THE CURIOUS DISTOPIA OF BISHOP GIACOMO CIRULLI WHICH MUCH REMINDERS US A "BEAUTIFUL SACK" OF VERDONE THAT IN THE DAILY FUTURE BLAME THE NO-VAX PRIESTS, THE FAITHFUL TRADITIONALISTS AND THE POLITICAL ENEMIES OF THE PONTIFF

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The bishops who are currently thundering and threatening some members of their clergy to proceed with their suspension from the exercise of the priestly ministry, in case of non-vaccination, when they saw some of their parish priests hugging Marco Cappato after signing at the banquet that collected the signatures for the referendum in favor of euthanasia, how they threatened these authentic shames of the Catholic priesthood to proceed against them with canonical penalties? How many, among those priests who have affixed their signature to such a proposal for referendum, have been suspended with a canonical disciplinary measure from the exercise of the sacred ministry?

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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Yesterday, 16 January, in the daily newspaper of the bishops Future an article signed by Gianni Cardinale has appeared which collects the outburst of the bishop of the diocese of Teano-Calvi, Alife-Caiazzo S. AND. Mons. Giacomo Cirulli. The prelate, as sorrowful as the king of Samaria Akhab whose vineyard Neboth refused [cf.. 1 Re 21, 1-16], opens the cataracts of his heart to the journalist of the bishops' newspaper. Thus we come to part of his immense pain that in these days the faithful and priests no-vax they procured him by reacting to the provision - he says of mere common sense - which consisted in banning some priests, deacons and lay ministers from the distribution of the Eucharist to the faithful of his diocese as guilty of not having vaccinated [you see who, who].

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The bishop, gemente e piangente, motivates his stance as the logical consequence of the serious worsening of the Italian pandemic situation but above all as conforming to the line of thought of the Italian Bishops' Conference and the words of the reigning Pontiff who considers vaccination as an act of love. In short, it almost seems to witness the remaking of Carlo Verdone's film A lot nice in which the character of Ruggero can only express his triumph: «Love, love, love!».

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But we are really sure about the resistances complained by the bishop are to be ascribed solely to the opposition of priests and faithful insensitive to such a beautiful and gratuitous act of love? I do not believe. Beyond all that can be said and thought about the issue of vaccines and the Italian pandemic management by both the State and the Church, what still seems to escape Bishop Cirulli - as I was able to clarify in one of mine previous article - essentially consists in the improvised modus operandi to paternally follow the whole question as one would expect from a bishop. Indeed, a different style would be expected from a successor of the Apostles, certainly more far-sighted, I would dare to say almost as a statesman of the spirit who is capable of looking at the present but essentially at the future and at the future consequences that are already determined today. Because all this will end sooner or later and Msgr. Cirulli, one tomorrow, he will still find himself bishop of that portion of the Church whose children have been mistreated with restrictive measures. What attitude will one have to expect from these priestly sons, deacons, ministers and laity? With what courage will he still be able to look at them without feeling red or with what embarrassment he will be able to bear their gaze veiled by a wounded trust? Look of souls destined for Paradise and not just bodies to be treated, this responsibility which must be held accountable to Christ the Good Shepherd, who took care of the bodies without forgetting the souls.

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Above all, a question is required, always premising, as already done in my previous article, that the absolute majority of the Italian clergy has undergone vaccination, including myself. This is the question, however, as usual, it is destined to remain unanswered: the bishops who are currently thundering and threatening some members of their clergy to proceed with their suspension from the exercise of the priestly ministry, in case of non-vaccination, when they saw some of their parish priests embraced a Marco Cappato after having signed at the banquet that collected the signatures for the referendum in favor of euthanasia, how they threatened these authentic shames of the Catholic priesthood to proceed against them with canonical penalties? How many, among those priests who have affixed their signature to such a proposal for referendum, have been suspended with a canonical disciplinary measure from the exercise of the sacred ministry? Some battle bishops tell us and answer: it is more serious than a frightened - perhaps even ignorant - priest afraid to get vaccinated, or is it more serious than a priest, after having just celebrated Holy Mass on Sunday, go out on the church square, sign in favor of the referendum on euthanasia, photograph yourself with Marco Cappato and then post the photo on your public profile social? Tell us, certain zealous bishops: of the two, which is the most serious? But most of all: how many of the priests who have done this - and there have been several around Italy [cf.. who, who, who] ―, they were removed from the parishes? Because to us it turns out the exact opposite: their respective bishops ignored it, they have not taken any measures and these priests continue to be parish priests. If I want I can add even more: one of these parish priests who signed in favor of referendum on euthanasia, a few weeks later he posted on the door of the parish church the notice that to participate in the sacred functions it was mandatory to GreenPass. Maybe, if for so much zeal his bishop even took him as an example to those very few priests who are frightened by the vaccine, but to whom it would never cross their minds to go and sign in favor of referendum on euthanasia?

