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THE SIN OF SODOM AND THAT UNEXPRESSED DESIRE TO GAIZE THE HOLY SCRIPTURE AND CLEAR HOMOSEXUALITY WITHIN THE CHURCH AND THE CLERGY

If we still have enough hair left on our stomach, we come to discover that even the Holy Scripture is obsessed with homosexuality and homosexuals. Let's find out, eg, that David and Jonathan were perhaps a little more than just friends; that Sodom and Gomorrah are the capitals of LGBT+ love, and that even Jesus with his apostles and with Lazarus of Bethany had something to hide, in short, no one can be saved anymore.

- Church news -

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Cap.

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Ivano Liguori – PDF print format article – PDF article print forma – PDF article in printed format

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An Italian priest, John Berti, famous cartoonist, published a few days ago on his website a cartoon in which the good Lord threatens to incinerate the priests who still teach that the sin of Sodom consists in homosexuality.

In schizophrenic times like ours we have to witness these little theaters in which there are more priests who talk and worry about homosexuality, with the desperate aim of clearing it within the Church and its clergy, more than the activists of the most famous homosexual culture club in Rome talk about it, which are much more coherent and therefore respectable, in their free and unquestionable choices. Homosexuals have always been better, on a human and social level, they are those who, by their unquestionable choice of life, live their homosexuality in the light of the sun, in freedom and coherence, without worrying about the Catholic Church and its morality, because it doesn't concern them. Instead, the absolute worst are the clerical parakeets, also called "sacristy homosexuals", who would like to bend the principles of Catholic morality to their whims, in a desperate attempt to introduce LGBT+ claims into the Church and the clergy as a real Trojan horse.

These subjects should be sent to lessons by Tomaso Cerno, who was national president of Arcigay (gay association of the Italian left), later elected to the Senate of the Italian Republic, splendid figure of a free and intellectually honest homosexual intellectual, author of clever and hilarious phrases like:

«Being a serious homosexual, certi fags repressed and certain queers I've never tolerated them when they went crazy".

One would have to reply to him: tell that to our hysterical gay sacristy acids! E, with an irony and unparalleled freedom, to those various television and radio programs where more colorful language is permitted — which, however apparently trivial, in certain contexts it can also be effective and even useful on a socio-communicative level - he begins by continually referring to "faggots" and referring to himself by saying "I've happily been a faggot since I was a child" (see WHO, QUI, WHO, WHO, WHO, etc. ..).

Like this, if we still have enough hair left on our stomach, we come to discover that even the Holy Scripture is obsessed with homosexuality and homosexuals. Let's find out, eg, that David and Jonathan were perhaps a little more than just friends; that Sodom and Gomorrah are the capitals of LGBT+ love, and that even Jesus with his apostles and with Lazarus of Bethany had something to hide, in short, no one can be saved anymore.

But let's go back to the cartoon of this Italian priest. What is really the sin of Sodom that scandalizes certain priests on page? The text of Genesis says so:

«They hadn't gone to bed yet, when behold the men of the city, that is, the inhabitants of Sodom, they crowded around the house, young and old, all the people as a whole. They called Lot and told him: “Where are those men who came to you this night? Get them out of us, because we can abuse it!”» (cf.. Gen 19,4-5).

The Italian translation uses the verb «abusare», which already says something a little more precise for a correct exegesis (to use: go beyond the permitted use). The original Hebrew text instead uses the expression "that they might know them". The Hebrew term is failʿ (knowledge) and it means “to have complete knowledge” — not always of a sexual nature — but in many cases it indicates carnal knowledge, specificity of the unitive act between man and woman. If so, and that's how it is, more than a homosexual act, the biblical story would testify to the attempt at gang violence, used as a sign of subordination and submission for those foreigners considered hostile and dangerous.

The rest, in many populations — and history bears witness to this — the supreme act of greatest contempt towards an individual or an ethnic group has often coincided not with murder but with the violation of the body through an act of sexual abuse. And when it was women who were abused, the consequent pregnancy resulting from the act of violence reaffirmed a desire for submission and domination also in the child who would be born from it.

To proceed with more information, I report what the Pontifical Biblical Commission says in reference to this passage from Gen 19,4 in the document «What is man?» (Shall 8,5). An itinerary of biblical anthropology: «It should be noted immediately that the Bible does not speak of erotic inclination towards a person of the same sex, but only homosexual acts. And he deals with these in a few texts, different from each other in literary genre and importance. Regarding the Old Testament we have two stories (Gen 19 e Gdc 19) which inappropriately evoke this aspect, and then the rules in a legislative code (Lv 18,22 e 20,13) who condemn homosexual relationships" (PCB 2019, n. 185).

The passage is very clear and the Bible's concern refers only to the homosexual act and not to homo-affective relationships and implications, as we know and theorize them today. Which means introducing a substantially different reflection, as much as the analysis of a case of moral theology in the light of anthropology alone. The Bible sees and reads the homosexual act within a well-defined sexuality and a relationship established by God between man and woman, between male and female, which establishes an order and a plan of salvation (although these categories too, by some biblical scholars of Protestant origin, have been demolished). In this sense also human sexuality, for God, it was conceived as an instrument of salvation and must also be exercised in this sense.

The biblical man, who is essentially a man of antiquity, considers homosexual acts as they were considered and known in ancient times. Just as Paul of Tarsus considered homosexual acts in those people who, having joined Christ, they also rediscovered sexuality as a saving novelty (cf.. RM 1,26-27; 1Color 6,9-11; 1TM 1,10).

But what were homosexual acts for the ancients? Substantially the reversal of the natural order of union and procreation, which assigned an active-giving role to man and a passive-receptive role to woman. A perhaps archaic vision, but borrowed from observation of the natural world, whereby: «It was believed that sexual intercourse required one active partner and the other passive, that nature had assigned these roles to male and female respectively, and that homoerotic acts inevitably created confusion in these roles, thus confusing what is natural. In the case of relationships between two males, one was believed to be degraded by taking on the passive role, considered naturally reserved for women. In the case of two women, one of the two was believed to usurp the dominant role, active, considered naturally reserved for man" (B. (J). Bread, Paul’s Views on the Nature of Women and Male Homoeroticism, in AA. VV., Bible and homosexuality, claudian, Torino 2011, p. 25).

So, for these natural reasons, Sexual relations of this type were not contemplated between two men or two women. However, this did not imply a judgment of merit extended to people: the discussion was about the act, not on emotional relationships as we understand them today, it is worth hypothesizing generalized historical homophobia.

Historians and scholars of the ancient world they also agree in indicating the existence of prohibitions and penalties to regulate homoerotic practices in some civilizations and circumstances, but there is no certainty of their actual application, except for certain cases which we do not deal with here and which may be the subject of a subsequent article.

Returning to the document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, can be specified even better:

«But what was Sodom's sin in reality?, deserving of such an exemplary punishment? …» (PCB 2019, n. 186).

