– Art&Faith –

LOSING THE LANGUAGE OF ART SACRED THEOLOGY

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When the Church began to lose its influence on the arts in the 19th century, the artist was inevitably forced to devote himself to art forms more restricted nature ephemeral, appearing to ignore everything that for centuries had been an expression of the heritage of faith.

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Author
Licia Oddo *

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For too many years we have had to suffer the vagaries and follies of many national and foreign nullity; for too many decades we have transformed the real art in an ephemeral fashion and empty of all meaning, everything just to run after certain fashions of overseas, only to appear to date, Modern Vanguard.

Quirino De Ieso [Benevento 1926 – Known 2006]

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Quirino De Ieso, the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God and of his passion and death, 2005

Artistic events of the twentieth century inevitably contrite concept art often helping to infuse a sense of irreverent representation, because devoid of all credibility in those human and Christian values ​​that once decreed the success through the patronage of the Catholic Church and the sense of faith that animated the artists.

When the Church began to lose in the nineteenth century its influence on the arts, the artist was inevitably forced to devote himself to art forms more restricted nature ephemeral, appearing to ignore everything that for centuries had been an expression of the heritage of faith. The artistic style of the twentieth century, although profoundly revolutionary it is nevertheless holder of those cornerstones that have marked the history of art over the centuries, I resented. The rest l'art [1] He has always shown the same evolutionary process. The new one is soon old [2], innovation becomes tradition and the present becomes the past but the latter is also necessary that, which follows in time to a future perspective: mutated form, behind every story, as every aesthetic.

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Quirino De Ieso, Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River, 1995

To all of us it is obvious that our society, for several years already, It is evolving towards amorality, not least through the destruction of their own Christian roots, which they are also the heritage of art. What is desirable, therefore, to reverse the situation and halt the decline in human values, snatching the danger of superficiality that the artistic representation of the sacred is the most faithful interpreter? To answer this question, in which the painting becomes an expression of faith and art a manifestation of the transcendent metaphysical, It is by far interesting study, fruit of the contemplation of the work of contemporary painter posthumously Quirino De Ieso, in whose canvases he translates the mystery of the universal, and theological pictorial [3]. In the opinion of De Ieso, it is also evident that art has many faces, from the sacred to the profane, but it is true that the "concept of art" that has a purely spiritual derivation, Divina, It is one of the most devoted human manifestations of love of man towards his Creator. He interprets the Truth in appearance spiritual and sacred, but investigated within our soul, Why, as stated by the teacher: "The mystery of Art is the same Universe, in one and the other are the truth and love of Christians ". When the artist reaches the awareness of this Truth, only then his work can rise to the dignity of a work of art, creating the masterpiece.

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Quirino De Ieso, Jesus tells his disciples, "Follow me, I will make you fishers of men " [MC 1, 14-20], Detail of a funerary chapel of Noto, 1995-1996

De Ieso claims that only an inner search is able to produce such a miracle. Such research is right in the world of Art, the music, poetry, painting, sculpture. So art as soul searching. Consider in this regard to the way Dante Alighieri translates into poetic rhyme and images, Canto XXXIII in Paradise, the mysteries of faith exhibited by St. Thomas Aquinas in his QUESTION; images that are later, Sandro Botticelli, It will depict through his famous drawings illustrative of the Divine Comedy [cf. WHO]. But it is also true that many important values ​​for our society have been emptied of their actual content, contaminated with ephemeral sizes, trampled by a progressive decline ethics. And if the art is reduced to blank canvases, singed, shredded, ply simply smeared with color, in polished stones only by rivers, in twisted metal and rusty, then Art is dead? Certainly not. Fortunately, with each fall always follows a rise; therefore, sooner or later, Art authentic, imbued with passionate feeling, morale, social, cult, that is not dead, will return in triumph and, once again will lead us on the path of beauty, Purity, of joy and love.

In the works of this artist is felt that survey spiritual he translates into real mystical representations, both abstract, both screened (Technical latter of its mere invention) fruit of his meditations and that lead to a real philosophical dissertation of the meaning of Art, uttering even a direct attack against the contemporary art.

In recent years the interest of the individual and the greed of economic targets they did forget to civilization to show its real objectives worthy of being called that. The confidence in unprejudiced, the solidarity of the group depends on the achievement of common targets, the ethical conduct free of any contamination selfish were replaced by pure superficiality of mere appearance, as a substitute to replace the reality and lead to the result of mass destruction, addivenendo so a polluted earth that it can not ensure the survival of its inhabitants and deny the hope of tomorrow for posterity. Says the teacher:

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"For too many years we have tried the new at all costs, as if that were the main purpose of art; and did not realize that the novelty, originality are not achievements that come from outside but from our inner, from our hearts and our minds; they are achievements that can be obtained only through a serious work, continuous, suffered, meditated. Just so you can get to win a personal language and effective, always fruit, as well as talented, Also of long years of hard work, during which the artist digs into his soul, compared with the outside world and with the problems of the society in which he lives ".