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It is not my intention to criticize common sense and the reasonableness of the vaccine as a method currently in use to stem Covid-19 infection, indeed I go back to repeating, for the avoidance of doubt, that we Fathers de The Island of Patmos we all underwent the vaccination. Not only: to those who asked us for guidance we have always replied by premising that we are not specialists in the specific and delicate sector but that we are, even if it is not, common sense leads us to suggest the use of the only system that we currently have available, which is vaccination, to read too, wanting, as a sense of responsibility and respect for ourselves and for others. And as, on certain hot topics, the clarifications are never too many, then I clarify further. When I announced to Father Ariel this morning that I had just sent this new article to the editorial office, his answer was: «Right now I'm going to the vaccination center because after having done the III dose the 10 January I did not receive the SMS with the code needed to print the GreenPass. As soon as I return, we will assemble your item ". In short, he didn't tell me he was going to a demonstration no-vax, how Father Gabriel would not say it and how I would not say it. Having said this, however, it is good to specify that "good" and "bad" Catholics do not evaluate them on the basis of vaccination - which is opportune and undoubtedly necessary -, but on other moral and pastoral grounds. For example we are required to consider "bad", indeed very bad Catholics, those who publicly declare themselves in favor of abortion, the birth control pill, the abortion pill, to marriage between same-sex couples, or who call sweet death through euthanasia "mercy" because they say it is "cruel" to make a dying person suffer. And all this, some bad Catholics, they state this publicly in the name of a distorted and aberrant idea of ​​"Christian love". Those are the bad Catholics for us, indeed bad Catholics. Not those who, undoubtedly mistaken for weakness, fragility or ignorance, but also for the avalanche of contradictory news, of proclamations and denials, of changes of direction and ideas [cf.. who], everything always and strictly speaking without anyone ever admitting "we made a mistake in some evaluation", today they are terrified of being vaccinated.

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Having clarified this I continue: what I believe I can criticize in the legitimate exercise of the freedom of the children of God is the political style of dealing with these resistances to the vaccine that must not and cannot find acceptance in the Catholic Church. If you continue at this rate you do not want to hear reasons, gangrenous in the well-known clerical stubbornness, the only result will be that of cracking the filial trust of the faithful towards their bishops by making that very poor remnant of paternal authority that the Italian episcopate still retains but which seems willing to sell off with every care as soon as possible.

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With surprise we learn from the article that Bishop Cirulli regrets being attacked by Keyboard lions and which has received criticism, threats and insults from many fronts to such an extent as to push Digos to intervene in his rescue - without his having made any request - paying attention to the subversives. So I wonder, distancing oneself from the troublemakers and the disadvantaged who give free rein to violence without having the right logical arguments: It is possible that no one in the episcopal curia has suggested to the prelate to act differently, for example in a less reckless way? No one who felt obliged to make the bishop give up from a sure bad figure and from a media pillory whose sole responsibility can only be he alone?

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I say this because in the continuation of the interview with Future the most imaginative arguments worthy of the best Orwellian despotic conspiracy are reported as reasons for the media pillory. The bishop launches into describing theidentikit of the Catholic no-vax on the basis of what has been done by the newspaper The Republic in recent days [you see who], It is told: "I have the impression that there is a schism taking place", "I was able to understand that these are connected people who belong to a traditionalist world in opposition to the magisterium of Pope Francis". In short, the profile of the catto–no-vax is outlined as one lobby well-organized schismatic, ultra-traditionalist, anti-bergogliana, all lace, lace and lace and - I would add - certainly of a conservative matrix and perhaps with right-wing sympathies. All this, however, is tragically and sadly false, because people frightened by the vaccine do not have a precise political connotation, as they do not belong only to the world of Catholic "gloomy traditionalism". Fear is a completely transversal phenomenon. Therefore, the so-called no-vax O anti-vax, we find them in politics on the far right as well as the far left, in the ranks of the most pushed Catholic progressivism as well as in those of the most radical Catholic traditionalism. And who does not see this, it can only give a completely distorted vision of reality, stating that fear, or if we want ignorance in the etymological sense of the term, it only belongs to a very specific category.