The sin of Sodom it is a sin deriving from the substantial contempt of God which generates proud rejection and oppositional conduct towards men outside Sodom - not only Lot's guests, but also Lot himself and his family. Sodom is the evil city where the stranger is not protected and the sacred duty of welcome is not respected, because we stopped welcoming God a long time ago. Something similar can be deduced from some evangelical passages (cf.. Mt 10,14-15; LC 10,10-12), where it speaks of the punishment for the rejection of those sent by the Lord: a refusal that will have more serious consequences than those that befell Sodom. In classical culture this attitude is the hybris (insult): violation of divine and natural law resulting in unfortunate consequences, desecrating and inhumane acts.

Yup, but where has homosexuality gone?? Starting from the second century of the Christian era, a habitual reading of Gen's story has established itself 19,4 in light of 2Pt 2,6-10 and Gd 7. The story is not intended to present the image of an entire city dominated by homosexual lust: rather, it denounces the conduct of a social and political entity that does not want to welcome the foreigner and seeks to humiliate him, forcing him by force to suffer shameful treatment of submission (cf.. PCB 2019, n. 187). If we wanted to be more precise, we could limit the attempted violence as rape, which in Roman law defined illegitimate sexual intercourse, even without rape: rape with a virgin or a widow O rape with males (cf.. Eva Cantarella, According to nature, Feltrinelli, Milan, edition consulted, pp. 138-141).

But then the inhabitants of Sodom were homosexuals yes or no? The Bible doesn't say that, and this invites us to reflect on how the sacred text highlights more important issues than a single conduct. Analyzing the history of the ancient world and the moral customs of the time, we can assume that in Sodom as in Persia, in Egypt, in Jerusalem, in Athens and Rome there were people who practiced acts of a homosexual nature and acts of a heterosexual nature in equal measure. People aware of their biological sex - they knew they were male and female - and who lived these practices with greater freedom and lightness than we imagine. Perhaps the century of sexual liberalization should be sought in antiquity, do not (solo) after 1968.

These themes allow us to talk about acts rather than homosexual relationships. In Greece they had a defined political-civil function; in Rome other meanings and purposes. Many of those engaged in homosexual acts, at a certain age and for similar purposes, they returned to heterosexual acts and got married to a woman.

For the ancient world and for the philosophy of the Greeks, marriage was the only institution that guaranteed the continuation of the family and civil society, something that a community of only men or all women could not have supported, as the classical poems attest, in which female communities, so as not to become extinct, they are looking for men.

The ancient world knew a still primitive anthropology of sexuality, based on natural instincts, and was unable to fully define the greatness of human sexuality as Christianity has proposed it over the centuries - sometimes with questionable tones - nevertheless arriving at a theology of corporeity in view of a salvation that includes, does not mortify, sexuality.

Maybe it's us modern people to have categorized and defined sexuality so precisely — thanks to the human sciences and neuroscience. The concept of homosexual orientation is modern. According to scholars, sexual activity in ancient times could resemble conscious bisexuality exercised in different contexts and for different purposes. Also because the concept of nature/against nature was understood differently from how Christian morality would understand it.

Now that we know the identity of Sodom's sin, we understand that in the narrative traditions of the Bible there are no precise indications - at least as we would like - on homosexual practices, nor as behavior to blame, nor as an attitude to be tolerated or encouraged (cf.. PCB 2019, n. 188). Simply, the Bible speaks of the salvation that God brings about in the history of man: a pedagogical salvation that holds together opposites and apparent contradictions. In Christ salvation is revealed and refined, introducing a change not only internally into the heart of man, but also structural, that affects human relationships, and therefore also sexuality. More fundamental than an act considered sinful is the human person, greater than his act or his orientation. A faith lived and welcomed with joy involves a liberating educational journey that re-establishes and redefines relationships in a new way, so as to perceive the beauty of what has been given to us - including sexuality and its exercise - so that it may be an instrument of salvation for me and for others.

Sanluri, 18 October 2025

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______________________________

THE SIN OF SODOM AND THAT UNEXPRESSED DESIRE TO “GAY-IZE” SACRED SCRIPTURE AND LEGITIMIZE HOMOSEXUALITY WITHIN THE CHURCH AND THE CLERGY

So then, if we still have enough stomach hair left, we come to discover that even Sacred Scripture seems to be obsessed with homosexuality and homosexuals. We learn, for instance, that David and Jonathan may have been somewhat more than simple friends; that Sodom and Gomorrah were the capitals of LGBT+ love; and that even Jesus, with his apostles and with Lazarus of Bethany, had something to hide — in short, it would seem that no one is left innocent anymore.

— Ecclesial actuality —

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Cap.

.

An Italian priest, John Berti, well-known as a cartoonist, recently published on his website a cartoon in which the good Lord threatens to incinerate those priests who still teach that the sin of Sodom consists in homosexuality.
In these schizophrenic times of ours, we are forced to witness such little shows, where there are more priests speaking about and worrying over homosexuality — desperately trying to normalize it within the Church and her clergy — than there are activists at Rome’s most famous Homosexual Cultural Circle, who are far more consistent and therefore more respectable in their free and unquestionable choices.

The best homosexuals, humanly and socially speaking, have always been those who, by their own unquestionable life choice, live their homosexuality openly, in freedom and coherence, without worrying about the Catholic Church and her moral teaching — because it simply does not concern them.

The worst, instead, are the clerical parakeets, also known as “the camp priests of the sacristy” who would like to bend the principles of Catholic morality to their whims, in the desperate attempt to introduce LGBT+ claims into the Church and the clergy as a true Trojan horse.

These individuals should be sent to take lessons from Tommaso Cerno, former national president of Arcigay (Italy’s major left-wing gay association) and later elected to the Italian Senate — a brilliant figure of a free and intellectually honest homosexual, author of witty and sharp remarks such as: “Since I am a serious homosexual, I have never been able to stand certain hysterical queens”. One would be tempted to reply: go tell that to our acidic sacristy queens! And, with his unmatched irony and freedom of spirit, in various television and radio programs where a more colorful language is allowed — which, although apparently coarse, can in some contexts be effective and even socially useful — he often opens his remarks by repeatedly referring to “faggots” and by saying of himself: “I have been a happily queer man ever since I was a child” (see WHO, QUI, WHO, WHO, WHO, etc..)

So then, if we still have enough stomach hair left, we come to discover that even Sacred Scripture seems to be obsessed with homosexuality and homosexuals. We learn, for instance, that David and Jonathan may have been somewhat more than simple friends; that Sodom and Gomorrah were the capitals of LGBT+ love; and that even Jesus, with his apostles and with Lazarus of Bethany, had something to hide — in short, it would seem that no one is left innocent anymore.

But let us return to the cartoon by this Italian priest. What, in truth, is the sin of Sodom that so scandalizes certain on page priests? The text of Genesis says:

“They had not yet gone to bed when the townsmen, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. They called to Lot and said, ‘Where are the men who came to your house tonight? Bring them out to us that we may abuse them’” (cf. Gen 19:4-5).

