The fundamental match of the future and the new papacy is played on the unity of the Church
THE FUNDAMENTAL GAME OF THE FUTURE AND THE NEW POPE IS PLAYED ON THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH
Significantly, the historian Lucetta Scaraffia notes the impossibility, after 12 years of pontificate, to grasp a legacy of Pope Francis, that is not that of mere confusion.
— The guest authors of The Island of Patmos —
Author
Antonio Caragliu
lawyer
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The info-entertainment of mass-media, after the predictions of the entire papal nomination, now focuses on determining the characteristics of the winning personality: Leone XIV.
the Supreme Pontiff Leo XIV on a pastoral visit to the region of the Peruvian Andes at the time he was Bishop of Chiclayo
He will continue the reforms of his predecessor? He will confirm his openings? How the synodal path will be completed? It's moderate? It's progressive? It's a bit of one and a bit of the other? He is merciful to migrants? He will get along well with Donald Trump? Such questions are mostly followed by statements that sound like slogans, functional to mark a sense of belonging rather than a substantial vision, spiritually significant.
In particular, you lose sight of it, in my opinion, the fundamental match who presents himself to the Pope: the unity of the Church. The exact question is: which unit? That is to say, how this unity should be conceived? How it should be interpreted? How it should be declined?
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, in the homily of Mass for the election of the Roman Pontiff the 7 May, he had declared:
«The unity of the Church is wanted by Christ; a unity that does not mean uniformity, but firm and profound communion in diversity, as long as we remain in full fidelity to the Gospel".
Communion in diversity: but when diversity threatens communion? And when, instead, it is an undue uniformity that threatens the richness of legitimate diversity? Re refers to "full fidelity to the Gospel": this is the decisive criterion. Ma, in truth, the question, more than resolved, it seems to move: how to determine, indeed, "full fidelity to the Gospel"?
It's the same theme who had addressed Cardinal Ratzinger in the homily of the Mass for the election of the Roman Pontiff the 18 April 2005. In this homily, which will mark the program of Benedict XVI's pontificate, Ratzinger had precisely determined the criterion of unity: the truth, whose ultimate dimension is the Son of God himself, measure of true humanism. And he had courageously placed the meaning of such a criterion in the ideological context of dominant relativism. Without evasion and pretence. With intellectual honesty.
With the pontificate of Francis, instead, a different paradigm of ecclesial unity has imposed itself: a Jesuit paradigm.
I found a significant illustration of this paradigm in a conversation between journalist Ross Douthat and Jesuit Father James Martin S.J. about the legacy of the recently concluded papacy (see video interview of 26.04.2025 WHO). Douthat highlights how the dramatic character of Francis' pontificate was determined by the drive to change the Church's teaching and practice on a series of difficult and controversial issues, such as the possibility for divorced and remarried Catholics to access Eucharistic communion, the possibility for women to become deacons or even priests, the possibility of blessing same-sex couples. How far has Francis gone on these issues?? Martin, in the first instance, states that this type of "hot" issue had a secondary character for the Pope compared to the proclamation of the Gospel. Secondly, states that Francis "went as far as he could". In this regard he tells how the Pope, in a personal meeting of his 23 October 2024 as delegate of the synod, was concerned about the "unity of the Church" due to the "resistance" coming from sub-Saharan Africa, from Eastern Europe and even the United States. «And he repeated several times that unity is more important than these conflicts. So I think he tried to open the door to discussion about some of these issues without breaking the church.".
Upon closer inspection, this is what characterizes Martin's account what concerns Francis is the particular relationship between ecclesial unity and truth. Apparently in his speech he does not seem to operate a binding concept of truth. But in reality a truth is asserted. A truth that does not seem binding, but which gives direction. An implicit truth, given as a presupposition, which takes a position for an indefinite openness regarding the controversial issues proposed. A critically unthematized truth, theologically emancipated, that is, it lacks a serious comparison with biblical data, reduced at most to a generic reference to mercy. It is a non-binding truth? Not exactly. It is a critically disengaged but politically binding truth, that, not by chance, tackle different positions (and logically incompatible) as «resistances».
In such a dimension there is no room for authentic dialogue, but if anything for mediation, for an accommodation. As if there were forces and interests at play. Ecclesial unity, so, it is not based on truth. It doesn't blend, to quote Ratzinger's words, on the «Son of God, measure of true humanism". Unity is a composition of forces, Lastly, founded on the supreme power of the Pope, whose vicarial role is diluted, to make his personality stand out instead.
In light of this Jesuit paradigm of ecclesial unity the authoritarian and contradictory character of the Jesuit papacy is explained, often detected by the most sensitive observers. In the perspective of a similar conception of ecclesial unity, indeed, contradictions are no problem: they can coexist. Even if the contradictions come from the Pope himself: it is not the truth that creates unity, but his supreme power. The price of this setup was, however, very salty. Significantly, the historian Lucetta Scaraffia notes the impossibility, after 12 years of pontificate, to grasp a legacy of Pope Francis, that is not that of mere confusion. O, at most, the promotion of certain policies, very much, too detailed, on the subject of mass immigration and political economy which, instead, they would have required the recognition of a healthy pluralism of positions.
Definitely, the new course of Leo XIV's papacy it will be determined by how he interprets, in light of the lessons of the latter 12 year old, ecclesial unity and its relationship with the truth. His episcopal motto "In Illo uno unum" and his Augustinian training give rise to hope. May God send her well.
Trieste, 12 May 2025
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Leone XIV's first homily was a harmonious continuity with the tradition of the Church
Leone XIV's first homily was a harmonious continuity with the tradition of the Church
The mission is urgent, because the lack of faith often brings with it dramas such as the loss of the meaning of life, The oblivion of mercy, the violation of the dignity of the person in its most dramatic forms, the family crisis and many other wounds of which our society suffers and not a little. This is the world that is entrusted to us […]
- ecclesial topicality -
Author
Teodoro Beccia
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It may appear presumptuous Stop the homily of the Supreme Pontiff Leone XIV, pronounced in its first real public appearance, The Holy Mass pro ecclesia celebrated with the cardinals who participated in the conclave of its election.
The Supreme Pontiff Leone XIV at his first view to the central loggia of the Papal Arcibasilica of San Pietro
Or it could simply be beautiful enhance this first act of the new bishop of Rome, imagining, without going too far from the truth, that these words that he pronounced to comment on the Gospel actually sorted by his heart, are his own, meditated in the short space of time obtained between the impact of the election, the emotion of the presentation to the public and the world and this first public commitment. To be, as we'll see, they seem like a program for the Church that started to preside, The figure within which he will want to move and even in what way he feels that he is involved.
Referring to a personal reading of the beautiful papal homily (WHO), I just want to underline three aspects.
The first and most important is the reference to Christ. It might seem redundant to underline it: of whom a pontiff should speak if not of Jesus? But the fact that he immediately mentioned, At the first appearing from the central loggia of the Basilica of San Pietro and now here in his first homily, it is significant. He said that Pietro's words remember in the Gospel «You are the Christ, the Son of the living God " (Mt 16,16) they express "in summary the heritage that for two thousand years the Church, through the apostolic succession, keep, deepens and transmits. Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God, that is, the only savior and the detector of the father's face ". Leo XIV is placed, like this, in continuity with the tradition of the Church, Just as his recent predecessors did. John Paul II with his: "Open, indeed, open the door and to Christ "; Professor in his first homily. Pope Benedetto who has scaled the mystery of the Lord with his intelligence and taught the Church to recognize him and Pope Francis who helped us to see his face in all, especially the poorest. And of Christ Pope Leone traces the identikit:
«To make yourself close and accessible to men, He revealed himself to us in the confident eyes of a child, in the lively mind of a young man, in the mature features of a man (The joy and hope, 22), until it appears to his, After the resurrection, with his glorious body. Thus showed us a model of holy humanity that we can all imitate, together with the promise of an eternal fate that instead exceeds every limit and capacity ".