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Dear readers, understand why the credibility of the Church today it appears to be at an all-time low? If these are the strong arguments, it's easy to see why people no longer take us seriously but laugh at us. If everything is summed up in oppositional ideological issues then we are doing politics, propaganda, loyalty and party membership. As did the premier Mario Draghi during the last press conference that illustrated the latest anti Covid decree, also Msgr. Cirulli said that in essence the responsibility lies with the unvaccinated - be they consecrated or lay - thus facilitating divisions, creating suspicion, giving twine to the informers, stimulating tensions that will struggle to heal over time.

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And if maybe two years ago, in obedience to the words of the Pope and the Italian Episcopal Conference, the prelate would have been happy to hug a Chinese and eat an inclusive spring roll, today he would be careful not to hug a priest no-vax as a sign of relaxation and the resumption of ecclesial communion. What to say more, these are the times when everyone wishes to appear as Socratic philosophers, everyone feels strong in the assumption of the son of Sofroniscus who says that the rules are respected even when they are unjust and therefore we must do what they command us to do, even if we don't like them "either you eat this soup or you throw yourself out the window" sang Nino Ferrer.

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However, they forget that Socrates he chose to drink hemlock not on the basis of unjust laws but on a manipulated legal system, unable to respect the spirit of the law and the legislator who must provide for fair exceptions and derogations to save the integrity of man and his spirit from dangerous totalitarian drifts.

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Perhaps the next outburst of Msgr. Cirulli it will be entrusted directly to the newspaper The Republic and it will be there that we will learn from the Vatican spokesman Eugenio Scalfari that in some of his imaginative private dialogues with the Pope, vaccination will be one of the essential elements for the validity of the ministerial priesthood and the administration of the Sacraments and all this in order to have more «Love, love, love!». Of course, at this point of the narration it would not spoil the practical sense of the old communist dedicated to the house and family played by the legendary Mario Brega in the film A lot nice. Mario, widower but still capable of sacrificing himself for his only son Ruggero, does not understand the excessive «Love, love, love!» in his son's life experience, so much so that he was taken for a fascist by Fiorenza, whereupon rising to his feet he exclaims: «To me bundle? I bundle? A zoccolè, I don't know’ communist like that, to! So’ communist soììì !!!».

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there, dear readers, we are not yet accustomed to such levels of practical common sense and perhaps we will never get there, at least among the pastors of the Catholic Church.

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Laconi, 18 January 2021

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EUTHANASIA AS AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL DEFEAT AND MODERN FAILURE OF PIETAS AND CARE

It would be interesting to point out, to the secularists who support euthanasia, that thanks to the work Of Crimes and Punishments of the illuminist Cesare Beccaria is beginning to be abolished, already in 1786, the death penalty by the judicial system of some states and kingdoms. Today, in the name of that same Enlightenment thought, the death penalty is reintroduced as a conquest of science and imposed as a merciful remedy no longer on public offenders but on innocent publics.

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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in photo: Marco Cappato. Life truly belongs to us?

The recent and indecent positions taken of some "Catholic" politicians [you see WHO] as well as some religious Sui generis [you see WHO] who support the referendum on legal euthanasia open up different and worrying scenarios on the ethics of life that concern the rights and protection of the health of the sick. "Euthanasia and assisted suicide are in fact a clear defeat of those who theorize them, of those who decide them and those who practice them " [cf.. Good Samaritan Letter, V.1; Pontifical Council for Healthcare Workers, New Charter of Healthcare Professionals, n. 170] de facto introducing the patient into that modern anthropological failure that is no longer able to recognize the beauty and dignity of human life even when it is burdened by infirmity orhandicap.

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It forces you, therefore, to share ideological drifts that increasingly encourage the culture of waste and death in which man ends up being seen and perceived only on the basis of what he can give, to what it can do and to its autonomous support within the civil community. The human being who in sickness or in handicap has lost hope for a cure sees himself disowned and limited, in a completely arbitrary way, of their quality of life by those who no longer consider it satisfactory and worthy of being in the world of the healthy and valid.