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Quirino De Ieso, The mystery of the crucifixion, 2001

To highlight such concepts one can not ignore the technical means that the iconographic representation are the most effective expression, such as painting or sculpture. In fact, according to the authoritative opinion of this great master of the contemporary age, the concept of art you should distinguish between two senses or perceptions: one generic or common, and a pure or spiritual.

To date, no author He has made a clear distinction between the two perceptions separately attributing to the necessary specific meanings, but he showed the art as the result of this combination, without reflecting in what there is really behind. It is recognized that all the authors agree in stating that "Art" means generically: human labor resulting from the study, from practice and ingenuity to achieve a certain effect; the complex of rules or precepts necessary to that: astuteness; fineness; ability to know how to adjust to get a purpose, and everything is so synonymous with the profession, craft, office running out in this definition. From these first interpretations can be seen that while for the first direction (generico) it's pretty obvious to all meaning, it is not so for the second (spiritual), or rather the latter does not seem to be as comprehensible to all, but only a few, to those who belong to that group of elected able to read and read in. "Art" understood in a pure and spiritual means:

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"Elevation of the soul to God, contemplation of the greatness and power of God clearly visible in the beautiful nature that surrounds us; Search of Divine beauty in its different aspects transfused in all creation; search for harmony of the perfection of God in his work; Search Order of "Truth" universal; point of contact between matter and spirit, link that connects people to the Father and the Heavenly Mother ".

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Quirino De Ieso The mystery of the crucifixion, The Virgin Mary Magdalene and John the Apostle under the cross, 2003

Art is born with the mystery of man's creation, created in the image and likeness of God [cf. Gen 1,26]. In man the Creator instills the natural creative spirit that gradually become expressive art in its various forms. Since then the art in its various manifestations has always been the most intimate companion of man for himself but also for his relationship with God, and it will certainly be up to’eskaton, when God will create new heavens and new earth.

The man was not content to seek the spiritual and contact with it only through the figurative expression that is the iconographic representation of his thought, He tried to get to it also with a more rapid: verbally, that is, with prayer as a tool and means of communion with God, and also art, in its various forms of expression of poetry and music. Of course, prayer of early man was not still one conceived by us, because their way of seeing and thinking of ancient men was very different from our, but why should we think that their prayer and their concept of the supernatural were felt with warmth and sincerity of minors as we hear them today, because the spirit and desire of elevation and mystical momentum towards a metaphysical dimension that dwells in the human soul is always alive, but it certainly changed the way we express it through the ages, sometimes risking getting lost along the way.

It is known to most, the long way that art has come with his parables ascending and descending. For each period of greatest glory it is always followed a period of decline. One wonders: because there were these ups and downs in the arts? It should not be think of a more or less low intelligence of man as is often the most critical of all the times we wanted to prove with their more or less profound observations. The real reason that according to De IESO has always caused ups and downs is of an entirely different nature, It is introspective. It is recognized that in all ages, artists have always sought a means or a very effective way to abstract the reality of things and of nature, to make it clear to the audience the content of their works, or better to put in quick contact with the spirit of contemplative mood content in their works [4].

Quirino De Ieso, Christ crucified between the two thieves, early work, 1954

Only when artists could find this an effective means of abstraction, art was heading for the road that would lead her to the highest peaks, namely the most sublime artistic achievements. Only the inner dialogue through a clear insight of the artist himself raising his spirit to God, this could happen. When this way of abstracting was exploited to the maximum, later artists not to repeat the same route as their predecessors were forced to change their way. To do this, They had to find a new way of "abstract" and that at the same time was as effective as the one already universally accepted. Unfortunately, looking outside of their being, the artists are able to capture what the sad reality of these last remnants of technological progress offers them, remaining poor and paralyzed in the representation, that is not triggered by the spirit of man which is spokesman, ie the awareness of the existence of the divine, but rather the empty externality that first of all is often vile without substance.