The Italian translation uses the verb “to abuse”, which already says something a bit more precise for a proper exegesis (to use: to go beyond the permitted use). The original Hebrew text, however, uses the expression “so that they might know them”. The Hebrew term is yādāʿ (knowledge) and means “to have complete knowledge” — not always of a sexual kind — but in many cases it indicates a carnal knowledge, specific to the unitive act between a man and a woman. If this is so, and it is so, more than describing a homosexual act, the biblical account would bear witness to an attempted act of group violence, used as a sign of subordination and humiliation toward those foreigners considered hostile and dangerous.

Indeed, in many peoples — and history bears witness to this — the supreme act of contempt toward an individual or an ethnic group has often consisted not in murder but in the violation of the body through an act of sexual abuse. And when the victims of such abuse were women, the consequent pregnancy resulting from the act of violence reaffirmed a will of subjugation and domination even in the child who would be born of it.

To proceed with greater precision, I shall report what the Pontifical Biblical Commission says in reference to this passage of Gen 19:4 in the document “What is man?” (Ps 8:5), A Journey of Biblical Anthropology: “It must immediately be noted that the Bible does not speak of an erotic inclination toward a person of the same sex, but only of homosexual acts. And these are mentioned in only a few texts, which differ from one another in literary genre and importance. With regard to the Old Testament, we have two accounts (Gen 19 and Judg 19) that improperly evoke this aspect, and then certain norms in a legislative code (Lev 18:22 and 20:13) that condemn homosexual relations” (PBC 2019, n. 185).

The passage is very clear, and the concern of Scripture refers solely to the homosexual act, not to the relationships and affective implications between persons of the same sex as we know and conceptualize them today. This means introducing a substantially different reflection, namely the analysis of a case in moral theology in the light of anthropology alone. The Bible perceives and interprets the homosexual act within a sexuality clearly defined and within a relationality established by God between man and woman, male and female, which determines an order and a salvific plan (although even these categories, according to some Protestant biblical scholars, have been dismantled). In this sense, human sexuality itself, in God’s design, was conceived as an instrument of salvation and must be lived accordingly.

The biblical man, who is essentially a man of antiquity, viewed homosexual acts as they were understood and regarded in ancient times. In the same way, Paul of Tarsus considered homosexual acts in those persons who, having embraced Christ, rediscovered even their sexuality as a new dimension of salvation (cf. Rom 1:26–27; 1 Color 6:9–11; 1 Tim 1:10).

But what were homosexual acts for the ancients? Essentially, they were seen as the overturning of the natural order of union and procreation, which assigned to the man an active-donative role and to the woman a passive-receptive one. A vision perhaps archaic, yet derived from the observation of the natural world, according to which: “It was believed that the sexual act required one active and one passive partner, that nature had assigned these roles respectively to male and female, and that homoerotic acts inevitably produced confusion in these roles, thereby confusing what is natural. In the case of relations between two males, it was thought that one of them was degraded by assuming the passive role, considered naturally reserved to the woman. In the case of two women, it was thought that one of them usurped the dominant, active role, considered naturally reserved to the man” (B. (J). Bread, Paul’s Views on the Nature of Women and Male Homoeroticism, in Bible and homosexuality, claudian, Turin 2011, p. 25).

Therefore, for such reasons of nature, sexual relations of this kind were not contemplated between two men or between two women. However, this did not imply a moral judgment extended to the persons themselves: the discourse concerned the act, not the affective relationships as we understand them today, otherwise we would have to hypothesize a generalized historical homophobia.

Historians and scholars of the ancient world agree in noting the existence of prohibitions and penalties intended to regulate homoerotic practices in certain civilizations and circumstances, but there is no certainty as to their actual application, except for specific cases that will not be treated here and may be the subject of a future article.

Returning to the document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, the matter can be clarified even further: “But what was in fact the sin of Sodom, deserving of so exemplary a punishment? …” (PBC 2019, n. 186).

The sin of Sodom is a sin arising from a fundamental contempt for God that generates a proud rejection and an oppositional attitude toward those who are strangers to Sodom — not only Lot’s guests, but also Lot himself and his family. Sodom is the wicked city in which the stranger is not protected and the sacred duty of hospitality is no longer respected, because long ago its people ceased to welcome God. Something similar can be deduced from certain Gospel passages (cf. Mt 10:14–15; Page 10:10–12), where reference is made to the punishment for rejecting those sent by the Lord — a rejection that will have consequences more severe than those that befell Sodom. In classical culture, this attitude corresponds to hubris (insult): the violation of divine and natural law, leading to disastrous consequences, sacrilegious and inhuman acts.

Yes, but where did homosexuality go? Starting from the second century of the Christian era, a customary reading of the account in Gen 19:4 took shape in the light of 2 PT 2:6–10 and Jude 7. The narrative does not intend to present the image of an entire city dominated by homosexual desires; rather, it denounces the behavior of a social and political entity that refuses to welcome the stranger and seeks to humiliate him, forcing him by violence to undergo a degrading treatment of subjugation (cf. PBC 2019, n. 187). If we wished to be more precise, we could describe the attempted violence as rape, which in Roman law defined an illicit sexual act, even without physical violence: rape with a virgin or a widow or sbad with males (cf. Eva Cantarella, According to nature, Feltrinelli, Milan, consulted edition, pp. 138–141).

But then, were the inhabitants of Sodom homosexual or not? Scripture does not say so, and this invites us to reflect on how the sacred text places the emphasis on themes far more important than a single behavior. By analyzing the history of the ancient world and the moral customs of the time, we may presume that in Sodom, as in Persia, Egypt, Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome, there were people who practiced both homosexual and heterosexual acts in equal measure. They were persons conscious of their biological sex — they knew themselves to be male or female — and who lived these practices with a freedom and lightness greater than we might imagine. Perhaps the true century of sexual liberalization should be sought in antiquity, not (only) after 1968.

Such themes allow us to speak of homosexual acts rather than homosexual relationships. In Greece, these acts had a specific political and civic function; in Rome, they bore other meanings and purposes. Many of those who engaged in homosexual acts, at a certain age and for similar reasons, returned to heterosexual acts and contracted marriage with a woman.

For the ancient world and for Greek philosophy, marriage was the only institution that guaranteed the continuation of the family and of civil society, something that a community made up solely of men or solely of women could not sustain, as attested by the classical poems in which female communities, in order not to die out, seek men.

The ancient world possessed an anthropology of sexuality that was still primitive, based on natural instincts, and it was unable fully to define the greatness of human sexuality as Christianity has proposed it throughout the centuries — at times with debatable tones — yet ultimately arriving at a theology of corporeality aimed at a salvation that includes rather than mortifies sexuality.

