly admitting that certain topics made me smile, right where there would be tears of blood to cry.

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Rome, 20 September 2021

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Staff Blog

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News from the Dominican Province Roman: visit the official website of the Dominicans, WHO

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"IF THIS IS A PRIEST". The bizarre and embarrassing case of Don Ettore Cannavera and his a-catholic and a-theological belief

"There is no contrast between being a priest and the sweet death». Unfortunately we can already predict that no one will take adequate measures against this unmanageable priest. Nor his bishop, nor the Congregation for the Clergy, nor will the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith move a muscle. And that's because, priests like him, sometimes a corrupt and consequently corrupting system is very useful. Or as San Bonaventura da Bagnoregio said: "Rome corrupts the cardinals who corrupt the bishops who corrupt the priests who corrupt the people".

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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The confreres of the presbytery of Cagliari they know very well who we are talking about, indeed, perhaps some of them would prefer to forget even the name of the brave Don Ettore Cannavera who is certainly not comparable to the homonymous pious and virtuous Homeric hero of the Iliad. Outside the Cagliari district, the character in question is not known, but in recent days he has had attention and space in the newspapers of the radical left and the left radical chic, it gives The Manifesto a The Republic.

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Lately he has been getting noticed for having affixed - as well as the mayor Giorgio Gori in Bergamo [you see WHO] - his prestigious signature in favor of the abrogative referendum on legal euthanasia [you see QUI], arguing that there is no contrast between being a priest and being in favor of sweet death (sic!). The newspaper where the interview signed by Patrizio Gonnella is reported is the poster and the body of the article is quite interesting for understanding personality, the mentality and the "theology" of this presbyter.

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Maybe for someone Don Ettore Cannavera he could also appear as a present-day Sardinian Don Andrea Gallo, perhaps to be honest he is only the product of that vulgar and unhealthy social 1968 that has brought nothing good in the world, for Italy and much less within the Catholic Church which now pays the price for those clerics who at the time confused the Good Shepherd with Fidel Castro and the singing of’Rejoice with Bella Ciao. And if for Don Andrea Gallo we could at least hope for the good influence and pastoral example of Cardinal Giuseppe Siri - who could be accused of everything except for not having loved Christ, the church, the people of God and the Magisterium - for Don Ettore Cannavera we know of what influence he is a disciple, just listen to his proud opening at the 41st Congress of the Italian Radical Party [you see WHO]. Of these ideas, Don Ettore Cannavera has been an advocate and interpreter since his youth, which made him support the divorce law as a new priest and then share abortion as well, euthanasia and free drugs [you see WHO; WHO; WHO], all the workhorses that we recognize are present in the historical secular preaching of the two Italian pride Marco Pannella and Emma Bonino.

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Empirical evidence shows, this would be enough to be able to raise well-founded doubts on his vocational choice and on the reasons relating to presbyteral consecration which is certainly not aimed at this type of social battles, which, moreover, a priest should refrain from doing in these terms. Unless you think that San Giuseppe Cafasso, San Leonardo Murialdo, St. John Bosco and St. John the Baptist Piamarta were less social priests and less attentive than he to poverty and hospitality, while at the same time remaining profoundly priests, faithful and obedient to the Church and bulwarks of integrity to the Magisterium.

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It is clear that anthropology that guides the mind and action of Don Ettore Cannavera is certainly not the theological one linked to the idea of ​​man who has his authoritative model in Christ [See. GV 19,5]. There is no Catholic feeling in this Modus Operandi completely devoid of that idea of ​​a new man [See. Ef 4] who becomes son in the Son and brother of Jesus Christ [Cfr Rm 8,15.23; 9,4; Gal 4,5]. The idea of ​​a man who conceives himself as an obedient son of the Church because he is generated as such by the blood of Christ on the cross is totally missing. In short, in all this cultural anthropological model there is nothing that refers to even a minimal revealed truth that makes it possible for man to be immersed in that grace of Christ which represents the only evangelical-moral imperative within which it is possible to find peace for the whole. of man. And they will certainly not be the artificial paradises anti-human rights to represent an anesthetizing joint to make the fatigue of living more bearable.

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For Don Ettore Cannavera, it's obvious, humanism is that of the Enlightenment, man is the demiurge of reason alone who creates happiness and success by himself, regardless of God at the beginning of life, as well as in its natural course, until the moment of death, in a very personal and highly questionable biblical vision that does not skimp on Roussian selfishness and egocentrism.