The second aspect that I want to underline the papal homily is precisely the reference to holiness. He sees it as a gift, but also as a path of personal and community transformation. Holiness that exceeds merits and limits because it anticipates our birth (cf.. Gives 1,5) And thanks to the baptismal rebirth he leads us and makes us participate in the mission of Christ. A task that involves the Pope firsthand and then the whole Church: «City placed on the mountain (cf. AP 21,10), ark of salvation that navigates through the waves of history, Lighthouse that illuminates the nights of the world. And this not so much thanks to the magnificence of its structures or for the grandeur of its buildings ..., as for the holiness of its members, of that "people that God has purchased because they proclaim me the admirable works of him, who called you from the darkness to its wonderful light " (1PT 2,9).
In the end, A third reason I like to pin from the homily of the Holy Father: the comparison with the world, including the ecclesial one of believers. The Pope says:
“It's not a trivial question, indeed it concerns an important aspect of our ministry: the reality in which we live, with its limits and potentiality, his questions and his beliefs ".
As happened in the days of the Lord The answers to his question, «People, Who says he is the son of man?», they appeared incomplete and sticks, So even today the world often misunderstands the Christian message due to excess of sufficiency or overhanging. but yet, The Pope says:
«Precisely for this ... the mission is urgent, because the lack of faith often brings with it dramas such as the loss of the meaning of life, The oblivion of mercy, the violation of the dignity of the person in its most dramatic forms, the family crisis and many other wounds of which our society suffers and not a little. This is the world that is entrusted to us, in which, as Pope Francis taught us many times, We are called to witness the joyful faith in Jesus Salvatore. Therefore, for us, too, It is essential to repeat: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God " (Mt 16,16).
As we have read, he recalls the theme of the mission, Which he had done the night before, overlooking the main loggia of the Vatican Basilica (WHO).
But the mission also turns to believers, since they can run the risk of adapting the Gospel and the image of Christ to their personal visions. These are the words of the pontiff: «Even today there is no shortage of the contexts in which Jesus, although appreciated as a man, it is reduced only to a kind of charismatic leader or superman, and this not only among non -believers, but also among many baptized, who end up living thus, at this level, In factual atheism ".
In the last lines of the homily The Holy Father recalls the importance of the personal relationship with Christ, In the commitment of a daily path of conversion and recalls the whole Church to live the belonging to the Lord bringing everyone to everyone's good news.
Finally, the Holy Father speaks of himself. It does so by citing the letter to the Romans of the apostolic father Ignazio of Antiochia, To define his task and role of bishop of the Church who is in Rome, called to preside over the universal Church in charity. And always reporting the words of Sant’Ignazio:
«Then I will really be a disciple of Jesus Christ, When the world does not see my body " (Letter to the Romans, IV, 1).
Concludes his homiletic intervention like this:
"It referred to being devoured by the belves in the circus - and so it happened -, But his words recall in a more general sense an indispensable commitment for anyone in the Church exercises a ministry of authority: disappear because Christ remains, get small for him to be known and glorified (cf. GV 3,30), spend all the way because nobody is missing the opportunity to know and love him. God gives me this grace, today and forever, With the help of the tender intercession of Mary Mother of the Church ".
The homily ends as it started, with reference to Christ. It is worth remembering the citations used by Pope Leo in this liturgical intervention. The letter of Sant’Ignazio of Antioch to the Romans, above, nine references to songs from the New Testament and only one of the old man. Then there are two quotes from the Council, taken from the two documents that speak of the Church: LA LAMP OF GENTIAL AND HOPE AND HOPE.
An intervention, it was said at the beginning, which would seem programmatic, therefore leaving to hope for a continuation that could be profitable for the Church. I believe that the pope does not only expect the wait, but also the support of prayer and the effective collaboration of believers.
Velletri of Rome, 11 May 2025
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If someone itchies, that scratches and accurate, Instead of making itchy gossip on the conclave - If Anyone Itches, let him scratch himself and keep quiet, rather than gossip about the Conclave
(English text after the Italian)
If someone itchies, That scratches and accurate, Instead of doing itchy gossip on the conclave
The church, disoriented and lost, lives in an irreversible state of decline, We have long overcome the threshold of non-revival. Today's church is no longer in Gethsemani, Not even on the cross on the Calvary, is experiencing the moment in its most dramatic way: that silence that seems almost a total absence of God.
- Church news -
Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo
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PDF print format article – PDF article print format
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Several readers have written to our editorial staff To ask why we haven't written anything about the vacant office and on the conclave now at the gates.
The church, disoriented and lost, lives in an irreversible state of decline, We have long overcome the threshold of non-revival. Today's church is no longer in Gethsemani, Not even on the cross on the Calvary, is experiencing the moment in its most dramatic way: that silence that seems almost a total absence of God. A space of time ranging from the sunset on the Holy Friday to the Sunday of Resurrection. Between the closure of the sepulcher and the empty sepulcher of the Risen One, a sort of divine empty is experienced, before which the only appropriate thing is that silence that cannot be understood and lived except through faith, hope and charity.
Everyone knows how to talk, Species in turn, Few keep silent and live that great silence that leads us to the resurrection. There are those who cannot keep silent and play to the gossip of the Toto-Papa in a whole world dimension, who instead includes the importance of silent, In a dimension all mystagogical.
I can therefore only re -propose, following, what has already been written in the second part of my article published in 2 March, while the deceased Augustus Pope was hospitalized at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome between life and death: «And if the Simonia were back in vogue to the next conclave?» (cf.. WHO).
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Everyone has their own style, single or collective. In the first, as in the second case, It can be spontaneous, or studied at the table. The Fathers of the Island of Patmos, During their ten years of publicity activity, Starting from October 2014, several times for opportunities, Others for virtue of prudence, have given up on dealing with certain emerging issues related to the Church and the Papacy, Being first of all presbyters; editors and publicists to follow, But forward at all presbyters. Certain themes may require not to be silent, or worse hidden, but treated when you have more cognitive elements that can lead to a truthful, fair judgment.
When the doors of the Sistine Chapel will close, The church will have to deal with the various problems left inheritance by this pontificate, which remains judged overall only by history, perhaps even in many years. The Supreme Pontiff Francesco was elected after an act of renunciation by his predecessor, Rare event result for all of us traumatic, especially for the unhappy ways chosen at the time by Benedict XVI, complete with an extravagant invention of the "Emeritus Papacy", or of sviant terms as "extended papacy", "Active papacy and contemplative papacy" ...
That of the Holy Father Francis It is a pontificate that is placed in a social and geopolitical context of great decadence on a planetary level, With a sceristianization of Europe that has already reached irreversible levels for twenty years. Elsewhere, an bleeding of faithful was consumed in what were once the two lungs with which Catholicism breathed: Latin America and Africa. Francesco's was a pontificate full of problematicities, made of ambiguity and lack of clarity, There are no lack of forms of despotism put in place in the total contempt of ecclesiastical laws and rules. Deny that this pontiff will leave a confused church, divided and quarrelsome due to open processes on all fronts, based on the unusual principle that "the important thing is to open the processes" without however concluding and bringing them to full fulfillment, It means denying the most clear evidence of the facts. But, Those who tell us that in several years will not have to be made thanks to Francesco's pontificate for having preserved and saved the Church by problems and damage that without his action, not understandable on the spot, they would have been greater, or even irreparable? Francesco is a complicated man who fits as such in a very complicated historical moment, any judgment given to the present on him and his pontificate could be completely wrong tomorrow. Certain expressions or decisions judged as eccentric - and in fact they are -, how completely different could appear tomorrow? It wouldn't be the first time that certain men, not included at the moment in their action, they were subsequently celebrated as a personality that were on decades compared to the present time in which they lived. That's why sometimes, just when you are perplexed, disoriented and suffering for certain ambiguous attitudes and not easy even to decipher, while exercising the legitimate critical sense it deserves prudentially suspend the judgment.