Art is first of all life experience and as such it is developed together with the emotions, the social path, cultural and above all spiritual man-artist accomplishes in his life. It is undoubtedly a social phenomenon and expression of life itself, changes with the changing of society and human experiences. But in this continuous "becoming" art has to maintain the essential spirit of the essence, through the series of existential questions that the individual stands, and that is not the sign language that changes depending on the various eras, at least it is not just that, but rather it is a universal language, catechetical. There are numerous paintings - especially the frescoes engraved in many churches between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries - that are real picture boards of the Catechism for the People of God; basti citation, among numerous, those of the Cathedral of San Gimignano [see WHO].

Quirino De Ieso, The mystery of the Resurrection of Christ, 1996

The "Truth" pure universe, in its dual aspect, material and spiritual, but also catechetical, It is expressed through art, handmaiden of universal communication and for centuries placed at the service of the divine, of the sacred, through a difficult process to achieve a catharsis of interiority by vice, by moral disorder to get to the recovery of ethical values, set goals and lost because of externals with which today's artists will approach it without looking inside, according to the Gospel warning: "The kingdom of God is within you" [cf. LC 17,21]. This inner harbors the seeds of grace of Truth, then the spirit essence of true art, one capable of perceiving the Divine and manifest it through their posts expressive arts.

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Quirino De Ieso, The descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles at the Last Supper and the Virgin Mary at Pentecost. Central fresco, Church of the Sacred Heart in Noto, 1999.

Particularly close to Pauline theology, Quirino De Ieso used to say that without the victory of man over himself (due to non-introspective analysis) It will defeat Universal, with the unhappy prospect of becoming man "dinosaur" of two thousand, ie species doomed to extinction. But man, the only speck of the universe thinking, which roads can go to find himself? Only the personal soul searching can spring the new force able to put it back at the top of the ladder of living things. Who prevails? The beast or l'angelo, complacency or regret, the reality or the fantasy, the dόxa or the logos, faith or science, reality or illusion, victory or defeat? Where we place our self: in a whirlwind endless, or in a serene romantic glimpse of our land? Who dominates our thinking: nightmares born of ancient torments, or hopes for happy horizons? And that's how the interweaving of a network interwoven with arduous undertaking SWT man peering anxiously awaiting the response to the search and discovery of Truth.

Whether we find ourselves prosecutors of primordial instincts, whether we evaluate children of a heavenly creature sank in a world dominated by questionable passions after the expulsion of man from Paradise [cf. Gen 3, 23-24], We discover, however, that the soul searching that gives life to the world of art takes us on a fascinating adventure in the nature that surrounds us, and of which we are an integral part of how the wind, the rivers, the stars, the sun, wonderful works of God, despite the refusal of man corrupt in its primordial essence of original sin and often abandoned to the narrowness of his passions prevaricating, He has never ceased to come to us and love us throughout the history of our human experience, until the incarnation of the Word of God made man [cf. GV. 1,1].

The double question that De Ieso sets and enforces through his works to his interlocutors about man and nature which work of Creation, It is therefore not a cold philosophical interrogation, But the nagging question alive and to those who want to point out the great problems of today, and collaborate in remedies for the salvation of humanity and its natural environment, using the most refined expression of human production that is the art, witness material and immaterial having historical value of civilization as identity card of a people, proceeding to the recovery of breath that identity lost and perhaps lost forever, after the man came from the ancient Garden of Eden, to which he was again brought back from the Christ the Redeemer, who became the new Adam, because "as in Adam all die, so all will receive life in Christ " [cf. The Cor 15,22].

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* historian

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To read the review taken from the magazine The Sicilies click below

Licia Oddo – Jorge A Facio Lynx: "Quirino DE IESO THROUGH Arte E Koine"

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NOTE

[1] C. Vicari, As the 800 was the introduction to contemporary art, in Italian art in the second half of the twentieth century.: Tradition and Vanguard, Piacenza, 1980, p.5
[2] Ossani Silipo, General Character of Art between the new and the old, in Italian art in the second half of the twentieth century.: Tradition and Vanguard, Piacenza, 1980, p. 21
[3] Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo, The Sicilies, pag. 96 [cf. WHO]
[4] This interpretation is the understanding of the art of Panofsky,It corresponds to a third and final phase which provides the intrinsic meaning of the work itself: analysis iconologic. Captures beyond reason and beyond the stories symbolic values, evaluating political tendencies, religious, philosophical and social personality of the artist who is in the age in which he lives.