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That's why it makes sense to say that it could be done unless a bishop pronounced the consecratory formula on him and anointed him with sacred chrism, to do these things it is enough to be a politician not too superfine. But, what do you want, a political priest keeps his own sex appeal indispensable that cannot escape the newspapers and cameras, something that nourishes the pathogenic narcissism of these subjects more genuflected to parties than to tabernacles with sweet ambrosia.

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And of course we have armies of adult Catholics who praise these priestly subjects as the vanguard of the purest Church, humiliating and denigrating the few who still remained priests for the sanctification of the people entrusted to them, through prayer, the sacraments and charity in truth [See. Roman Ritual of Priestly Ordination].

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If this were not already enough matter I would add that perhaps the validity of Don Ettore Cannavera's priestly ordination should be reviewed, if he had really come to the priesthood moved by certain convictions that constitute decisive contempt for the pillars of faith and its dogmatic system. Indeed, our brave, there is no problem in affirming perniciously grave errors for a presbyter: "There is no hell. Giovanni Papini already said this in the 1950s. I don't believe in hell " [you see WHO]. He quotes Papini, with the substantial difference that we know of an authentic conversion of Papini, No word has yet reached Don Ettore, but surely when this happens you can read it on The Manifesto, his The Republic or knows, maybe to the next meeting of the Italian Radicals.

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Very delicate theme that of the validity of sacred priestly ordinations, on which they debated in 2016, at the sacramental level, the theological and juridical the two founding fathers de The Island of Patmos, the pontifical academician Giovanni Cavalcoli and the dogmatic and historical theologian of dogma Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo. We refer to their scientific articles, but readable and understandable by anyone who wants to deepen the topic [See. G. Horses WHO, A.S. Levi di Gualdo, WHO, WHO].

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It would be enough to use a minimum sense of reality to see that here unfortunately we are not faced with the case of a sinful priest who has lost his way, something that can happen to all of us because we are not immune from error and sin, but it is a priest who has fallen into the Luciferian blindness that leads to exchanging evil for good and then defending it proudly enough to normalize it in the exercise of sin.

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But all this today seems to matter nothing, because it is enough to operate a generic philanthropic good to be in good conscience before the world without the slightest need for any conversion (as it was in the case of Gino Strada you see WHO, WHO) and let oneself be elevated and sanctified, not by the Holy Spirit, but from the secular spirit that springs from the hyperuranium of untouchable civil rights in which public recognition as commander of merit of the Italian Republic for acts of heroism flows with abundance, for the commitment to solidarity, in the rescue, for activities in favor of social inclusion, in the promotion of culture, of legality and for the fight against violence [you see WHO].

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But let's be serious? What heroism is there in defending and justifying the attempt on nascent life, what heroism in the throwaway culture, what heroism in making himself the arbiter of another man's life and dignity, what heroism in allowing divorce and the nullification of the natural family? No One, no heroism, only cowardice and timidity, only the mark of the monkey of God who promises man divine equality in the sign of disobedience [See. GN 3,5].

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It would be wise to use the method of the Belgian Cardinal Joseph-Léon Cardijn in these cases and of the Croatian father Tomislav Kolakovic, that method that allows us to see, judge and act in an evangelical way in the face of moderate totalitarianisms disguised as the Gospel of the poor in an attempt to formally correct the error and subsequently to recover the offender (even if he is a priest) fallen from grace because of the apology for a sin and a crime.

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Unfortunately, we can already predict, without particular qualities of clairvoyance, that no one will take adequate measures against this unmanageable priest who in the past also taught in the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Sardinia. Nor his bishop, nor the Congregation for the Clergy, nor will the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith move a muscle. And that's because, priests like him, totally ingestible, sometimes a corrupt and consequently corrupting system is very useful. Or as San Bonaventura da Bagnoregio said: "Rome corrupts the cardinals who corrupt the bishops who corrupt the priests who corrupt the people".

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Allow me a cinematic digression taking Jack Nicholson as an example in the movie 1992 Honor code. Nicholson plays the role of a cynical Colonel who does not care about the truth and who does not hesitate to sacrifice the life of one of his soldiers under the illusion of respecting honor in this way, the austerity of military life and the country’s national security.

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Don Ettore Cannavera is like that, reminds me of Jack Nicholson's Colonel Jessep. It is placed there but not for the truth of the Gospel but to carry forward the demands of a secular world that deludes itself to protect man with essential civil rights but that for good reason does not blink at the procured death of a fetus in the womb. maternal, to the procured death of a terminally ill patient, to the dissolution of human dignity that is cloaked in a warm and soft blanket of empathy in a world without Christ or Church anymore.