One of the serious problems that this pontificate will leave to the next conclave it is given by the fact that the cardinal voters do not know each other among them. The last secret consistory took place in 2015. Let's clarify: The Consistor is the assembly of the cardinals convened by the Roman Pontiff and can be secret, public, semi-public (see WHO). The one in which only the cardinals gathered to discuss in private form are called "secret", i.e. secret, with the Supreme Pontiff, Regarding the various problems of the Church and its government. Today, to the serious problem of cardinals who do not know each other among them, Another unknown to the secularists of the international left who magnify the poor church for the poor adds it, so much poverty excites them in the houses and on the skin of others, praising this pontificate that would have appointed dozens of cardinals "from the suburbs of the world" and "from the poorest countries". We fly over the scarce doctrinal and theological formation by several of these sant'Uomini from those privileged situations for which today a cardinal purple can be deserved: "The suburbs" ... "poor countries"… Several of these cardinals are bishops of countries where the presence of Catholics cannot be called even a small minority: on the island of Tonga, whose bishop Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi is, The baptized Catholics are about 10.000. Cardinal was created in the 2020, at the age of just 46 year old, Giorgio Marengo, Apostolic Vicar of Mongolia, where Catholics count 1.200 baptized on 3.300.000 inhabitants. These cardinal voters, Emblem of the "poor church for the poor" of the various "existential suburbs", they govern local churches that can survive and live in contexts of great discomfort and authentic poverty thanks to the donations that come to them as rich local churches, or by large foundations dependent or related to them. To be understood: A single Austrian parish, German, Australian, Canoeing About, North American … It can maintain an entire diocese alone in certain poor countries of Latin America, of Asia and Africa, where the relationship between the euro and the dollar and their national currency is totally disproportionate in purchase value.
Tomorrow, in the Sistine Chapel, a group of cardinals from these countries, rigorously chosen among the exponents of the so -called more advanced progressiveness, With delicate ease they will make people understand that the cords of the bag hold them, leaving dozens of "poor-peripheral-existential" cardinals the obligatory choice played on the survival of local churches that can live only thanks to external aid. Of course, once this was called simonia, Today it is called instead "poor church for the poor".
At present, the poor so exalted in this pontificate they were left hostage of the whims of the rich as never before, After giving life to a college of cardinal voters who do not represent the various items, The most diverse opinions and positions that have always enriched the church inside, but an univocal voice, monocorde e, not last: ruffiana. And among the various damage perpetrated, This will perhaps be the worst, because weighs as a heavy mortgage like lead on the next conclave. This with all due respect to the poor Church, that inside the Sistine chapel will beat the poor with the cords of the bag of the most progressive and more ideologized rich. And someone even called it "poor church for the poor".
From the island of Patmos, 5 May 2025
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IF ANYONE ITCHES, LET HIM SCRATCH HIMSELF AND KEEP QUIET, RATHER THAN GOSSIP ABOUT THE CONCLAVE
The Church, disoriented and lost, lives in a state of irreversible decadence, we have long since passed the threshold of no return. The Church of today is no longer in Gethsemane, not even on the cross on Calvary, it is living the most dramatic moment in its way: that silence that seems almost a total absence of God.
— Ecclesial actuality —
Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo
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Several Readers have written to our editorial staff asking why we have not written anything about the Sede Vacante and the Conclave now upon us.
The Church, disoriented and lost, lives in a state of irreversible decadence, we have long since passed the threshold of no return. The Church of today is no longer in Gethsemane, not even on the cross on Calvary, it is living the most dramatic moment in its way: that silence that seems almost a total absence of God. A space of time that goes from sunset on Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Between the closing of the tomb and the empty tomb of the Risen One, a sort of divine emptiness is experienced, before which the only appropriate thing is that silence that cannot be understood and lived except through faith, hope and charity.
Everyone knows how to speak, especially inappropriately, few know how to keep quiet and live that great silence that leads us to the resurrection. There are those who cannot remain silent and gossip by playing predictions about the future pope, in a completely worldly dimension, and those who understand the importance of remaining silent, in a completely mystagogical dimension.
I can therefore only repeat, below, what I have already written in the second part of an article of mine published on March 2, while the deceased August Pontiff was hospitalized at the Policlinico Agostino Gemelli in Rome between life and death: «And if simony were to come back into fashion at the next conclave?» (See HERE)
Everyone has their own style, individual or collective. In the first, as in the second case, it can be spontaneous, or studied on the table. The Fathers of this magazine The Island of Patmos , during ten years of journalistic activity, starting from October 2014, several times due to opportunity, other times due to the virtue of prudence, have renounced dealing with emerging themes linked to the Church and the Papacy, being first and foremost presbyters ; editors and publicists to follow, but presbyters ahead of everything. Certain topics may require to be dealt with when there is greater knowledge that can lead to a truthful, fair and balanced judgement.
______________________________
When the doors of the Sistine Chapel close, the Church will have to deal with the various problems left as a legacy by this pontificate, which remains judgeable, overall, only by history, perhaps even many years from now. The Supreme Pontiff Francis was elected after an act of renunciation by his predecessor, a rare event and a traumatic for all of us, especially due to the unfortunate methods chosen at the time by Benedict XVI, complete with the extravagant invention of the «emeritus papacy», or misleading terms such as «enlarged papacy», «active papacy and contemplative papacy» (!?)…
That of the Holy Father Francis is a pontificate that takes place in a social and geopolitical context of great decadence on a global level, with a de-Christianization of Europe that has already reached irreversible levels for twenty years. Elsewhere a hemorrhage of faithful has taken place in what were once the two lungs with which Catholicism breathed: Latin America and Africa.
Francis’ pontificate was full of problems, ambiguities and lack of clarity, there were also forms of despotism in total contempt of ecclesiastical laws and rules. To deny that this Pontiff will leave a confused, divided and quarrelsome Church due to trials open on all fronts, based on the unusual principle that «the important thing is to open the trials», without however concluding them and bringing them to full completion, is to deny the clearest evidence of the facts. However, who tells us that in several years we will not have to thank the pontificate of Francis for having preserved and saved the Church from problems and damage which without his actions, not understandable at the time, would have been greater, or even irreparable? Francis is a complicated man who fits into a very complicated historical moment, any judgment given in the present about him and his pontificate, could be completely wrong tomorrow.
It would not be the first time that certain men, not understood at the time in their actions, were later celebrated as extraordinary personalities who were decades ahead of the present time in which they lived. This is why sometimes, precisely when one is perplexed, disoriented and grieve for certain ambiguous attitudes and not even easy to decipher, despite exercising legitimate critical sense, is necessary and prudently suspending judgement..
One of the serious problems this pontificate will leave for the next conclave is this: tthe cardinal electors do not know each other. The last secret consistory took place in 2015. Let’s clarify: the consistory is the assembly of cardinals convened by the Roman Pontiff and can be secret, public, semi-public. What is called “secret” is that in which only the cardinals gathered to discuss in a private, i.e. secret, form with the Supreme Pontiff participate, regarding the various problems of the Church and its government. Today, to the serious problem of the cardinals who do not know each other, there is another one unknown to the secularists of the international left who glorify «the poor Church for the poor», so much does poverty in the homes and on the lives of others excites them, praising this pontificate which has appointed dozens of cardinals «coming from the peripheries of the world» and «from the poorest countries».
Let us not dwell the poor doctrinal and theological training of several of these holy men coming from those privileged situations for which today they can deserve a cardinal’s purple: «the suburbs» … «the poor countries». Several of these cardinals are bishops of countries where the presence of Catholics cannot be defined as even a small minority: on the island of Tonga, of which Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi is bishop, there are around 10,000 baptized Catholics. Giorgio Marengo, apostolic vicar of Mongolia, where Catholics number 1,200 baptized out of 3,300,000 inhabitants, was created cardinal in 2020, at the age of just 46. These cardinal electors, emblem of the «poor Church for the poor» of the various «existential peripheries», govern local churches that can survive and live in contexts of great hardship and authentic poverty thanks to the donations that come to them from rich local churches, or from large foundations on linked to them. To be clear: a single Austrian, German, Australian, Canadian or North American parish can maintain an entire diocese in certain poor countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa, where the relationship between the Euro and the Dollar and their national currency is totally disproportionate in terms of purchase value.