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The most evident thing in these ethical drifts it consists in the complete loss of hope which is called to illuminate the future, even when it appears uncertain. Christianity has assumed hope as a theological virtue that proceeds directly from God as his Providence operates both in the last moments of man's life as well as in the first. In Christian hope, everything is grace, even that of a sick body [See. 2 Color 12, 9] in which the sufferings of the crucified Savior shine forth [See. With the 1, 24]. Like this, if the hope in healing has been lost it is still possible to rekindle the hope of the cure which is the same that the Savior claims for himself in the person of the hungry, of the thirsty, of strangers, of the poor, of the prisoners and the sick and dying [cf.. Mt 25, 31-46]. The Mattean remark of "you did it to me" has the merit of making us understand what the piety in which all those sacred duties that man exercises towards other men are developed and which in the Gospel become providential grace in which God made man reveals himself as the subject of compassionate care. For this reason, as Christians, it is necessary to reiterate without fear of denial that euthanasia is not what one would like to believe today, that is, a worthy death but only a deceptive way of experiencing compassion and empathy towards the sick person, escaping the fatigue of taking care of him.

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The real individualism of the modern world, taken on an ordinary lifestyle, it impoverishes mutual relationships by increasing man's loneliness during the time of illness, thus leading the dying person to utter despair which makes him desire a quick and painless resolution of his own condition of infirmity by coming to choose, almost like a release, l'euthanasia. Here is the reason why today, in the face of a clouding of the most basic ethical and religious principles, the terminally ill represent today the most fragile and exposed category. We are facing a real humanitarian emergency that can no longer be ignored, since the civilization of a people and his own piety they are measured - even before the advent of Christianity - on the basis of the care taken towards the weak, the children, seniors, the sick and the dying.

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THE PROTECTION OF TERMINAL SICKS AND THE PROHIBITION OF KILLING

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It is necessary at all costs to protect the terminally ill avoiding turning the last days of their earthly life into some sort of political battle either, even worse, in a sort of social claim made by the usual familiar faces that, coincidentally, they are more attached than ever to their earthly existence. And yes, because among the many contradictions of modern secular thought, advocates of legal euthanasia wish for themselves a long life expectancy and think like perfect hypochondriacs in an attempt to ward off and exorcise diseases and health interventions. The same is true for the proponents of abortion who are born into the world thanks to mothers who are not ashamed to choose life for them, rejecting the very civil and responsible voluntary termination of pregnancy (Abortion). This alone would be enough to highlight the unreasonableness and illogicality of certain characters whose line of thinking tries to earn a prominent place in the great arena of national and foreign public opinion but which would be better set aside for the good of all.

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Leaving aside these secular contradictions, we begin to reason according to a solid Christian thought. going to the source which is the Holy Scripture that admonishes:

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"Son, do not neglect yourself in sickness, but pray to the Lord and he will heal you " [Sir 38, 9].

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This is the invitation of Sirach which is by no means a blind fideism as some might think. To say "do not neglect yourself in sickness" means two essential things: become aware of the care of one's body given freely by the Lord; take part in an action of care that is expressed within a journey of faith in the God of life and resurrection, with sacramental signs that are also therapeutic and within an active charitable action that accompanies the sick person as a traveling companion, especially when this is oriented towards the terminal phase of existence.

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Our body does not belong to us, it was given to us by God for a mission and is carried out with the collaboration of parents in the generative work. As a reality that has been granted borrowed, the body needs to be guarded and preserved from all those adverse events that threaten its integrity and physical and spiritual safety. And this does not apply only to the case of the disease but above all to the desperate euthanasia attempts which are themselves pathogenic events., before which it is necessary to question oneself starting from that fifth commandment of the Decalogue that he says: "You will not kill" [cf.. Is 20, 13].

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The commandment that forbids killing it is part of both divine and natural law. It is immutable and mandatory and no human legislator can repeal it without falling into an offense of authority and of power. This is what the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has clearly explained when it says:

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"Nobody, under any circumstances, can claim the right to directly destroy an innocent human being " [Instruction The gift of life, n. 5].