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Perhaps at the end of his life, Don Ettore Cannavera, he will write his own memoirs which will be the training manual for the priests of the future. Maybe at his funeral, as it happened for Don Andrea Gallo, the cardinal on duty will be there to pay him homage and the support of the Church for his work, that although uncomfortable and heterodox, in fact it was allowed by a corrupt and corrupting system that corrupts the cardinals who corrupt the bishops who corrupt the priests who corrupt the people.

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Laconi, 10 September 2021

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Author
Editors of The Island of Patmos.

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WHEN IN TRAGEDY YOU TRY TO SDRAMMATIZE: THE MODERN TANGO OF THE ITALIAN EPISCOPATE. THE WORDS OF THIS LIGHT SONG ARE INTERESTING AND FIT …

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A "VACCINE" OF TRUST AND HOPE AT THE SCHOOL IN PRESENCE FOR A RENEWED EXPERIENCE OF NORMALITY

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In these times of restart, That passage from the Gospel in which Jesus invites the weary disciples often comes to mind, after the troubles of an unsuccessful fishing, to cast the nets again.

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Anna Monia Alfieri, I.M.

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“We struggled all night and didn't catch anything; but at your word I will cast the nets " [LC 5,5]

The school restarts. It's a fact. No more nostalgia for the holidays: it's time to leave and commit. And great! In the lasts 19 months of lockdown many took to the field for our young people. In the last months, even more briskly, we all worked, why the slogan school in attendance not only remain such but become a reality.

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We adults we have renewed the awareness that school is the place of knowledge, the place where students develop the ability to reflect. Notions are learned at school, but we learn to argue, to live in a necessary relational dimension.

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Here then we go back to pointing the alarm clock, to prepare the backpack, books, to check the subjects of the day, the emotion of an interrogation returns, a demanding verification. It returns to normal.

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I think of our dear young people and I would like them to experience the excitement of the beginning of a new school year, with all the expectations that each of us carries in our hearts. To each and every one: have a good year, in the joy of learning firm contents, in the desire to weave healthy relationships. This is the heart of education ... In a good public school, state or equal.

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A wish extended to all teachers who are struggling with meetings, the colleges, the departments: not sterile bureaucracy, but you meet people united by the desire to think, to design, to devise learning paths for young people who will be entrusted to them in the classes, in an inter-generational exchange of culture and values.

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A thought goes to the parents, in the awareness that educational responsibility, to be exercised, it needs freedom. But it is always responsibility: therefore an adult question with a formed and solid will.

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How much do we need of truly adults! I hope that the restart of the school will be an appeal for everyone for a fairer and more equitable school: this will depend on our ability to ask for the completion of the “autonomy, equality and freedom of educational choice ". Citizens are thus rediscovered freer, because a value is rediscovered: the civic sense, at the service of the good of all. A value, that of civic sense, that only face-to-face school can help make it a reality every day.

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In these times of restart, That passage from the Gospel often comes to mind [cf.. LC. 5, 5] in which Jesus invites the weary disciples, after the troubles of an unsuccessful fishing, to cast the nets again. Pietro, in whose humanity each of us can reflect, although he too is at the end of his strength, he replies to the Master: «[…] We worked hard all night and took nothing; But at your word I will let down the nets» [“We struggled all night and didn't catch anything; but at your word I will cast the nets "].

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there, we all struggled for a long time: now is the time to cast the nets into the sea and collect abundant fishing made of culture, commitment, good will, desire to be useful to society. Best wishes, so, of happy school year!

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Milan, 6 September 2021

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«YOU WANT TO GO TOO?». BETWEEN EUTHANASIA AND INFLUENCE, THOUGHTS SPREAD AROUND THE CHARIS, TO THE THEOLOGY OF POVERTY AND THE OBEDIENCE OF THE FAITH THAT BUILDS THE CHURCH

It is evident that if I distribute only earthly food, maybe I'll be able to fill the poor man's stomach, but I will leave his heart and soul empty. If I think only of the horizontal dimension neglecting the vertical one, risk of creating dangerous artificial havens that find in some social ideas - we think of citizenship income - the demagogic claim to solve all problems well and to please everyone.