Tomorrow, in the Sistine Chapel, a group of cardinals from these countries, rigorously chosen by Holy Father among the exponents of the so-called most advanced progressivism, will with delicate ease make it clear that they hold the purse strings, leaving dozens of “poor-peripheral-existential” cardinals the forced choice based on the survival of their local churches that can only live thanks to external aid. Of course, once this was called simony, today it is instead called «poor church for the poor».
At present the poor so exalted in this pontificate have been left hostage to the whims of the rich as they had never been before, after having given life to a College of cardinal electors who do not represent the various and noumerous voices, opinions and positions that have always enriched the Church internally, but a single, monotonous voice. And among the various damages perpetrated, this will perhaps be the worst, because it weighs like a lead-heavy mortgage on the next conclave. With all due respect to the poor Church, which inside the Sistine Chapel will strangle the poor, with the purse strings by rich most progressive and ideologicalized.
From The Island of Patmos, May 5, 2025
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The last of Senator Dario Franceschini: "The paternal surname is a patriarchal tradition" …
The last of Senator Dario Franceschini: "The paternal surname is a patriarchal tradition"
If we want a thought so to speak "left", You have to go back to the end of the sixties of the twentieth century, open an encyclical written by Paolo VI in 1967 entitled Development of Peoples, Read it carefully and learn what should really be the progress of peoples based on the common human and Christian sense, not on blind ideology.
- Actuality -
Author:
Jorge Facio Lynx
President of Editions The island of Patmos
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The bill of Senator Dario Franceschini which provides for the possibility of automatically attributing the maternal surname to infants has generated a heated public debate, With conflicting voices and comments. Proposed by him defined as
«Compensation for a secular injustice that has had not only a symbolic value, But it was one of the cultural and social sources of gender inequalities " (cf.. WHO)
The supporters of the proposal they see it as a necessary legislative and social adaptation that follows the constitutive changes of families, so that there is greater gender equality and the custom of the paternal surname is eliminated, considered "patriarchal tradition". In this way a greater role would be given to the mothers at a social level, With greater freedom of choice of the surname to be transmitted to the children by the parents, promoting a more balanced and real vision of the wider family concept compared to that considered too restrictive of the so -called "non -traditional family". The proposal does not exclude the possibility for parents to jointly choose the surname, including the double surname option.
Critics of the proposal argue that it risks creating confusion on family identity, influence the perception of the relationship with the parents and the related daughter, producing divisions within families in case of disagreement between the parents for the choice of the surname.
For jurists and experts There are undeniable problems on the proposal regarding the bureaucratic complexity that could derive from the application of the law, such as difficulties in managing documents and administrative practices. In this regard, the Supreme Constitutional Court has already given indications for the overcoming of the purely paternal surname, in which the cases and cases to which the proposal is targeted can return.
It is difficult to predict precisely how many infants would receive the maternal surname following the approval of the law, without specific data on parents' preferences, Any calculation would be approximate but still indicative. Analyzing some data of the National Statistics Authority (cf.. WHO), It is clear that:
– The born in Italy is constantly decreasing, In the 2023, The born residents in Italy were 379.000, marking a new historical minimum with a decrease of 14.000 unit compared to 2022 (-3,6%);
– The sun mothers, or the so -called "monogenitoric" families, they still have very approximate statistics for the reduced sample, however, The family nuclei in which the mother is the sole parent has increased as a consequence of the divorces, Motherhood separations and singular choices;
– I “Monogenitori”, that is, fathers and mothers alone, between 2011 and the 2021 have recorded an increase in 44%: Sun mothers have increased by 35,5%, While the only fathers increased by attesting to 85%.
This bill It would be interesting for the "monogenitoric" nuclei which according to Istat data would be growing and which include families sensitive to gender equality issues, Families with unmarried parents in which the choice of the surname can be more complex, In this and other cases the proposal would simplify the process of assigning the surname. It is extremely difficult to calculate precisely how many families would actually choose to use the maternal surname, But it could also arrive at 10-20% of families, This would represent a significant number of individuals who must not be excluded.
The political choice of the left, In recent years it could be considered progressive, But also wanting a form of radical struggle for civil recognition and legal and social adaptation to minority groups. According to what the current political exponents say in their ideological speeches made on televisions and rallies on the squares, these groups, ostracized or condemned throughout history, Today they must receive their full recognition within the company, If the company itself wants to be truly civil. This abandonment of the left towards the ideal of class struggle or against certain economic systems in which the operative or the proletarian class member was exploited as a propaganda element, it is no longer so important and relevant, as is the struggle for these minority groups, or to put it in other words: from the workers' struggles in the square with the parades of the metalworkers in a suit, We moved on to the gay pride with rainbow men dressed as grotesque faces in heels and mesh stockings.
It is an ideological choice, that of post-communists, which appears today more in contradiction with a world in which the defense of the weak, within economic-annibal powers, It is favored in its tragic inequalities among the classes precisely from the international claims, Those who yesterday screamed "Peace and Love" and who today scream to the rearmament of Europe, with Germany in the lead, who at the time was not properly unarmed by chance.
The transfer Freudian on certain privileged minorities come i cisgender and those who do not want to accept and adapt to "traditional" social roles and schemes, It seems a sort of "updating of the class struggle" or, Better one of his parodys, so that the basic concepts of culture can be revolutionized which little by little manage to "educate" the new generations, In addition to the people obliged in turn to change the company to their root. The ideological choice, however, even if it claims greater inclusion and tolerance, Too often it highlights the exclusivity of these minority groups at the expense of the majority of the population. They are statistically lower segments that are saved and protected by the "mass" almost like a new sort of different and welcoming higher "bundle". Complex theme, this, on which he wrote a far -sighted essay one of our author, Francesco Mangiacapra, In his work The coup of the politically correct - When minorities become dictatorship.
The new struggle of the left exponents not only forgets the people, as evidenced by the facts, But with unconscious comic vein uses the dialectic one in which the policies of opponents are presented as "belly rhetoric", or as a "bieco populism", Fomentati da talk show which feed victimism, The poses and the need for a vindictive redemption, Instead of the search for remuneration justice and the assets of each individual above their personal selfish or self -centered pleasures.
If we want a thought so to speak "left", You have to go back to the end of the sixties of the twentieth century, open an encyclical written by Paolo VI in 1967 entitled Development of Peoples, Read it carefully and learn what should really be the progress of peoples based on the common human and Christian sense, not on blind ideology.
the Island of Patmos, 9 April 2025
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Benedict XVI and Dario Argento. The Holy Father Francesco remains on the chair of Pietro and avoid another trauma-Benedict XVI and the Film-Sirector Dario Argento. May the Holy Father Francis avoid us another trauma
(Italian, English)
Benedict XVI and Dario Argento. The Holy Father Francis remains on the chair of Peter and avoid another trauma
If the Holy Father Francis, with a very personal act, legitimate and not subject to discussion and acceptance by any authority - not existing in the Church and in the world of authority higher than his - he should decide to acknowledge renunciation, would aggravate our trauma and give life to a disastrous custom: The papacy as a product with expiry date.
- Church news -
Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo
.
PDF print format article – PDF article print format
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It is always important to explain the meaning of words, even when it might appear superfluous.
In current language, spoken and written, certain terms have lost not only their original etymology, they are even used in negative meaning. This that happens even within the Church, where more often it happens to hear ecclesiastical to affirm that we need "less dogmas and more basic church", complaining "forms of excessive attachment to the doctrine", or exposing to the public to the public a priest or theologian defined with a "Tridentine" contempt.