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Therefore, no human being innocent can be violated with the death procured both when it is in the womb and when it is in a sick bed. The innocence and innocence of the fetus, like that of the terminally dying person make all acts of abortion, eugenics and euthanasia pregnant with that blood of Abel that cries from the ground again vengeance before the throne of the divine judge [See. GN 4, 10].

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It would be interesting to point out, to the secularists who support euthanasia, that thanks to the work Of Crimes and Punishments of the illuminist Cesare Beccaria is beginning to be abolished, already in 1786, the death penalty by the judicial system of some states and kingdoms. Today, in the name of that same Enlightenment thought, the death penalty is reintroduced as a conquest of science and imposed as a merciful remedy no longer on public offenders but on innocent publics.

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RIGHT TO LIFE AND RIGHT TO DEATH

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Faced with these painful considerations it is necessary to reflect and leave in order to formulate a new idea of ​​quality of life, health and care. Logic has it that if the body becomes a personal possession, an item, it can also be (away)used in a selfish and despotic way, also from third parties, until its complete exhaustion, including death. Just as there cannot be a despotic and arbitrary "right to life" at any cost and at any price, there cannot even exist a "right to death" that includes euthanasia even if they are very rare and sporadic. The right to life follows the providential disposition that God predisposes, which does not intend to give life to man as an object that can be arbitrarily disposed of. Life is oriented towards an end towards which man has the responsibility to direct himself: one's personal perfection according to God's plan and call [See. Pontifical Council One heart for human and Christian promotion, Document In the framework of, n. 2.1.1.]. This is the Christian approach to life which is based on the fact that

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"Man is called to a fullness of life that goes far beyond the dimensions of his earthly existence, since it consists in participation in the very life of God " [See. Gospel of Life n. 2].

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This supernatural call-vocation beyond God constitutes the greatness and preciousness of human existence even in its terminal phase which for the believer can never be considered as an "ultimate" reality, but if anything "penultimate" because on the way to that eschatological dimension that opens up to full life in which God will be all in all [cf.. 1Color 15,20-28]. For this reason, appears evident, how the life of each individual is a sacred reality that is entrusted to us so that we guard it with a sense of responsibility and bring it to perfection in love and in the gift of ourselves to God and to our brothers: from the recognition of piety to the care and from the care to the piety.

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THE GOOD SAMARITAN AND THE HOSPITAL CHURCH

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This is why the Church in its two-thousand-year tradition has always implemented, on the escort of Christ the Good Samaritan [cf.. LC 10, 29-37], all those corporal and spiritual works of mercy that have served to help man during his earthly pilgrimage. Man who, most of the time, he finds himself having to deal with his native frailty which involves both physical and soul evils. The Good Samaritan is the icon of the custody of life and the merciful exercise of care to the end. It does not judge man's assailants but works to ensure that these do not perish, although others have already given up assisting him and giving him a hope of survival. The Samaritan takes charge of the wounded man and delivers him in turn, so that others in his stead will care for him. He is not what we today would call a caregiver, he does not operate alone but within a healing community to which the image of the inn refers. Thus we introduce a clear ecclesiological image in which the community of faith, the church, he welcomes the wounded from the hands of the Samaritan to lead him towards a timeless accompaniment: "Take care of him ... until ... my return" [LC 10, 35]. And this eschatological return is not only that of the Son of God in his glory but also the eschatological encounter in which man, ended his earthly life, it is reunited with the Creator.

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This ecclesiological vision is undoubtedly interesting that also the reigning Pontiff in his first interview with the magazine Catholic Civilization [you see WHO; WHO], recalls, defining and presenting the Church as a field hospital after a battle. This similarity which has sadly fallen away, in eight years of pontificate, within a series of clichés. By depriving this beautiful image of its original meaning, the paroxysm has been pushed by including markedly Christian terms - such as hospitality, welcome and care - within a hermeneutics emptied of the ecclesiological sense in favor of the socio-political and socio-political one. It is no coincidence that today we are surrounded by slogan that praise hospitality, to care for and take care of the abandoned, But, at the same time, we see the multiplication of slogan on euthanasia. Faced with this illogicality of thought, it becomes impossible and hypocritical to speak of unreserved acceptance, of loving and disinterested care to end up in the hospitality of the heart that claims to break down the dividing walls. It is not difficult to understand that all these things are praised for propaganda purposes and only for exclusive and certain categories of people. Impossible, therefore, the conciliation of opposites, of those who on the one hand fight for the weakest but in the name of those same weak ones are ready to propose death when the weakness of the disease makes any recovery impossible.