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one of the last images of the painter Quirino De Ieso, 2006

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DOCUMENTS ARCHIVE

(attached to the biography of Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo)

certificates of the sacred ordination of Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo and mandate to exercise the sacred ministry

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Vicariate of Rome, 4 May 2010 – Certificate of priestly ordination of Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo, signed by the then Vicegerent Archbishop H.E. Mons. Luigi Moretti

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2 May 2010, document known as celebret with which the Diocesan Bishop confers on the presbyter the faculties he deems appropriate and which at the time was written in three languages ​​having already agreed with the Bishop to travel and stay in various European countries for pastoral and study reasons

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2 May 2010 – conferring the ministry of exorcist

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- Letters from readers of 'Patmos Island —

DONKEY IN CHAIR AND ACCUSATIONS OF HERESY: A BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF OUR CENSORS

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More Bishops of various dioceses, in camera of love they told me to have a hard time giving mandate to religious educators, giving reasons for their difficulties with phrases like this: "We have such a sample from not knowing where to fish, in a sea where the fish are often worse than the one '.

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Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo

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father ariel.

I do not go into the merits of what she and Father Giovanni Cavalcoli have written wrong in recent times about marriage at the close of the synod on the family. I'll just take his latest article from whose rows [Ed. WHO] she denies that the Sacrament of Marriage administered by a priest to marry imprints in them (the spouses) a new permanent and eternal priestly character, and therefore indissoluble, it's this one, if I may say so, Heresy is beautiful and good. I wonder how she is left free to sow such thoughts, I tell him with fraternal correction spirit, as secular and modest as a religion teacher in schools in part to 7 year old, and as a parish catechist from 15 year old. You are a priest, and this can have particular credit, inducing others to err more than the simple.

Letter Signed

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Dear Reader.

For years I pray that the state is there to the rescue by abolishing the teaching of Catholic religion in schools of the Italian Republic. Let me be clear: I do not tell her in my reply, and in this particular context, because it is an idea that I keep repeating time and that I expressed no fear at even bishops, including a pair of prominent members of the Italian Episcopal Conference.

It is not a question of generalizing nor do all with the same brush, because I unfortunately touched the distressing level hand that winds among the teachers of this subject; and this does not in particular localities and regions of our country, but throughout our national territory; without prejudice teachers that are properly prepared, however, few and unfortunately always less.

More Bishops of various dioceses, in camera of love they told me to have a hard time giving mandate to religious educators, giving reasons for their difficulties with phrases like this: "We have such a sample from not knowing where to fish, in a sea where the fish are often worse than the one '.

After this introduction I reply to his statement, which starts with an accusation of "heresy" and ends with a "fraternal correction".

I dont know where he studied theology and especially such as have studied, because she demonstrates dramatically to ignore the basic fundamentals of the Discipline of the Sacraments, without touching even the complex and articulated sectors of the dogmatic sacramentaria.

The Christian marriage is a supernatural for the setting up of an only priesthood home through two baptized, a man and a woman, that through baptism - which gives a character - received the royal priesthood of Christ, also called the common priesthood of the baptized.

The marriage union is not a "new priesthood”, because the sacrament of marriage does not leave a character, least of all permanent and eternal, It is the union of two priesthoods in one that lasts only as long is the union, ie for how long the life of the spouses, therefore does not require a perpetual inseparability.

You are confusing the discipline of the sacrament of marriage with that of the Holy Order that imprints instead an indelible and eternal character, because those who have been made partakers of the Ministerial Priesthood of Christ, these remain forever, having acquired mystery of grace for a dignity that makes the upper Priests to them God's Angels, Angels who step aside before the Priests.

Very Serious is then his claim concerning the marriage sacrament administered by the priest to marry, because this sacrament is administered by Priest. In the Catholic Church the ministers of the sacrament, the spouses, so if it is they who administer it. If you belong to the Christian Orthodox Church, in this case the minister of marriage is the Bishop, which he gives authority to his priests to administer this sacrament.

What the Catholic Church are the celebrants of marriage the bride and groom It is considered by the Christian Orthodox Church thing "derived from medieval theological legalism which came to consider marriage with legal categories of the contract '. Indeed, according to the Orthodox sacramentalisti: "From this was born the logical conclusion to consider how the central figures “Contracting”, while the authority that presides - Bishop, Priest or Deacon - limited only to ratify the Church's blessing ". This is the reason why in the Orthodox Church, the Deacons, They can not officiate at the wedding, not having power priestly. Beyond the legitimate opinions of the Orthodox brothers we must recognize that, in order to avoid “confusion”, in the Catholic Churches of the Eastern rite it is prohibited to our deacons to celebrate marriage rites, What are granted to those of the Latin rite, as simple “assistants” of the couple-celebrants.