Regarding the concept "less dogmas plus basic church", It is necessary to clarify that, if so, The first to make mistakes would have been the fathers of the Council of Nicea del 325, followed a few decades later by the Council of Constantinople of 381. Their obsession with the dogmas was in fact so strong to give life to the symbol of faith known as Niceno-Costantinopolitan, A concentrate of Christological and trinitarian dogmas that we persist in reciting every Sunday in the creed, through which, In addition to not understanding the "basic church", even pluralism and religious relativism is rejected by arrogantly affirming: "I think the Church one, holy catholic and apostolic. I professed only one baptism for the forgiveness of sins ". A real exclusivity not incident that he shouts revenge on the sky!
Our, Far from the "basic" Esser, However, it is the exact opposite: a church of summit by its foundative nature. Christ himself put Simone called Pietro at his summit, from which everything proceeds with a waterfall effect, from top to bottom (cf.. Mt 16, 13-20).
Use the term "tridentino" as an insult, denotes a lack of worrying Catholic culture, It would be enough to know the rudiments of history to know in what conditions of decline the church between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had sunk and what moral degradation afflicted the clergy, together with ignorance. The work of this great council was extraordinary in all doctrinal aspects, legal, pastoral, training, disciplinary and moral.
In the pudibonda society of the politically correct there are various terms emptied of one's own meaning and filled with other things, To then be used in a derogatory and offensive meaning. But here is a truly striking example. If using Office365 we type the word "Jesuit" and seek synonyms, The writing program indicates the following synonymous: "hypocritical, Pharisee, farisea, simulator, simulatrice». Instead, If we type the word "Jew" and seek synonyms, The same program will indicate these synonymous: "Jewish, Jewish". And here it should be remembered that in the German dictionaries of the 1930s, as synonyms of the word "Jew" these terms were indicated: «hypocritical, Pharisee, Simulator» (hypocritical, Pharisee, simulator). And with this we must take note that the modern Nazi of the 21st century have transferred their old hateful synonymies to other objects: by the Jews, that as such are children of a greater God, now untouchable, The same terminologies have been transferred to the Jesuits that, being children of a very minor God, they can be touched and can be insulted in the same way that the Nazis of the 1930s insult the Jews.
To communicate a language is needed, principal that can sound almost obvious but that is not at all at all, There are many people who, while speaking the same language, words give a completely different meaning. This obliges us to clarify and explain the meaning of the words that are intended to use. Example: To the word "punishment" I give a theological meaning linked to its correct etymology deriving from the Latin terms chaste e hint from which the word chastise was born, which means "to make pure" or "purify". Nothing to do with punitive or vindictive actions, In the biblical and theological lexicon, punishment is an action of grace of divine mercy, that is, an act of love, Why, as it is written in the book of Tobia:
«Benedict God who lives forever
His kingdom lasts for all centuries;
He chastise and uses mercy,
It drops into the abysses of the earth,
traces from the great perdition
And nothing escapes his hand " (Tb 13, 2).
The word Tràuma, deriving from the Greek wound (-this), which in the letter means "wound", begins to be used in medical literature around the 1650, in the psychological one starting from 1889 Thanks mainly to the research of the Viennese neuropathologist Sigmund Freud. There are several forms of trauma understood in its more adherent meaning of "wound". Of course, the most serious forms, they are not linked to physical injuries, but to the psychological ones, to the spiritual ones. And we were amazed expansions by the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI who made us spectators and protagonists of a historical event that the Church has known very rarely: The renunciation of a Roman Pontiff.
Through incorrect uses of words The act of renunciation of the pontificate soon took the improper and misleading name of "resignation". Since this was not enough, Benedict XVI cheered the dose by launching the tragically unhappy expression of "Pope emeritus". The unusual way, in many respects extravagant, through which this legitimate act of renunciation has been made and made official, He gave jobs scattered throughout the terracqueo orbe, fomenting the crazy theories of some poor priests out of balance and some little successful lyrical singer who started playing Dan Brown of noartri By printing an unlikely Ratzinx coder, promptly renamed by the undersigned Codice Katzinger.
The Supreme Pontiff Francis, Admitted to the Roman Polyclinic Agostino Gemelli, He has found himself several times between life and death over the past four weeks. He currently seems to be out of danger and after a month about the specialists have melted the prognosis. If the Holy Father comes out and returns to his residence in the Vatican, He will be a very fragile and deeply weakened elderly man, With walking problems and difficulties in breathing and talking, inclined to fatigue themselves to minimal physical effort, need to be monitored and cared for constantly.
To govern the Church it may be enough that a Roman pontiff is simply alive, even if unable to move and say a few words in a low voice, to appear in public and to receive people. To bring trauma instead it may be enough to implement what Benedict XVI brought to the scene of our history in February of 2013, not so much with its legitimate and valid act of renunciation, but in the manner chosen, resulting to the proof of the facts: unhappy, misleading and imprudent.
The detractors of the Supreme Pontiff Francesco The clothes for the effigy of the infamous Pachamama made the Vatican in August of the Vatican 2020 During the Synod on the Amazon. Perhaps it would be more appropriate and coherent to regret the eccentricity of Benedict XVI who in the Vatican had the director Dario Argento entered, By giving us a horror film entitled not by chance Trauma, With a screenplay entirely built on delusional thoughts that went from the "resignation" to the "emeritus popes", from the "active papacy and contemplative papacy" to the "extended papacy" (!?) ... Moreover, everyone torture, Sgozza and spreads blood on your cinematographic set as it can best can. Then, If the perverse psychology of decadent German romanticism comes into play, At that point the limits are lost and the inhibitory brakes as well. With the difference, But, that that of the silver master is fiction, that of Benedict XVI was our tragic ecclesial reality.
If with a very personal act, legitimate and not subject to discussion and acceptance by any authority - not existing in the Church and in the world of authority higher than his - the Holy Father Francesco had to decide to acknowledge renunciation, would aggravate our trauma and give life to a disastrous custom: The papacy as a product with expiry date. I pray and I hope this does not happen and that it remains on the chair of the blessed apostle Pietro up to death, because the Dario Argento brought to the scene by Benedict XVI, It was enough for us and advanced for the next five hundred years.
From the island of Patmos, 19 March 2025
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BENEDICT XVI AND THE FILM-DIRECTOR DARIO ARGENTO. MAY THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS AVOID US ANOTHER TRAUMA
If the Holy Father Francis, with a very personal act, legitimate and not subject to discussion and acceptance by any authority – there being no authority superior to his in the Church and world – were to decide to make free and unquestionable act of renunciation, he would aggravate our trauma and give rise to a disastrous custom: the papacy as one product with expiration date.
— Ecclesial actuality —
Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo
.
.
It is always important to explain the meaning of words, even when it might seem superfluous.
In current language, spoken and written, certain terms have lost not only their original etymology, but are used in a negative sense. This is that happens even within the Church, where often we hear ecclesiastics affirm that we need «less dogmas and more basic Church», lamenting «excessive attachment to doctrine», or exposing to ridicule a priest or a theologian scornfully defined as «Tridentine».
Regarding the concept of «less dogmas, more church of basic», it is necessary to clarify that, if this were the case, the first to err were the Fathers of the Council of Nicaea in the year 325, followed a few decades later by the Council of Constantinople in the year 381. Their obsession with dogma was in fact so strong that it gave birth to the Symbol of Faith known as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan, a concentration of Christological and Trinitarian dogmas that we insist on reciting every Sunday in the Creed, through which, in addition to not understanding the «church of basic», we even reject pluralism and religious relativism by arrogantly stating: «I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I profess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins». Horror! A true non-inclusive exclusivism that cries out to heaven for vengeance!
Ours Church, is’nt “of basic”, is the opposite: for very nature foundative is Church of vertex. Christ himself placed at its vertex Simon called Peter, from whom everything proceeds with a cascade effect, from the top to the bottom (Mt 16, 13-20).