Perhaps it is we moderns who have categorized and defined sexuality so precisely — thanks to the human sciences and to neuroscience. The concept of homosexual orientation is modern. According to scholars, sexual activity in antiquity could resemble a conscious bisexuality practiced in different contexts and for different purposes. This was also because the concept of nature and against nature was understood differently from the way it would later be interpreted by Christian morality.

Now that we know the true identity of the sin of Sodom, we understand that in the narrative traditions of the Bible there are no precise indications — at least not as we would wish — concerning homosexual practices, neither as behaviors to be condemned nor as attitudes to be tolerated or favored (cf. PBC 2019, n. 188). Quite simply, Scripture speaks of the salvation that God works in the history of humanity: a pedagogical salvation that holds together opposites and apparent contradictions. In Christ, salvation is revealed and refined, implanting in the human heart a change not only interior but also structural, which touches human relationships and therefore also sexuality. More fundamental than an act considered sinful is the human person, who is greater than his or her act or orientation. A faith lived and received with joy entails a liberating educational journey that restores and redefines relationships in a new way, so as to perceive the beauty of what has been given to us — including sexuality and its exercise — that it may be, for me and for others, an instrument of salvation.

Sanluri, 18th October 2025

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______________________________

THE SIN OF SODOM AND THAT UNEXPRESSED DESIRE TO MAKE THE HOLY SCRIPTURE GAY AND LEGALIZE HOMOSEXUALITY WITHIN THE CHURCH AND THE CLERGY

And if we still have some hair left on our stomachs, we would come to discover that even Holy Scripture seems to be obsessed with homosexuality and homosexuals. We found out, For example, that David and Jonathan may have been more than just friends; that Sodom and Gomorrah are the capitals of LGBT+ love, and that even Jesus, with his apostles and with Lazarus of Bethany, I had something to hide; in summary, absolutely no one is saved anymore.

- Ecclesial news -

.

Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Cap.

.

An Italian priest, John Berti, famous cartoonist, published a few days ago on its website a cartoon in which the good Lord threatens to incinerate priests who still teach that the sin of Sodom consists of homosexuality.

In schizophrenic times like ours We must attend these little theaters in which there are more priests who speak and care about homosexuality — with the desperate goal of normalizing it within the Church and its clergy — than the activists of the most famous Circle of Homosexual Culture in Rome, who are much more coherent and, for it, more respectable in their free and unquestionable decisions. The best homosexuals, from the human and social point of view, have always been those who, for his free and unquestionable choice of life, they live their homosexuality in the sunlight, with freedom and consistency, without worrying about the Catholic Church or its morals, because the matter does not concern them. Instead, The worst ones at all are the hysterical crazy women in the sacristy., who wanted to bend the principles of Catholic morality to their whims, in the desperate attempt to introduce LGBT+ demands within the Church and the clergy through a true Trojan horse.

These guys should be sent to take lessons from Tommaso Cerno, who was national president of Arcigay (homosexual association of the Italian left) and later elected senator of the Republic, a splendid figure of a free and honest homosexual intellectual, author of intelligent and hilarious phrases like: “Being a serious homosexual, “I have never tolerated certain hysterical crazy women.”. It would make one want to respond: tell that to our hysterical gay sacristy acids!

Y, with irony and unparalleled freedom, on various television and radio programs where more colorful language is allowed — which, although apparently vulgar, In certain contexts it can be more effective and even useful on a socio-communicative level — it usually begins by constantly referring to “faggots” and saying about oneself: “I have been happily a faggot since I was a child.” (see HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, etc..).

And if we still have some hair left on our stomachs, we would come to discover that even Holy Scripture seems to be obsessed with homosexuality and homosexuals. We found out, For example, that David and Jonathan may have been more than just friends; that Sodom and Gomorrah are the capitals of LGBT+ love, and that even Jesus, with his apostles and with Lazarus of Bethany, I had something to hide; in summary, absolutely no one is saved anymore.

But let's go back to the vignette of this Italian priest. What really is the sin of Sodom that scandalizes certain priests? on page? The Genesis text says this::

“They had not yet gone to bed when the men of the city, the inhabitants of Sodom, They crowded around the house, young and old, the entire town. They called Lot and told him: 'Where are the men who entered your house tonight? Get them out so we can abuse them.’” (cf. Gen 19,4-5).

The Italian translation uses the verb “abuse”, that expresses something a little more precise for a correct exegesis (to use: go beyond permitted use). The original Hebrew text, instead, uses the expression “so that they could know them”. The Hebrew term is yādāʿ (knowledge) and means “to have complete knowledge”, not always sexual, although in many cases it indicates carnal knowledge, typical of the unitive act between man and woman. If it were so—and so it is—, more than a homosexual act, The biblical story would bear witness to an attempt at collective violence, used as a sign of subordination and humiliation towards those foreigners considered hostile and dangerous.

In fact, in many towns —and history proves it—, the supreme act of contempt towards an individual or an ethnic group has not coincided with homicide, but with the violation of the body through an act of sexual abuse. And when the victims of such abuse have been women, The pregnancy resulting from the act of violence reaffirmed a will to submit and dominate even over the child that was to be born..

To proceed with greater precision, I quote what the Pontifical Biblical Commission in reference to this passage from Gen 19,4 in the document what is man? (Shall 8,5). An itinerary of biblical anthropology: “It should be noted immediately that the Bible does not speak of the erotic inclination towards a person of the same sex, but only of homosexual acts. And it deals with these in a few texts., different from each other by literary genre and importance. Regarding the Old Testament, we have two stories (Gene 19 and Jue 19) that inappropriately evoke this aspect, and then some rules in a legislative code (Lv 18,22 and 20,13) "that condemn homosexual relations" (CBP 2019, n. 185).

The passage is very clear, and the concern of the Bible refers only to the homosexual act and not to the relationships or emotional implications between people of the same sex, as we know and theorize them today. This means introducing a substantially different reflection, as the analysis of a case of moral theology in the exclusive light of anthropology. The Bible perceives and reads the homosexual act within a well-defined sexuality and a relationality established by God between man and woman., between the male and the female, that establishes an order and a plan of salvation (although these categories, according to some biblical scholars of Protestant origin, have been dismantled). In this sense, also human sexuality, for God, It was intended as an instrument of salvation and should be exercised in that way..

The biblical man, who is essentially a man of antiquity, considers homosexual acts as they were known and understood in ancient times. Likewise, Paul of Tarsus considered homosexual acts in those people who, having adhered to Christ, they rediscovered even sexuality as a salvific novelty (cf. Rom 1,26-27; 1 Color 6,9-11; 1 Tim 1,10).