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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… the modern men of science in charge of directing the consciences of others

On the Sunday just passed I commented on a beautiful passage from the Holy Gospel in my homily [cf.. GV 6, 60-69]. As I normally do at every Sunday celebration, I frame the Gospel passage not only from an exegetical point of view but above all from an ecclesiological and pastoral point of view, letting the cursive reading of the Sunday Gospel speak to the faithful with the strength and incisiveness of the sword [See. EB 4, 12], at the same time avoiding an overly technical reading of the text that only a very few would be able to understand.

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The Gospel of John of the Sunday just passed appears as the conclusion of the long discourse on the Bread of Life in which Christ clearly and definitively shows the truth about himself. It is in fact a great one theophany in a Eucharistic key, in which, starting from the sign of the shared bread, Jesus presents himself as the true heavenly manna that is incarnated from heaven into human existence. He was born in Bethlehem, in that place which means House of Bread, it feeds mortal man in his search for God concealed, making himself bread.

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A revealing moment of Christ's identity, that, as I said, it is preceded by the necessary sign of multiplication (sharing) of loaves [See. GV 6, 1-15]. This sign is fundamental to understand that Jesus is really the true Lord who feeds his people on the earthly pilgrimage and not one of the many powerful on earth who seeks a personal gain of glory. [See. GV 6, 15]. He guides the new people of the Covenant no longer from Egypt to the Promised Land but from sin to the new covenant in his blood which is realized through the Easter events.

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This is why the Eucharistic sign of shared bread it becomes essential to understand divine pedagogy and the way in which God works salvation. Jesus, although he is the Lord and the Master [See. GV 13, 14], she never deprives herself of the collaboration of man by constantly questioning him within a salvific dialogue in which the creature offers to the Creator her own littleness fruit of her work so that this in God may multiply and become a paschal sign of salvation for other brothers within a logic of charitable service.

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Reason why the diaconate of the Charis in the Church it is mainly a Trinitarian mystery that allows us to contemplate the Lover, the one who is Beloved and Love to use the words of St.. Augustine refer to the mystery of God the Trinity. But at the same time it is a soteriological mystery, as the Charis it is the divine plan which took its form in Jesus Christ the Savior and which finds its genesis in the Trinity as an eternal story of love for man (See. M. Rinaldi, From the welfare state to the welfare society. Social theology and pastoral action of Italian Caritas, Effatà, 2006, p.70].

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From these necessary theological prerogatives, we understand how the exercise of Charis, it absolutely cannot be configured as a humanitarian service or sentimental philanthropism. Even when it is man who operates the Charis towards a similar one we can also see Amante's tripartite Augustinian relationship, Beloved and Love. The lover is the one who acts pushed by the Father towards the beloved in whom the Son identifies himself, within the loving dynamic of the Holy Spirit.

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The Charis Christian is necessary because it is there ratio with which from the man's body one reaches his soul so that soul and body together are saved in that harmonious anthropological unity that we see professed every Sunday in the Creed when we say: "I await the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come". That is, I await the resurrection of man in his totality, not just a part of him. What we already see realized in the Blessed Virgin Mary assumed into heaven in body and soul.

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For this reason, if it is true that the poor need to be fed on earth, such a requirement cannot make the believer fall into the pretext utopia that claims to defeat poverty once and for all; equalize the scandalous social disparities; eradicate the relentless diseases; pacify the peoples with an indiscriminate welcome; averting the ignorance of the little ones with partial truths. little ones with partial truths.

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Although today we are used to populist slogans such as "no one will be left behind" that we find abundantly on the lips of politicians as well as prelates. We must have the courage to affirm that all this is just a mirage of self-constructed salvation whose cultural and social consequences are well known and evident to all., especially in a period like the one we are going through burdened by the pandemic.

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About this it would be enough to recall the words of Jesus who admonishes us: «You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me " [Mt 26, 11] an expression that certainly points towards a preferential option for the poor but, much more, defines a very clear hierarchy of values ​​that leads us to understand that without him, true God and true man, we are too poor to help the poor and unable to offer definitive salvation. And this truth today appears rather annoying and poorly digested by the human narcissism that wants to operate without God, even when it claims to do good.

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This discourse allows us to formulate a correct theological approach to poverty which has nothing to do with the revolutionary pauperism so dear to a certain leftist thought or comparable to the popular social demands of the South American liberation regimes, nor to that pretext pauperism of which Judas Iscariot himself spoke, about which we refer to our video lesson: The gold of the Magi and the false love for the poor of Judas Iscariot.

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Much less can we approach it with blunders social the various influence who harangue the people of followers maintaining a standard of living that is light years away from evangelical sobriety and that does not come close to that dignified poverty of the average Italian worker or pensioner.