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TOWARDS TWO GOALS: "NO COMPASSION" AND "TAKEN CARE OF HIM" [LC 10,33-34].

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After these considerations and analyzes it seems necessary and urgent to return to the unique and true example of the Good Samaritan, which is Christ the Lord, who teaches his disciples to take care of the whole of the wounded man by introducing him to that field hospital inn which is the mother Church who, just as it generates life from the baptismal font, thus he immerses the dying person in the grace of mercy. I like to give two ideas for work that have the task of averting the temptation to euthanasia in Christians, they are not as a practice in itself but above all as an ethical vision of the end of life.

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To escape euthanasia we must have the compassion of the Good Samaritan which cannot be explained in other terms except as that maternal love that allows itself to be wounded. The Samaritan lets himself be vulnerable by that unfortunate person who appears on his way, the wounds of that man hit by the brigands are imprinted in his bowels in a kind of pitiful transverberation of the heart. He even goes so far as to risk losing his business in order to help those in front of him. There is an urgent need that leads him to with-suffer the weakness and suffering of the wounded man, just as there is a will to stay there in that moment of suffering and the cross, as we see in the example of Mary Most Holy on Golgotha. We are faced with a moral imperative that also becomes an imperative of assistance that creates a profound sensitivity towards those who are weak or injured, with the active desire to really alleviate their pains. True compassion and true compassionate take concrete actions and solutions with which it is possible to intervene and help the sick [cf.. B. Moriconi (1997), Compassion, In Dictionary of Pastoral Healthcare Theology, pp. 227-234, Ed. Camillians].

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We understand well that as Christians our pause in front of the terminally ill it can only be that of whoever wants with-suffer the natural conclusion of a human existence in which God revealed himself. If the terminal condition of the sick person does not hurt our bowels so much as to take on its weight, we will never feel the compassion of the Good Samaritan who opens up to effective human and spiritual assistance.. Aware that

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"There comes a time when there is nothing but recognizing the impossibility of intervening with specific therapies on a disease, which in a short time presents itself as mortal " [Letter Good Samaritan, I]

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The Christian begins to take charge of the dying with that maternal care which is closeness, removal of fear and abandonment, encouragement and trust in the risen Lord who conquers all mortal anguish. Only in this way will the sick feel surrounded by a loving presence, maternal, human and Christian and does not give in to the depression and anguish of those who feel abandoned to their destiny of suffering and death ask to put an end to it [Pontifical Council for Healthcare Workers, New Charter of Healthcare Professionals, n. 170].

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After having the right compassion for the dying you need to get busy with taking care of him, in fact it is always possible to cure even when it is no longer possible to heal. It is good to differentiate the skills and fields of assistance of specialist personnel, of the family and the ecclesial community. From a medical point of view, the facilities where the terminally ill are treated, the hospice, Nursing homes, they must be able to guarantee that essential medical care, palliatives that exclude any form of persistence. Same thing when the terminally ill is still in his home, doctors and specialists must be able to take action to ensure the necessary medical-nursing assistance by limiting all those conditions of pain and suffering that are connected with the terminal states of a disease. Anyway, both in healthcare facilities and in private homes, palliative care represents the best response of assistance to the physical needs of the patient and in fact avoids the euthanasia choice that reformulates the concept of care in an anticipated and medically assisted death [cf.. Pontifical Council for Healthcare Workers, New Charter of Healthcare Professionals, n. 147; John Paul II, Speech to the participants in the International Conference on Assistance to the Dying (17 March 1992), n. 5].

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Caring for the terminally ill it includes not only medical but psychological and spiritual needs, something that the Christian community must be able to do with solicitude and concern. Proclaiming the Gospel to the dying is fundamental to open to that hope that does not disappoint. Administer the sacraments of the Anointing of the Sick in time, to which the absolution of sins is annexed with a plenary indulgence, and the administration of the Holy Viaticum is the ordinary way in which a baptized Christian takes leave of this world to awaken in God.