But what were homosexual acts for the ancients?? In essence, the reversal of the natural order of union and procreation, that assigned an active-donative part to men and a passive-receptive part to women.. A perhaps archaic vision, but derived from observation of the natural world, according to which: “It was believed that the sexual act required an active partner and a passive partner.”, that nature had assigned those roles respectively to men and women, and that homoerotic acts inevitably generated confusion in those roles, thus confusing what is natural. In the case of relationships between two men, one of them was thought to be degrading by assuming the passive role, considered naturally reserved for women. In the case of two women, one of them was thought to usurp the dominant role, asset, considered naturally reserved for men." (B. (J). Bread, Paul’s Views on the Nature of Women and Male Homoeroticism, in Bible and homosexualityat, claudian, Turin 2011, p. 25).

For such reasons of nature, between two men or between two women, sexual relations of this type were not contemplated. However, This did not imply a moral judgment extended to people: the speech focused on the act, not in emotional relationships as we understand them today, under penalty of imagining a generalized historical homophobia.

Historians and scholars of the ancient world They also agree in pointing out the existence of prohibitions and sanctions intended to regulate homoerotic practices in certain civilizations and circumstances., although there is no certainty of its effective application, except in some specific cases that we do not discuss here and that may be the subject of a later article.

Returning to the document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, can be specified even better: “But what really was the sin of Sodom?”, deserving of such exemplary punishment?…” (CBP 2019, n. 186).

The sin of Sodom It is a sin derived from fundamental contempt for God, which generates proud rejection and oppositional behavior towards those who are foreigners in Sodom: not only Lot's guests, but also Lot himself and his family. Sodom is the evil city in which the stranger is not protected and the sacred duty of hospitality is not respected., because for a long time they had stopped welcoming God. Something similar can be deduced from some evangelical passages. (cf. Mt 10,14-15; LC 10,10-12), where the punishment for rejecting the Lord's messengers is spoken of, a rejection that will have more serious consequences than those that fell on Sodom. In classical culture, This attitude corresponds to the hybris (insult): violation of divine and natural right that leads to dire consequences, sacrilegious and inhuman acts.

Yeah, but where has homosexuality gone?? From the second century of the Christian era, a habitual reading of the story of Gen was consolidated. 19,4 by the light of 2 Pe 2,6-10 y Jud 7. The story is not intended to present the image of an entire city dominated by homosexual desires.; rather, it denounces the conduct of a social and political entity that does not want to welcome foreigners and seeks to humiliate them., forcing him by force to suffer defamatory treatment of submission (cf. CBP 2019, n. 187). If we wanted to be more precise, we could circumscribe the attempted violence as rape, which in Roman law defined an illicit sexual relationship, even without carnal violence: rape with a virgin or a widow O rape with males (cf. Eva Cantarella, According to nature, Feltrinelli, Milan, consulted edition, pp. 138-141).

So, Were the inhabitants of Sodom homosexuals?, yes or no? The Bible doesn't say it, and this invites us to reflect on how the sacred text emphasizes much more important issues than a single behavior.. Analyzing the history of the ancient world and the moral customs of the time, we can assume that in Sodom, like in persia, in Egypt, in Jerusalem, in Athens and Rome, There were people who practiced acts of a homosexual nature and acts of a heterosexual nature in equal measure.. People aware of their own biological sex — they knew they were men and women — and who lived these practices with greater freedom and lightness than we imagine.. Perhaps the true century of sexual liberalization should be sought in antiquity, no (solo) after 1968.

These topics allow us to talk about acts more than homosexual relationships. In Greece they had a defined political-civic function; in Rome, other meanings and purposes. Many of those who practiced homosexual acts, at a certain age and for similar reasons, returned to heterosexual acts and married a woman.

For the ancient world and for the philosophy of the Greeks, Marriage was the only institution that guaranteed the continuity of the family and civil society, something that a community made up of only men or only women would not have been able to sustain, as attested by classic poems in which female communities, so as not to become extinct, looking for men.

The ancient world had a still primitive anthropology of sexuality, based on natural instincts, and it failed to fully define the greatness of human sexuality as Christianity has proposed it throughout the centuries—sometimes with debatable tones—, arriving, however, at a theology of corporeality oriented towards a salvation that includes, not that mortifying, sexuality.

Maybe it's us, the modern ones, those of us who have categorized and defined sexuality in such a precise way, thanks to human sciences and neurosciences. The concept of homosexual orientation is modern. According to scholars, Sexual activity in ancient times could be similar to conscious bisexuality exercised in different contexts and for different purposes.. Also because the concept of nature/against nature was understood differently from how Christian morality will interpret it..

Now that we know the identity of the sin of Sodom, We understand that in the narrative traditions of the Bible there are no precise indications - at least not as we would like - about homosexual practices., nor as behavior that should be censored, nor as an attitude that should be tolerated or favored (cf. CBP 2019, n. 188). Simply, The Bible talks about the salvation that God accomplishes in the history of man: a pedagogical salvation that holds together opposites and apparent contradictions. in Christ, salvation is revealed and perfected, instilling in the human heart a change not only internal, but also structural, that touches human relationships and, therefore, also sexuality. More fundamental than an act considered sinful is the human person, bigger than your act or your orientation. A faith lived and welcomed with joy involves a liberating educational path that restores and redefines relationships in a new way., allowing us to perceive the beauty of what has been given to us—including sexuality and its exercise—so that it can be, for me and for others, instrument of salvation.

Sanluri, 18 October 2025

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FROM PROFESSOR ALESSANDRO BARBERO A SAINT FRANCIS "UNDER THE CRUST". WHEN HOLINESS IS COMBINED WITH HISTORY

The historian Alessandro Barbero is not a Catholic, he is a layman, but it tells more truths about Saint Francis than have been heard by devout Catholics about the life of the Poverello. This in the same way as, in cinematography, the director Liliana Cavani represented the Francesco closest to reality, atheist is communist, through a young and virile Mickey Rourke. With all due respect to the talent and memory of director Franco Zeffirelli, who instead represented a saccharine and completely de-virilized Saint Francis.

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Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Cap.

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For a few days I started reading the new book on Saint Francis of Assisi by Professor Alessandro Barbero, a face now known and appreciated not only in the academic field.

Mickey Rourke plays Francis of Assisi in director Liliana Cavani's film (Italy, 1989)

As a historian has successfully undertaken a good activity of dissemination of that subject - history - which has always been a subject of boredom for many during their school days, perhaps more for the methodology with which it was explained and posed to the students than for the object of its study itself.

The merit of this popularizer is undoubtedly that it has brought a large audience closer to history and historical topics, just as the journalist Indro Montanelli did with his books and interviews on the history of Italy which we could define as an investigative story, as only a skilled and expert journalist can do.

The story is teachers of life and learn about the history, the one without ideological coloring, which has many contradictions and black holes, the one not written by the winners alone, that of facts and sources is extremely useful for getting to know ourselves and for knowing how to orient the future and perhaps also to avoid making huge mistakes. But unfortunately this is not always the case.