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If we want to be honest, this theological approach has nothing to do with the various models that impose themselves on public opinion and see, in the various saviors of the people, put well in the foreground by mainstream, the beginning of a new renaissance and secular humanism. Because it remains evident, in all this theological reasoning, the graft with the purest Christology in which the kenosis of the Word constitutes the visible and most eloquent self-denial through which we can find "that God who made himself poor for us, to enrich ourselves through his poverty " [See. 2Color 8, 9; Benedict XVI, Speech at the inaugural session of the 5th General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops, 13 May 2007, 3: AAS 99 (2007), 450]. If Christ strips himself of his equality with God to save me, to accept this salvation I can only do the same, just as Francis of Assisi did before the bishop [See. Franciscan Sources n ° 1043].

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To any poor person and in the face of any poverty, more than the food that perishes, food that does not perish but lasts for eternal life must be guaranteed [See. GV 6, 22-29]. This does not mean giving side to easy integralist proselytism, quite the opposite, it is a missionary proclamation of salvation that calls every man of good will to action, be it secular or consecrated, to announce all that Christ has told and commanded us [See. Mt 28, 20]. Preaching Christ is not a boast, not even a duty but an urgent necessity [See. 1Color 9, 16].

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It is evident that if I distribute only earthly food, maybe I'll be able to fill the poor man's stomach, but I will leave his heart and soul empty. If I think only of the horizontal dimension neglecting the vertical one, risk of creating dangerous artificial havens that find in some social ideas - we think of citizenship income - the demagogic claim to solve all problems well and to please everyone.

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"Get busy" [cf.. GV 6, 27] says Jesus, but to do so it is necessary to go out on a mission with his authority, following the example of those seventy-two disciples who, invested with all power, they returned home full of joy [cf.. LC 10, 17] having noted firsthand that when the revelation of Christ reaches the poorest and the least [cf.. LC 10, 21] the Kingdom of Heaven is established with power. «Get busy» Jesus says again, but only after having made a decisive and privileged choice that gives Christ the primacy over our life. Jesus is the breaking point between the truth of God and the illusion of the truth of the world and whoever does not know and recognize this truth is doomed to scandal, to confusion, to escape even within the communities of believers in which one can be alone and only following the demands that Christ dictates.

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This is why it appears urgent and necessary to reflect as a Church on that question that Christ poses to his disciples and to operate a serene discernment. «You want to leave too?» [See. GV 6, 67], question that sounds like a warning to the obedience of the faith that cannot find substitutes or surrogates in other people or ideals.

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How many baptized Christians today have the thought of Christ and the Church and profess filial obedience? Few, indeed very few. Syndicalist priests are in fashion, psychologists and social workers. I cardinals electricians and LGBT friendly, lay people intent on social claims, ecclesial groups with party cards, those who fight on social networks for free and tolerant love, for the most humane and liberating euthanasia. Those who still, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, orphans of Sol of the future, they returned to the Catholic home through the window and are now being pointed out as adult Christians and teachers. In the end, there are those who in the name of tradition, strong of the Mass of all time and of the of the Latins, adorned with veils of lace, lace and lace would also be ready to dismiss a Pope in the name of their fidelity to the Church. In short, a difficult to manage situation that many parish priests know but that they are unable to contrast and reclaim because the Vaffa-day it is not just the prerogative of grilline squares but also of those Catholics who on the first occasion send the priest to that country, guilty of having tried to announce the harsh word of Christ which refuses compromises and imposes a choice.

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Sad to say, this kind of Catholic will never give way to Christ and his Church because they were unable to profess the words of the blessed apostle Peter «Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we believe and know that you are the Holy One of God " [See. GV 6, 68-69]. Much better it would be for them to recognize the beating of the heart and go there, where this leads them, leaving the Church and the Gospel in good order in favor of those who really wish to know and believe in Jesus but who are prevented from doing so by these sad figures.

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Indeed, if as Christians the principle for discernment is not Christ but the parliamentary principle of the majority will never establish the Kingdom of Heaven. If the demands of the world are more attractive than those of the Gospel, the value of obedience and faith will never be understood. It's still, if the word of the Magisterium is decidedly less influential than that of the various Ferragnez, Saviano, Fazio, Zan and the various gurus who appear before us every day is vain the hope of expecting a serious laity who knows how to enter the folds of the world by announcing the newness of the Word..

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Laconi, 28 August 2021

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

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IBAN IT 74R0503403259000000301118

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thanks:

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