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The exercise of charity towards the terminally ill it is realized by seeing in him the face of the suffering and dying Christ. This leads the ecclesial community to pray for the dying and ask for him, to the Eternal Father, the mercy of forgiveness and the grace of reconciliation of the whole life. It is a strong moment in which it is essential to let go of the faults of the past, the sins, the knots that have accumulated is a way to seek and give peace to each other. By forgiving the dying person's debts and allowing him to forgive ours, that mutual communion of charity is created that we all need to recognize ourselves as Christians and children of the Father who is in heaven., in which the perfection that does not operate by virtue of that logic not devoid of interests of those who do not know God becomes visible [See. Mt 5, 43-48].

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The family of the terminally ill is undoubtedly the most exposed, but also the one on which the greatest expectations of the dying fall. Dying surrounded by those we loved and who shared existence with us is an endless grace. In the same way, to be close in death to those we have loved as a parent, son, brother, friend is the most perfect form of communion of love that we can humanly realize in our earthly experience. This is why the presence of the family close to the dying person must be constant and privileged, no one can take the place of it. Despite this, the family needs to be intelligently supported in order not to succumb to the fatigue of separation from their loved one and the agony following the loss. The Christian community, as a healing community - healing community ―, stand side by side discreetly with these tried families, supporting them in all respects so as to imitate the solicitude of the Cyrene who helps to carry for a while the weight of the cross of Christ when he collapses to the ground. The Christian community is Servant and Healer, he is attentively present in suffering but acts in the care that is the diaconate of charity to favor integral health (salvation) of people.

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We Fathers de The Island of Patmos, on a human and priestly level we fraternally share and keep in our hearts the tender memory of numerous terminally ill patients, or of elderly people who were gradually dying out like candles that have come to an end. This is because we also share another element: anyone who really wants to do theology or deepen certain particular branches of study and research, he must always do this starting from prayer and from human material. We are Priests of Christ instituted and consecrated doctors to cure the souls of men. The youngest among us, Father Gabriele, has been dealing with issues of life and disabilities since he was a novice in the Order of Preachers. The writer of these lines has spent years of his life in the wards of a large hospital. father ariel, who has never carried out the ministry of parish priest and who has always dedicated himself to other tasks, he administered more anointings of the sick and was seated at the bedside of the sick more than often do parish priests of parishes in 10.000 baptized, if anything, because… engaged in meetings of the parish council. And when we enter a confessional, we often get out of it after hours, making up for the "lack of time" of various parish priests who, engaged in unspecified "pastoral activities", they don't have time to confess, forget that we have been consecrated priests to celebrate the Eucharistic Sacrifice, preach the Holy Gospel, to forgive sins and assist the sick and dying, everything else takes a back seat, from the meetings of the parish council to the highest theological speculations. It is on this basis that we can explain to all those who think of escaping the pain of death with euthanasia, that often in pain and suffering is contained that great wisdom which makes us better men. Solve everything by fleeing sickness and pain with a "sweet death", it means not having understood why one was born, what is worth living for and why, one day, you have to die, if anything, even suffering.

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It is not easy to talk about the salvific element of pain and suffering to this now degenerate society, but if we don't, even at the cost of not being understood, or more easily at the risk of being misunderstood, we will betray in the worst way the mission entrusted to us by Christ who defeated death and made us sharers in his resurrection.

Laconi, 25 September 2021

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SICK TERMINALS, WITH DISABILITIES AND THE PRIEST-DOCTOR BEFORE AN "SISTER" MUCH FEARED: DEATH THAT WHICH IS CRYING "O DEATH WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY?»

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It is something serious and deeply flawed, When the families of seriously ill or dying avoid calling the priest, claiming that ... "otherwise, seeing the priest scares!». But how can scare, Those whom the seriously ill or dying brings great medicine of God's grace? The truth is that being scared is not seriously ill or dying, but her family who download over him their fears. Perhaps because they have never seen people die in peace with God, nor have they seen the good that gives the seriously ill or dying this grace, this latest medicine that only the blind and wicked men may be denied to those to whom, against the other, say they want well.

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

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PDF print format article
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representation of St. Francis of Assisi and Sister Death

In a country like Italy, where for four decades births are lower than deaths, we Fathers de The Island of Patmos we can not, as theologians and pastors in charge of souls, omit to give prominence to the phenomenon of aging and physical disability, then the delicate ambit of terminally ill. Let's start from the Gospel of St. John the Apostle where we read:

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"In truth, in verità vi dico: whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me, It has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but it is passed from death to life " [GV 5, 24].