Using the term “Tridentine” as an insult, denotes lack of Catholic culture, it would be enough to know the rudiments of history to know into what conditions of decadence the Church had sunk between the 15th and 16th centuries and what moral degradation afflicted the clergy, together with ignorance. The work of this great council was extraordinary in all doctrinal, juridical, pastoral, formative, disciplinary and moral aspects.
In the prudish society of political correctness, there are various terms emptied of their meaning and filled with something else, used in a derogatory and offensive sense. But here is a example. If we use Office365 to type the word “Jesuit” and look for synonyms, the writing program indicates the following synonyms: «hypocrite, Pharisee, simulator». Instead, if we type the word “Jew” and look for synonyms, the program indicate these synonyms: «Jewish, Judaic». And here it should be remembered that in the German dictionaries of the 1930s, the following terms were used as synonyms of the word “Jew”: «hypocritical, Pharisee, Simulator» (hypocrite, Pharisee, simulator). The modern Nazis of the 21st century have transferred their old hateful synonyms to other subjects: from the Jews, who as such are children of a greater God, today untouchable, the same terminologies have been transferred to the Jesuits who, being children of a much lesser God, are touchable and can be insulted in the same way in which the Nazis of the 1930s insulted the Jews.
To communicate, you need a language, a principle that may sound almost obvious but is not at all, many people, even though they speak the same language, give words a completely different meaning. This forces us to explain the meaning of the words that are intended to be used. For example: to the word “punishment” I give a theological meaning linked to its correct etymology deriving from the Latin terms “chaste” and “hint” from which the word castigare comes, which means “to make pure” or “to purify”. Nothing to do with or vengeful actions, in the biblical and theological lexicon punishment is an act of grace of divine mercy, an act of love, because, as it is written in the Book of Tobit:
«For he afflicts and shows mercy,
casts down to the depths of Hades,
brings up from the great abyss.
Give thanks to him, you Israelites,
in the presence of the nations,
for though he has scattered you among them,
even there recount his greatness» (Tb 13, 2).
The word tràuma, derived from the Greek τραῦμα (-this), which means “wound”, began to be used in medical literature around 1650, in psychological literature starting in 1889, thanks mainly to the research of the Viennese neuropathologist Sigmund Freud. There are different forms of trauma understood in its most adherent meaning of “wound”. Certainly, the most serious forms are not linked to physical wounds, but to psychological, spiritual ones. We have been extensively traumatized by the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI who made us spectators and protagonists of a historical event that the Church has very rarely known: the renunce of a Roman Pontiff.
Through incorrect uses of words, the act of renunce from the pontificate soon took the improper and misleading name of «dimissions». Since this was not enough, Benedict XVI doubled the dose by launching the unfortunate expression of «pope emeritus». The unusual, and in many ways bizarre, way in which this legitimate act of renunciation occurred has given work to conspiracy theorists all over the globe, fomenting the crazy theories of some poor, unbalanced priests and some fantasists who have started playing at being the Dan Brown of the situation.
The Supreme Pontiff Francis, hospitalized at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, has found himself between life and death several times over the last four weeks. In the present time appears to be out of danger and after about a month the specialists have loose the prognosis. If the Holy Father leaves and returns to his residence in the Vatican, he will be and profoundly weakened elderly man, with walking problems and difficulty breathing and speaking, prone to fatigue at the slightest physical effort, in need of constant monitoring and care.
To govern the Church, it may be enough for a Roman Pontiff simply to be alive, even if unable to move and say a few words in a whisper, to appear in public and receive people. To cause trauma, however, it may be enough to implement what Benedict XVI brought to the stage of our history in February 2013, not so much with his legitimate and valid act of renunciation, but with the methods chosen, which proved to be unfortunate, misleading and imprudent when put to the test.
The detractors of the Supreme Pontiff Francis are still tearing their clothes over the effigy of the Pachamama brought into the Vatican in August 2020 during the Synod on the Amazon. Perhaps it would be more appropriate and coherent cry tears for the eccentricity by Benedict XVI who brought the famous Italian director Dario Argento into the Vatican, giving us a horror film not coincidentally entitled Trauma, with a screenplay entirely built on delusional thoughts that ranged from «resignations» to «popes emeritus», from the «active papacy and contemplative papacy» to the «extended papacy» (!?) … After all, everyone tortures, slaughters and sheds blood on their own film set as best they can. Then, if the perverse psychology of decadent German romanticism comes into play, at that point the limits are lost and so are the inhibitions. With the difference: that of film-director Dario Argento is fiction by horror films, that of Benedict XVI was our tragic ecclesial reality.
If the Holy Father Francis, with a very personal act, legitimate and not subject to discussion and acceptance by any authority – there being no authority superior to his in the Church and world – were to decide to make free and unquestionable act of renunciation, he would aggravate our trauma and give rise to a disastrous custom: the papacy as one product with expiration date. I pray and hope that this does not happen and that he remains on the chair of the Blessed Apostle Peter until his death, because the Dario Argento brought to the scene by Benedict XVI has been more than enough for the next five hundred years.
From The Island of Patmos, March 19, 2025
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Dear Readers, this magazine requires management costs that we have always faced only with your free offers. Those who wish to support our apostolic work can send us their contribution through the convenient and safe way PayPal by clicking below:
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Iban code: IT74R0503403259000000301118
For international bank transfers: Codice SWIFT: BAPPIT21D21
If you make a bank transfer, send an email to the editorial staff, the bank does not provide your email and we will not be able to send you a thank you message: isoladipatmos@gmail.com
We thank you for the support you wish to offer to our apostolic service.
The Fathers of the Island of Patmos
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And if simonia was back in vogue to vogue? – What if the simony return again at the next conclave?
(English text after the Italian)
And if simonia was back in vogue to vogue?
At present, the poor so exalted in this pontificate were left hostage of the whims of the rich as they had never been before, After giving life to a college of cardinal voters who do not represent the various items, The most diverse opinions and positions that have always enriched the church inside, but an univocal voice, monocorde.
- Church news -
Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo
.
PDF print format article – PDF article print format
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Everyone has their own style, single or collective. In the first, as in the second case, It can be spontaneous, or studied at the table. The Fathers of the Island of Patmos, During their ten years of publicity activity, Starting from October 2014, several times for opportunities, Others for virtue of prudence, have given up on dealing with certain emerging issues related to the Church and the Papacy, Being first of all presbyters; editors and publicists to follow, But forward at all presbyters. Certain themes may require not to be silent, or worse hidden, but treated when you have more cognitive elements that can lead to a truthful, fair judgment.
Because you don't write anything about the health of the Holy Father, They asked us for more readers? Yup, In fact, the Supreme Pontiff Francesco has been hospitalized at the Polyclinic Agostino Gemelli and his health and his state of health have not emitted from these colors of our columns. And on the basis of what we should have done it, Perhaps based on daily medical bulletins, giving to follow breath to the trumpets of interpretations and hypotheses, including the most absurd, which however arouse that unhealthy itching that for the social media It is like yeast in croissants?
When a supreme pontiff is seriously ill, Talking about the succession is inevitable. Who does it with competence and delicacy, who instead with incompetence and lack of respect for his Augusta person. To these seconds it would only be enough to ask who the new Roman Pontiff is successor, If of the one who died before him, or of the blessed apostle Pietro, thus grasping the level of their preparation. Someone complained that talking about conclave is lack of respect and regard towards a supreme pontiff mildly defined by medical bulletins in now "serious" conditions now "stationary", all alternating with various small improvements or worsening. The truth is that the Supreme Pontiff is a terminal patient who is concluding his life and the reserved prognosis will be dissolved after Cardinal Camerlengo will recite the solemn sentence: «The Pope is really dead», Then he will turn to his corpse by calling him with his name of baptism: Jorge Mario. This means that the papacy, being an office and not the extreme degree of the sacrament of the order, once acquired legally, certainly not for the sacramental way, With death ceases. Contrary to the priesthood, acquired sacramentally, which makes us priests for eternity: «You are a priest forever» (Shall 110,4).