Until this speech it applies to world wars, we may all agree on the facts of recent history and antiquity, but when the story touches on more particular topics and themes such as hagiography or theology, what happens? well, you have to know how to maintain the right balance between the parts and the disciplines but personally I believe that knowing how to make a good story, and start from a good historical basis regarding the themes covered by hagiography and theology, is extremely important to understand how God is capable of operating in the lives of men, precisely in that human way that is not without contradictions, of slowness, of surprises that apparently contradict a certain devout idea of ​​divine action and sanctity.

Regarding the life of Saint Francis, this reality was evident immediately after his death and in view of his rapid canonization. We, his friars and continuers of his ideals, we perhaps had too much of a conservative concern that led us to see (and to show) Brother Francis as an unattainable model, to the point of considering him - as iconography will then have the opportunity to explain better - a new Christ on earth and this not only because of the gift of the sacred stigmata which were the last seal that the Word of God gave him (cf. Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, XI canto) but also thanks to some biographical colors that the official versions have presented.

Mind you, as moderns we don't want to do any trial Larger caption of Saint Bonaventure who contributed to fixing in the collective memory the image of Saint Francis as essentially mystical and protagonist only of fabulous events which reaffirmed his resemblance to Christ. In that historical moment in the broadest possible sense - for medieval society, for the Catholic Church, for the very survival of the Order of Minors - a hagiographic rather than biographical procedure such as that carried out by Saint Bonaventure was almost obligatory.

Security and stability were sought and with his cunning and intelligence he succeeded in the task. Above all, a model was sought and often this desire led to the deeds of a "holy man" being perfectly described., omitting those parts of normal fragility and humanity which are instead the first to testify to the sanctity of a person if we take into good account the teaching of Saint Gregory the Great: «miracles which do not make holiness but show it» (miracles do not create holiness, however, they are a manifestation or demonstration of it)

Trace a figure of Saint Francis so noble and unattainable it perhaps constituted an unattainable goal for many, plus one legend what a real life; a story that had to be read to warm the heart with good and holy inspirations and moral and religious teachings that are not always truly practicable, distant from the ordinariness of his friars and his devotees.

I think this also contributed to proliferate in the following centuries, of those visions of life of Saint Francis, more accommodating and practicable that have become so dear to an ideological and aligned modernity like ours: the pacifist Francis, ecologist, animal rights activist, vegan, precursor of accommodating interreligious dialogue, pauperist, communist before letter. Visions that are perhaps more viable today but totally false and distant from the real intentions of the Poor Man of Assisi.

As I already had the opportunity to underline in another article of mine (you see WHO) Saint Francis is a person, before a saint, extremely complicated, within an equally complicated historical and ecclesial period, therefore only objective and healthy historical research can reconstitute it within a discourse that tends as much as possible to the truth, to that Francesco di Pietro di Bernardone zero, what can be glimpsed under the crust of many amenities to which it has been owed, obtorto neck, seraphically submit and perhaps even endure.

The merit of the historian Barbero - as well as others who were interested in Saint Francis, I think of Franco Cardini and Chiara Frugoni - it is to describe him as a man inside a very specific story, a tormented man, Lasted, capable of very sweet gestures and unexpected harshness, a man open to transcendence and the contradictions of his time.

The historical reading of Saint Francis it also allows us to grow in the knowledge of a medieval Church which for the Poverello does not constitute a source of scandal unlike the many contemporary movements that fell into heresy and schismatic violence. Pulling Saint Francis by the jacket as a scourge of the customs of the Church - and of the Church as an institutional body - is extremely inappropriate. Others did this and if anything with reason but Saint Francis did not do it, nor did he desire it, for him the Church was that, the best possible existing one because it was so wanted by Christ, therefore not a utopian re-foundation from the bases but a renewal in the inner man who will then have his heart on his side form of life which is expressed with all the passion in the extension of the Regola non bullata.

Saint Francis loves the Catholic Church, his, the one that gives 1182 onwards it will accompany him from his baptism to his burial in the small church of San Giorgio, not another ideal Church. He loves and respects the hierarchy of the Church, from the poorest and morally fragile priests to his bishop of Assisi (Guido) who will witness his undressing, to reach the bishop of Rome (Innocent III and Honorius III) who will confirm him in his intention to live without gloss the Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ approving the form of life. Francis is not blind to the facts but has understood that the most effective renewal is personal, it starts from within and that is why he does not judge but lets him and his friars be and become that sign of real change - that good leaven of the Gospel - which is capable of improving the entire Catholic Church. A methodology of ecclesial renewal like that of Saint Francis is still difficult to find in pastoral plans and programs today.

Saint Francis is a lover and lover of adventurous life of the Middle Ages, he dreams of being a knight and sees his friars as knights of Christ without blemish and pure of heart. He knows the amazing and fascinating adventures of Gesture Song and is at the same time a witness to the political-ecclesiastical events that led to the crusades. We note how Francis is not critical of the Church even for calling the crusades. However, he remains a man of the Middle Ages and knows that despite their tragedy, even the Crusades have meaning and merit.. There were several saints who followed him who considered the crusades and their reasons legitimate, they preached to her, among them another famous Franciscan, Bernardino degli Albizzeschi of Massa Marittima, known as San Bernardino da Siena. However, having personally known the cruelties of war, of the battle, of imprisonment, of the wounds and mutilations of his companions, Saint Francis chooses to go to the Sultan by opting for a different choice, not that of weapons but of the Word.

In Egypt before Al-Malik al-Kāmil announces Christ and the Gospel, a very different and more powerful weapon than the sword, a dialogue that does not fall into political correctness but into a decisive invitation to the conversion of the Sultan of Egypt and Syria to let reign that God who brings peace and who gives the peacemaker par excellence. It is not surprising that the Sultan does not feel offended by the words of Saint Francis, we remember that Coptic Christians were already present in Egypt and the Sultan and his court were used to seeing Christians and ministers ordained in the land of Egypt and arguing with them. The act of Saint Francis is not vulgar political propaganda for the Catholic Church but a real invitation to conversion and salvation as several members of the Order of Minors did in Morocco and in other territories of Islamic faith, very often finding martyrdom in the following centuries.

Professor Barbero's book deals with these and other topics, bringing to light an image of Saint Francis that overcomes ideology and makeup from a hagiographic image. The merit is undoubtedly that of being able to get to know an uncomfortable Saint Francis who cannot be categorized within a single vision, its story within the story allows us to appreciate it even more and to return a concrete and vivid image of it.

To conclude, the same theme of poverty that Saint Francis dreams of, marries and recommends is the one that was first achieved with one kenosis of himself as a man who discovers his limit and knows his shaky heart. Material poverty is not the end but the consequence developed over the years of a truer and deeper poverty. In this way we can assimilate Saint Francis to Christ in the humiliation-stripping of a life that apparently seems like a failure in the eyes of the world. After the death of Saint Francis, it is precisely on the theme of spiritual poverty that his sons discuss and begin with the first controversies that will arise in the subsequent reforms.