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We all know the beautiful Canticle of the Creatures di San Francesco D’Assisi. The simple beauty of this declaration of love for creation still resonates after more than eight centuries. but yet, There is a passage that seems little shining, indeed some Catholics find it disturbing. Let us try to remember those verses, where at one point the Saint of Assisi writes:

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«praised’ me’ Lord for our sister bodily death, from whom no homo living can escape».

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St. Francis thanked God for the death of the body. Which in itself may seem paradoxical, absurd and almost meaningless. Of all creation, because without thanking the body death? To understand this "sonnet" we must remember that by faith we believe that death is a consequence of original sin. As written by the medieval theologian St. Julian of Toledo, taking in turn San Gregorio Magno:

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"Man established in Paradise received a precept, so was in its nature the power to not die, and the power of death: if it was found obedient to the fulfillment of the vital precept, It would become immortal; if it was found disobedient for his iniquity he would begin to be deadly […]» [Prognostic Forever, The Book, III].

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So this is one of the main themes of our faith. And now, immersed in Lent, We travel together for forty days until the time of death of the body of Jesus as a passage to the resurrection and eternal life. Jesus faced, in its human nature, the event of death and defeated, being the first of the resurrected: in tal modo, It allows us, one day, resurrected him.

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When we get closer to the priests seriously ill, who morenti, Our task is not to give them "the last illusion ', how they think at times some doctors, but give them the medicine that can save their souls forever, for eternity. The priesthood, under certain aspects, It can be considered as the last extreme degree of medicine: the one and only medicine that can save souls. In these cases the priest-doctor, far from illusory manner in comfort, It will give the seriously ill and dying person the certainty of faith that death is a moment of transition. Because of this, along with St. Francis, we can say that this "formidable Lady ', come la chiamavano i sapienti medievali, is our sister.

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Death is a passing event that sooner or later we all have to go, because it is a reality which no human being can escape. At the same time, But, precisely because the death was not an event willed by God or contemplated perfect natural order created by Him, just the thought of it gives us a certain sadness, because death is something “unnatural”, when read in the light of creation. And this is precisely because death is not the work of God, but a consequence of human sin, who is the true creator of death. At the same time, the death, He instills in us a certain fear. Because then we do not know what will be our destination, or because we fear our destination. In the seriously ill and dying, this understandable fear fades, or disappear completely, when with certainty of faith receives from the priest-doctor the great medicine of God's grace.

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Many doctors and specialists engaged in therapies of pain and in the treatment of terminally ill patients, saw patients until prostrate before regaining serenity and fearful, after being treated by the priest-doctor, many doctors and paramedics, between them even nonbelievers, often they are the first to tell the family that perhaps their loved one would need the comfort of a priest.

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With such sensitivity and contemplative spirit, after trying to grasp the great mystery of death, then simply try to pray, to get in tune with this big sister, at the same time feared and almost deliberately forgotten, thinking that with it will be our Passover, our passage to eternal life. Down the existence tunnel there is the absolute vacuum, but the springboard of the "final jump" in the eternal infinite God. After the jump, It is the definitive time. We can then, con Gesù, make our own the verses of the writer and English poet John Donne

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"Death will be no more death. And you, death morrai ».

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It is something serious and deeply flawed, When the families of seriously ill or dying avoid calling the priest, claiming that ... "otherwise, seeing the priest scares!». But how can scare, Those whom the seriously ill or dying brings great medicine of God's grace? The truth is that being scared is not seriously ill or dying, but her family who download over him their fears. Perhaps because they have never seen people die in peace with God, nor have they seen the good that gives the seriously ill or dying this grace, this latest medicine that only the blind and wicked men may be denied to those to whom, against the other, say they want well. A tal punto bene da pensare che, the ultimate comfort in the grace of God that heals the wounds of the soul, may even scare.

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Rome, 4 March 2020

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Staff Blog

Father Gabriele

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

payable to Editions The island of Patmos

IBAN IT 74R0503403259000000301118
in this case, send us an email warning, because the bank
It does not provide your email and we could not send you a
thanks [ isoladipatmos@gmail.com ]