At the time he died back in August 1990, My father had 34 less years of the current reigning pontiff. Today, in Italy, The average age of the Italian male is equal to 84 year old; in Argentina, that of the Argentine male, is equal to 74 year old. Dying at the age that is anything but tender 88 years old, After having already exceeded the Italian average and fourteen average of the Argentine one, It could be said very serenely that the Holy Father will certainly not have been cruelly torn by the amorous arms of the nurse. I fell on an engraved with the premature death of my parent who took place within a year for a metastatized tumor not diagnosed in time and therefore impossible to cure, To narrate that while he was in the terminal state I have never wished him to continue living, but I praised the mercy of God who took it as soon as possible. Today, under certain circumstances, even without wishing anyone death, I continue to pray to God so that certain suffering are brought soon to the house of the divine Father, without ever forgetting the salvific value of human suffering, of which the Holy Pope John Paul II spoke in his magisterium in his apostolic letter saving Passion, which opens with the words of the blessed apostle Paul:
«Complete in my flesh what is missing from Christ's sufferings, in favor of his body which is the Church "" (With the 1, 14).
Those who declare that they pray for the health and healing of the Holy Father, inviting to do the same, either they live in the world of the Irreale or think that in front of a dying elderly, all the more a Roman pontiff, Galateo rules are applied to pathetic, if not perhaps ridiculous. You have to pray yes, But so that God grant the Holy Father the grace of a peaceful death, limiting his physical suffering, human and spiritual. With the complex and serious pathological state that afflicts it, including a total absence of immune defenses, its public exhibition would be impossible, Equally problematic to receive people who could be a vehicle for transmission of micro bacteria. If he stayed alive for other months, would return to Martha House Sancthae in conditions of this physical debilitation for which it would be necessary to set up a space-like space at that residence with the constant control of a team of specialists present day and night. All of this, It is perhaps wishable to a man like the reigning pontiff for whom isolation and lack of free contact with people would be something unbearable and unsustainable? This is to respond to all those romantics who pray for the now lost health of the Holy Father and for his impossible healing.
Think right now about a next conclave, It has not fallen in style but simple obviousness. And when the doors of the Sistine Chapel will close, The church will have to deal with the various problems left inheritance by this pontificate, which remains judged overall only by history, perhaps even in many years. The Supreme Pontiff Francesco was elected after an act of renunciation by his predecessor, Rare event result for all of us traumatic, especially for the unhappy ways chosen at the time by Benedict XVI, complete with an extravagant invention of the "Emeritus Papacy", or of sviant terms as "extended papacy", "Active papacy and contemplative papacy" ...
That of the Holy Father Francis It is a pontificate that is placed in a social and geopolitical context of great decadence on a planetary level, With a sceristianization of Europe that has already reached irreversible levels for twenty years. Elsewhere, an bleeding of faithful was consumed in what were once the two lungs with which Catholicism breathed: Latin America and Africa. Francesco's was a pontificate full of problematicities, made of ambiguity and lack of clarity, There are no lack of forms of despotism put in place in the total contempt of ecclesiastical laws and rules. Deny that this pontiff will leave a confused church, divided and quarrelsome due to open processes on all fronts, based on the unusual principle that "the important thing is to open the processes" without however concluding and bringing them to full fulfillment, It means denying the most clear evidence of the facts. But, Those who tell us that in several years will not have to be made thanks to Francesco's pontificate for having preserved and saved the Church by problems and damage that without his action, not understandable on the spot, they would have been greater, or even irreparable? Francesco is a complicated man who fits as such in a very complicated historical moment, any judgment given to the present on him and his pontificate could be completely wrong tomorrow. Certain expressions or decisions judged as eccentric - and in fact they are -, how completely different could appear tomorrow? It wouldn't be the first time that certain men, not included at the moment in their action, they were subsequently celebrated as a personality that were on decades compared to the present time in which they lived. That's why sometimes, just when you are perplexed, disoriented and suffering for certain ambiguous attitudes and not easy even to decipher, while exercising the legitimate critical sense it deserves prudentially suspend the judgment.
One of the serious problems that this pontificate will leave to the next conclave it is given by the fact that the cardinal voters do not know each other among them. The last secret consistory took place in 2015. Let's clarify: The Consistor is the assembly of the cardinals convened by the Roman Pontiff and can be secret, public, semi-public (see WHO). The one in which only the cardinals gathered to discuss in private form are called "secret", i.e. secret, with the Supreme Pontiff, Regarding the various problems of the Church and its government. Today, to the serious problem of cardinals who do not know each other among them, Another unknown to the secularists of the international left who magnify the poor church for the poor adds it, so much poverty excites them in the houses and on the skin of others, praising this pontificate that would have appointed dozens of cardinals "from the suburbs of the world" and "from the poorest countries". We fly over the scarce doctrinal and theological formation by several of these sant'Uomini from those privileged situations for which today a cardinal purple can be deserved: "The suburbs" ... "poor countries"… Several of these cardinals are bishops of countries where the presence of Catholics cannot be called even a small minority: on the island of Tonga, whose bishop Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi is, The baptized Catholics are about 10.000. Cardinal was created in the 2020, at the age of just 46 year old, Giorgio Marengo, Apostolic Vicar of Mongolia, where Catholics count 1.200 baptized on 3.300.000 inhabitants. These cardinal voters, Emblem of the "poor church for the poor" of the various "existential suburbs", they govern local churches that can survive and live in contexts of great discomfort and authentic poverty thanks to the donations that come to them as rich local churches, or by large foundations dependent or related to them. To be understood: A single Austrian parish, German, Australian, Canoeing About, North American … It can maintain an entire diocese in certain poor countries of Latin America, of Asia and Africa, where the relationship between the euro and the dollar and their national currency is totally disproportionate in purchase value.
Tomorrow, in the Sistine Chapel, a group of cardinals from these countries, rigorously chosen among the exponents of the so -called more advanced progressiveness, With delicate ease they will make people understand that the cords of the bag hold them, leaving dozens of "poor-peripheral-existential" cardinals the obligatory choice played on the survival of local churches that can live only thanks to external aid. Of course, once this was called simonia, Today it is called instead "poor church for the poor".
At present, the poor so exalted in this pontificate they were left hostage of the whims of the rich as never before, After giving life to a college of cardinal voters who do not represent the various items, The most diverse opinions and positions that have always enriched the church inside, but an univocal voice, monocorde. And among the various damage perpetrated, This will perhaps be the worst, because weighs as a heavy mortgage like lead on the next conclave. This with all due respect to the poor Church, that inside the Sistine chapel will beat the poor with the cords of the bag of the most progressive and more ideologized rich.
From the island of Patmos, 2 March 2025
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WHAT IF THE SIMONY RETURN AGAIN AT THE NEXT CONCLAVE?
At present the poor so exalted in this pontificate have been left hostage to the whims of the rich as they had never been before, after having given life to a College of cardinal electors who do not represent the various and noumerous voices, opinions and positions that have always enriched the Church internally, but a single, monotonous voice.
— Ecclesial actuality —
Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo
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Everyone has their own style, individual or collective. In the first, as in the second case, it can be spontaneous, or studied on the table. The Fathers of this magazine The Island of Patmos , during ten years of journalistic activity, starting from October 2014, several times due to opportunity, other times due to the virtue of prudence, have renounced dealing with emerging themes linked to the Church and the Papacy, being first and foremost presbyters ; editors and publicists to follow, but presbyters ahead of everything. Certain topics may require to be dealt with when there is greater knowledge that can lead to a truthful, fair and balanced judgement.