The poverty of Saint Francis it is taking shape within various real facts of its history: in his physical and mental exhaustion after his imprisonment at the Battle of Collestrada in 1202 which resizes him in his ideals of knighthood. In the encounter with the leper who is the concrete example of the deprivation that every disease imposes on the sick person but is also the clear sign that conversion requires determination and violence to be implemented (cf. Mt 11,12). Until he was rejected and no longer recognized as head of his Order which, extending in prestige to a large part of Europe at the time, could do without him. The modern man who appreciates holy poverty in Saint Francis should be reminded that this is achieved by taking several steps backwards, nullifying itself, looking at one's limits and accepting them with the perfect joy of someone who has been able to put everything in the hands of God.

The historian Alessandro Barbero is not a Catholic, he is a layman, but it tells more truths about Saint Francis than have been heard by devout Catholics about the life of the Poverello. This in the same way as, in cinematography, the director Liliana Cavani represented the Francesco closest to reality, atheist is communist, through a young and virile Mickey Rourke. With all due respect to the talent and memory of director Franco Zeffirelli, who instead represented a saccharine and completely de-virilized Saint Francis.

We wish Alessandro Barbero, secular and non-Catholic, in the wisdom of the passing age, Saint Francis was also an accomplice, can get closer to God and find himself in him, source of all wisdom, all good.

Sanluri, 9 October 2025

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The bitter case of the presbyter Paolo Zambaldi of the diocese of Bolzano Bressanone: Chronicle of an announced death

«The distances with the Catholic Church have become increasingly deep over the years, until it becomes irremediable. I can no longer be part of an institution that continues to proclaim dogmas and to feed a system of power. The truth does not need dogmas: The truth is evident, does not require taxation or to devalue reason. Moreover, I do not share the discriminatory positions of the Church towards women, of the LGBTQIA+ community, of those who choose the voluntary interruption of pregnancy or euthanasia. All this is light years away from my human and spiritual feeling ".

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Cap.

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Unfortunately, it was just a matter of time And let's say this without any enthusiasm and ironic satisfaction: The presbyter Paolo Zambaldi of the diocese of Bressanone left the priesthood in the most tragic and most traumatic way possible. To give news was he himself in his blog (you see WHO), News that was then taken up by some online newspapers (you see WHO, WHO) and from variations varial post on social (you see WHO).

The bishop of Bosen-Braxen (Bolzano-Bressanone)

Who has had the opportunity to follow this confrere priest over time In his mental elders noted as a sacred thing on his blog (you see WHO), He could not fail to notice the serious dogmatic and doctrinal drift that had been clouded his mind and the healthy Catholic feeling that a priest of Santa Romana Chiesa should have and guard.

The definitive victory of the ancient snake - which he did not believe in the least and who repeatedly mocked in those who were victims of it - he accomplished the masterpiece of attempting a fragile and weak man in the proud pride and in the illusion of greater freedom far from God and from the Church.

As always, there must be no judgment on the person by Paolo Zambaldi - that only God knows and can give - but we can only regret and cry knowing that a judgment on his priestly style has never been publicly given by his diocese and by his ordinary diocesan who left him free to propagate and strengthen himself in his confounding ideas for the people of God, who made him mature the poisonous fruit of the abandonment of the Ministry and the priestly state, denigrating the womb of the Church that welcomed him and raised for many years to write these words:

«The distances with the Catholic Church have become increasingly deep over the years, until it becomes irremediable. I can no longer be part of an institution that continues to proclaim dogmas and to feed a system of power. The truth does not need dogmas: The truth is evident, does not require taxation or to devalue reason. Moreover, I do not share the discriminatory positions of the Church towards women, of the LGBTQIA+ community, of those who choose the voluntary interruption of pregnancy or euthanasia. All this is light years away from my human and spiritual feeling ".

We perhaps think that this way of thinking is recent? No, Unfortunately! The serious thing is that similar subjects arrive in the seminars already full of these heterodox ideas; And in the seminars they are rewarded by the trainers for these alternative positions, while those more “orthodox” they are regularly beaten or declared ... problematic, or not in line with that or that other "trendy pastoral" in vogue at the moment.

Once again, The problem of priestly formation returns with predominant strength, as well as the proximity and the spiritual accompaniment of the priests who must be continuous and real, A priority for the paternal heart of each bishop. The shipwreck of this presbyter is much more serious than the various moral and human fragility that we men consecrated inevitably we can commit, with the aggravating circumstance that those who had to supervise and protect it did not do it, Just as nothing has been done to avoid this tragic epilogue.

I personally know faithful Catholic devotees which have reported over and over again in S.E. Mons. Ivo Muser the serious doctrinal defaults of its presbyter, priests and theologians included, Yet nothing moved. On the contrary, This priest above all lines seemed to be almost l’child prodigy of his prelate, the one who would solve all the problems of Bosen-BRIXEN (Bolzano-Bressanone) and to which white paper was given in many pastoral and organizational situations in this diocese.

What remains to be done now? Definitely pray a lot for him, asking God for his conversion and his repentance, With the hope that this umpteenth case of painful human and ecclesial failure - of the people of God and his shepherds - move the consciences of those who can do something today.

Sanluri, 4 September 2025

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Rediscover the philosophy of care: From the accumulation to the person to taking care of the possibilities1

Careful is an essential element of each civil consortium, The degree of development of a mature society is recognized not so much by its ability to do or create but in its ability to take care of others. Also in the hypothesis of the best of possible worlds in which wars have finally been abolished, poverty and diseases, the imperative to the treatment remains unchanged within that human component, too human but also happily human that allows us to keep us authentic.

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Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Cap.

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Authenticity as a waste of time. Summer time is that propitious moment to rediscover the most genuine sense "of the self".

And this not only as a psychological reality comprising the awareness and perception that an individual has of himself but just as an ontological subject that reflects and memory on his own being. Summer is that appropriate time to recover on one's humanity, It is not a time of inertia or laziness as for a long time has been considered but it is a time when the consciousness enriches and deepens.

It is precisely of the human being, indeed, formulate questions and ask questions that touch their essence. Our ancient fathers of thought had noticed that each of us is capable of philosophize on one's existence: on being and on getting there.

This research path It can only concern individual and daily choices, the situations that oppose the objections and to which a sense must be made, Up to the contemplation without judgment of that good and that evil with which every man is stabbed and which makes him so unique and rare enough to characterize him within a tension towards the truth, between torment and grace. It should be recognized that today we want more and more rarely philosophize on ourselves and on the world that surrounds us and this is objectively and philosophically evil. We consider all this as a loss of useless time and privilege easy strategies and solutions - last minute - falling into that sin of modern man who is identifiable in an inauthentic existence.

When I am not able to determine myself, others will take my place and do it for me, together with all those realities that the modern world has in this regard: fall asleep the critical conscience to live a continuous present made of a compulsive succession of events that leave me passive and sadly pleased spectator.

Philosophical thought allows us to put a brake To this swirling whirlwind of events, It is capable of distinguishing between truths and authenticity and is precisely in the authenticity that we see the individual in his being ontological more deeply, in keeping himself faithful to himself and therefore to his own human nature. In some ways, man's authenticity is knowing how to be consistent in that search for truth and meaning.

Martin Heidegger, He reproaches the risk of falling into non -authenticity for the many duties, obligations and commitments in which he lives and who move him away from himself and from others. We all have too much to worry about being and existing, to be there and to exist in the life of others.

The authentic man, who is capable of chasing the truth of his own being, loves slowness, which is a bit that ability to know how to waste time to be able to then find it not in a quantitative but qualitative sense. And an unpopular logic today that of losing to earn and if we think about the most important things of man's life seem to be constantly at a loss to be able to work properly, To grow and develop harmoniously.

I happen to aim to add spouses to me aimed at In tired, these two simple questions are tired: «How long you dedicate to your husband/wife?»; “How long you can cut yourself in your day to be together?»The answer is almost always the same, except small variants: “Father we don't have time, We are too busy, We are too busy ". These responses are the signal of a personal and couple authenticity that is suffering, of a being who is no longer.

The same speech we can do it in different areas: between children and parents, Among friends and work colleagues. Even within the Church, the need for authenticity touches the person of consecrated and faithful. The non -authenticity of being is like rust that corrodes the humanity of each with the risk of becoming so part of it that it is then difficult to distinguish it from what is authentic. It is only in the authenticity that I allow myself to be and to be there, to know myself and the other. It is not the things to hurry that they determined me, They are not the roles with which I present myself in the world that identify me or what others load me on the shoulders through a thousand expectations.

The authentic ontological subject which contains the truth of myself and the same that allows me to know and dialogue with the truth of the other, But to do this you need to be able to waste time, walk slowness, which is the real form of memory as Milan Kundera wrote. Knowing philosophize of our ancient fathers included all this, whose profit consisted above all in a waste of time that was able to cure and look after the person.

Care as the possibility of being and being there. We are all in need of care, Just as we can all be the active subjects of a cure. The cure is not only a prerogative of the weak and fragiles but is part of every being in the world, in the awareness of not being able to live as an absolute to itself.

The myth of man who "He must never ask" ― regardless of his being male or female - it is precisely a mirage of the ideology of well -being, of those who presume that they can do themselves alone, A Promethean myth of absolute that we have seen shipwreck with the pandemic event of a few years ago that has put this way of seeing the modern man as an invincible and master of himself. Careful is an essential element of each civil consortium, The degree of development of a mature society is recognized not so much by its ability to do or create but in its ability to take care of others. Also in the hypothesis of the best of possible worlds in which wars have finally been abolished, poverty and diseases, the imperative to the treatment remains unchanged within that human component, too human but also happily human that allows us to keep us authentic. An example is the evocative image of Anchise brought in her arms by her son Enea that ancient mythology has identified as an icon of the virtue of pity - preceding and anticipating the piety Christian - and which includes and contains duty, devotion and affection, all characteristics that we find in the care of others here enclosed in the authenticity of a relationship between father and son.

Perhaps it is necessary to return to rediscover a philosophy of care In order to subsequently process an effective ethics of the treatment: The awareness of wasting time knowing that "having care means taking you to heart, worry with concern " (cf. L. Mortari, Philosophy of care, Raffaello Cortina Editore, Milan 2015), Just as the gesture of Aeneas suggests. The one who taking care of the old father, After the defeat of Troy, It is mutually kept by him in that narrow of the Penati, The protective deities of the family, In the hands of the old parent.

Because these calls? Why know philosophize It allows us to read and interpret the present that surrounds us by fleeing the non -authenticity and distortion of the truth of being who resides as eventuality for every man. We all remember the cases of recent news of Laura Santi and Don Matteo Balzano, Well they are these two lives broken by suicide that make a duty to know how to stop and interrogate about the importance that every man has and on the care that every man deserves to have. Questions can only be formulated in front of these two lives that are no longer, Not to seek easy consolations and unnecessary responsibilities but to underline once again as we often prefer to sit on the deception of non -authenticity that on the tiring loss of time that cure involves.

When a civil society abandon itself in illusion to normalize and regulate the suicide of a man - also intended as an Eutanasic choice - based on justifications that are part of despotic and capricious circumstances or to an unnecessary necessity, Well we are at the top of the non -authenticity of man and therefore at the end of his inhumanization and the denial of his ontological being, anti-man par excellence. M. Heidegger spoke of "taking care of the possibilities" (cf. Heidegger, Signplace, (1967), Adelphi, Milan 2002, p. 21), meaning how man has the opportunity to suck and achieve the best possible life form, realizing that capacitivity of his being who is not limited to existing alone but is characterized by a planning, from a broader becoming of existence: "Being in getting there". And this is precisely becoming wider than existence, The authentic care that the modern world must know how to rediscover as an element of civilization and humanization in the face of the danger of the denial of being that sees suicide as a tolerable and severe disease as a fatality from which it is no longer possible to go out.

The possibility of aspireing and making a better possible form This is what man allows the man to be able to be in any context and situation of his existence, opening doors that until then seemed closed, Overcoming apparently insurmountable obstacles. Knowing how to recognize each other united to the other moves the courage to promote large possibilities of humanization, of responsibility, of encouragement and support of one's authentic identity.

Let's try again at philosophize And we imagine several areas where each of us also lives and works. Perhaps certain situations that appear to us difficult or desperate are characterized not so much by malice, from envy or blind fate but by the lack of knowing how to take care and feel the subject of a caring and careful cure. How can we make us bearers of that being in having within a situation of terminal disease or of oppression and mortal despair that empties of every sense? In other words, what responsibility we have in front of these more or less expressed care needs, more or less conscious and aware? The care of assigning us is above all gratuity and ardently desire to waste time and to compromise with the other with respect, without pretending to be domain or imposition. The cure requires courage that nowadays more than ever is expressed as a political act in the original sense of the term.

Go c. Tronto, one of the most authoritative voices in contemporary reflection on the philosophy of care, He underlines how this represents one of the basic practices for a good democratic coexistence and for non -ideological social justice and this is true but not yet sufficiently understood because still relegated to circumscribed areas such as family ones, private or confessional.

Let's remember this and we return to philosophize and to think that behind the apparently pitiful proposals of euthanasia and easy emotion for those who have left us with an extreme gesture, There is the option of care that allows us to "repair our world so as to be able to live in the best possible way", that world that includes everything: our bodies, Our personal identities, our environment. (cf. B. Fisher, J.C. Tronto, Toward a Feminist Theory of Caring, in e. Abel, M. Nelon, Circles of Care, SUNY Press, Albania 1990, p. 40).

Sanluri, 18 August 2025

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1 Article freely taken from the quadrimestrral of practical philosophy Sophia's key, N.27 year x Giuseo 2025, cf.. Articles by Elisa Giraud and Chiara Frezza.

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