Why don’t you write anything about the health of the Holy Father, several readers have asked us? Yes, in fact the Supreme Pontiff Francis has been hospitalized at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic for two weeks now and we have not uttered a sigh about him and his state of health in these columns of ours. And on the basis of what should we have done it, perhaps based on the daily medical bulletins, followed by interpretations and hypotheses, including the most absurd ones, which however arouse that unhealthy itch which for social media is like yeast in croissants?
When a Supreme Pontiff is seriously ill, talking about succession is inevitable. Some do it with competence and delicacy, some with incompetence and lack of respect for his August Person. These latter it would be enough ask, whose successor’s the new Roman Pontiff is: of the one who died before him, or of the Blessed Apostle Peter? Thus grasping the level of their preparation. Someone has complained that talking about a conclave is a lack of respect towards a Supreme Pontiff blandly defined by medical bulletins as being in sometimes “serious” and sometimes “stationary” conditions, all alternating with various small improvements or worsening. The truth is that the Supreme Pontiff is a terminally ill patient who is ending his life and the reserved prognosis will be dissolved after the cardinal chamberlain recites the solemn phrase: «The Pope is really dead» (The Pope is truly dead), then he will address his corpse by calling it by his baptismal name: Jorge Mario. This because the papacy, being an office, not the extreme degree of the Sacrament of Orders, once acquired by juridical means, not by sacramental means, ceases with death. Contrary to the priesthood, acquired through the Sacrament, which makes us priests for eternity: «You are a priest forever» (you are a priest forever) (Ps 110,4).
Way back in August 1990 my father died, he was 34 years younger than the current reigning Pontiff. Today, in Italy, the average age of the Italian male is 84 years; in Argentina, that of the Argentine male, is 74 years. Dying at the age of 88, after having already exceeded the Italian average by four years and the Argentine average by fourteen, one could say very serenely that the Holy Father will not be cruelly torn from the loving arms of the nanny. I mentioned the premature death of my parent which occurred within a year due to a metastasized tumor that was not diagnosed in time and therefore impossible to cure, to narrate that while he was in a terminal state I did not wish him to continue living, but I prayed to God’s mercy that he would take him as soon as possible. Today, in certain circumstances, without wishing death on anyone, I continue to pray to God that certain sufferers may be brought quickly to the House of the Divine Father, without ever forgetting the salvific value of human suffering, which the Holy Pontiff John Paul II spoke about in his magisterium in his Apostolic Letter Salvifici Pain, which opens with the words of the Blessed Apostle Paul:
«In my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church» (With the 1, 14).
Those who invite prayer for the health and healing of the Holy Father live in the world of the unreal. We must pray, yes, but so that God grants the Holy Father the grace of a peaceful death, limiting his physical, human and spiritual suffering. With the complex and serious pathological state that afflicts him, including a now total absence of immune defenses, his public exposure would be impossible, and it would be equally problematic to welcome people who could be a vehicle for the transmission of micro bacteria. If he remains alive for a few more months and returns to the Vatican, to the Martha House Sancthae, his conditions of physical debilitation will be so serious that it will be necessary to set up a hospital-type space in that residence with the constant presence of a team of specialists present day and night. Is all this perhaps desirable for a man like the reigning Pontiff for whom isolation and the lack of free contact with people would be something absolutely unbearable and unsustainable? This is to respond to all those romantics who pray for the now lost health of the Holy Father and for his impossible recovery.
Thinking at this moment about an upcoming conclave is not a fall in style but simple obviousness. And when the doors of the Sistine Chapel close, the Church will have to deal with the various problems left as a legacy by this pontificate, which remains judgeable, overall, only by history, perhaps even many years from now. The Supreme Pontiff Francis was elected after an act of renunciation by his predecessor, a rare event and a traumatic for all of us, especially due to the unfortunate methods chosen at the time by Benedict XVI, complete with the extravagant invention of the «emeritus papacy», or misleading terms such as «enlarged papacy», «active papacy and contemplative papacy» (!?)…
That of the Holy Father Francis is a pontificate that takes place in a social and geopolitical context of great decadence on a global level, with a de-Christianization of Europe that has already reached irreversible levels for twenty years. Elsewhere a hemorrhage of faithful has taken place in what were once the two lungs with which Catholicism breathed: Latin America and Africa.
Francis’ pontificate was full of problems, ambiguities and lack of clarity, there were also forms of despotism in total contempt of ecclesiastical laws and rules. To deny that this Pontiff will leave a confused, divided and quarrelsome Church due to trials open on all fronts, based on the unusual principle that «the important thing is to open the trials», without however concluding them and bringing them to full completion, is to deny the clearest evidence of the facts. However, who tells us that in several years we will not have to thank the pontificate of Francis for having preserved and saved the Church from problems and damage which without his actions, not understandable at the time, would have been greater, or even irreparable? Francis is a complicated man who fits into a very complicated historical moment, any judgment given in the present about him and his pontificate, could be completely wrong tomorrow.
It would not be the first time that certain men, not understood at the time in their actions, were later celebrated as extraordinary personalities who were decades ahead of the present time in which they lived. This is why sometimes, precisely when one is perplexed, disoriented and grieve for certain ambiguous attitudes and not even easy to decipher, despite exercising legitimate critical sense, is necessary and prudently suspending judgement..
One of the serious problems this pontificate will leave for the next conclave is this: tthe cardinal electors do not know each other. The last secret consistory took place in 2015. Let’s clarify: the consistory is the assembly of cardinals convened by the Roman Pontiff and can be secret, public, semi-public. What is called “secret” is that in which only the cardinals gathered to discuss in a private, i.e. secret, form with the Supreme Pontiff participate, regarding the various problems of the Church and its government. Today, to the serious problem of the cardinals who do not know each other, there is another one unknown to the secularists of the international left who glorify «the poor Church for the poor», so much does poverty in the homes and on the lives of others excites them, praising this pontificate which has appointed dozens of cardinals «coming from the peripheries of the world» and «from the poorest countries».
Let us not dwell the poor doctrinal and theological training of several of these holy men coming from those privileged situations for which today they can deserve a cardinal’s purple: «the suburbs» … «the poor countries». Several of these cardinals are bishops of countries where the presence of Catholics cannot be defined as even a small minority: on the island of Tonga, of which Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi is bishop, there are around 10,000 baptized Catholics. Giorgio Marengo, apostolic vicar of Mongolia, where Catholics number 1,200 baptized out of 3,300,000 inhabitants, was created cardinal in 2020, at the age of just 46. These cardinal electors, emblem of the «poor Church for the poor» of the various «existential peripheries», govern local churches that can survive and live in contexts of great hardship and authentic poverty thanks to the donations that come to them from rich local churches, or from large foundations on linked to them. To be clear: a single Austrian, German, Australian, Canadian or North American parish can maintain an entire diocese in certain poor countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa, where the relationship between the Euro and the Dollar and their national currency is totally disproportionate in terms of purchase value.
Tomorrow, in the Sistine Chapel, a group of cardinals from these countries, rigorously chosen by Holy Father among the exponents of the so-called most advanced progressivism, will with delicate ease make it clear that they hold the purse strings, leaving dozens of “poor-peripheral-existential” cardinals the forced choice based on the survival of their local churches that can only live thanks to external aid. Of course, once this was called simony, today it is instead called «poor church for the poor».
At present the poor so exalted in this pontificate have been left hostage to the whims of the rich as they had never been before, after having given life to a College of cardinal electors who do not represent the various and noumerous voices, opinions and positions that have always enriched the Church internally, but a single, monotonous voice. And among the various damages perpetrated, this will perhaps be the worst, because it weighs like a lead-heavy mortgage on the next conclave. With all due respect to the poor Church, which inside the Sistine Chapel will strangle the poor, with the purse strings by rich most progressive and ideologicalized.
From The Island of Patmos, March 2, 2025
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The website of this magazine and the editions take name from the Aegean island in which the Blessed Apostle John wrote the Book of the Apocalypse, isola also known as «the place of the last revelation»
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