If you think that my thoughts conform to the doctrine and discipline of the Sacraments are heretical, in this case ask without delay to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and the Bishop having canonical jurisdiction over me, while i, for what it is about what the grave she stated in her capacity as a religion teacher in role 7 year old, not at all I will turn to his Diocesan Ordinary, knowing how time lost contact to the bishops in matters before them, despite their objective gravity, the prompt response and they often date is as follows: "And what can I do?».

The Lord bless you.

ARE BUGGERANDO THE HOLY FATHER: WE PROTECT PETER! THE WORST OCAPS TRANSFORMERS ARE COMING IN PAUPERISTIC GLORY TO THE EPISCOPATE

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The Holy Father Francis immediately gave precise and clear directives for the selection of new bishops who he believes correspond to certain "schemes", with all the risk that this may entail, seen and considered that a bishop must not conform to the "fashion" of a scheme, but to the grace of God and to the actions that flow from it. But there's more: the Prince of the Apostles was never commissioned by Christ to create duplicates in his image and likeness, but rather to exalt in Christ the mystery of our image and likeness to God. And to understand these obvious things, you don't need to be one at all pope theologian, all that is needed is simple and basic pastoral common sense. The problem, so, it should be to give good bishops to the Church; that they are as good as Christ wants them, not as "I want them". That correspond to specific patterns of divine grace, certainly not those fashions so well represented by Severino Boethius: «The external forms are like wildflowers, that wither and change with the change of season ".

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Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo

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Can a presbyter give a severe warning to bishops who are clothed with the fullness of that apostolic priesthood which he does not have? And, by imperative of conscience it can and must do so, if the bishops turn out to be cowards. The Blessed Apostle Paul protected the Blessed Apostle Peter in Antioch from his limitations and frailties which were generating serious risks for the entire Church of Christ [Gal 2, 11-14]. Every bishop who, while perceiving the danger, does not protect Peter, even to the detriment and detriment of himself, preferring to take refuge in the cowardly omissions and conformity of the quiet life, it brings immense damage to the Church and compromises the eternal health of one's soul. Because if so much has been given to us by God, so much we will have to answer to God in proportion for what He has given us. And today we find ourselves being in the hands of bishops retreating more and more into calculated cowardice.

Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo

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A reader asked me if I had borderline wit, and in this regard he stated: «You go from criticizing the Supreme Pontiff to defending him to the bitter end and vice versa». I explained to him that this very element constitutes in itself a denial of the borderline spirit. Also for this reason the Fathers ofPatmos Island have often clarified that when the Roman Pontiff expresses himself as a private doctor, when speaking extemporaneously, or when he makes purely "administrative" choices, may be the subject of our union, provided that our legitimate criticism is moved - as Giovanni Cavalcoli has explained several times in several of his theological articles [cf. WHO, WHO] – from deep respect and veneration towards his sacred person. When, on the other hand, he acts and expresses himself as the supreme guardian of the deposit of credit, or when on his own authority – by the proper motion of the Supreme Pontiff – establishes new disciplines or pastoral guidelines, in this case it cannot be subject to any union; and against some of its provisions no kind of appeal is contemplated and envisaged [cf. CIC, can. 333 §3], including the stock “referendarie” complete with a collection of signatures, as some Catholics whose names I can't remember have done recently.

The discourse on the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff is clarified in a masterly and magisterial way in a document by Saint John Paul II in which the three different degrees of infallibility are specified [cf. Apostolic letter To protect the faith, WHO].

the Father Ariel attends the’Alzheimer Cafe and then he doesn't remember things …

That on the columns of our online magazine always defend the sacred person, the magisterium and provisions of the Supreme Pontiff, this does not mean that everything has led us to lose the perception of the objective human defects of man Jorge Mario Bergoglio. For we are not like them the clergyman more the clergyman by the Pope himself, nor like those subjects who, like real snipers stationed on the roofs, are ready to open fire on every gesture and sigh of the legitimate Successor of Peter and Supreme Head of the Apostolic College, up to deliberately misunderstanding what in itself would have no reason to be misunderstood; because the forms of contempt that certain pseudo-Catholics belonging to so-called circles “traditionalists” publicly demonstrate towards the Holy Father Francis, are not in any way and in any form acceptable. Unfortunately, due to amnesia due to the disease of Alzheimer that is devastating me, I don't remember the name of these circles and their patrons, but it adds nothing and takes nothing away from the meaning of what I am claiming.

Archbishop of Buenos Aires, before his election to the sacred throne

I have complained before that in my opinion the man Jorge Mario Bergoglio is certainly burdened by all the anti-Roman prejudices typical of certain ecclesiastical psychologies that were formed in Latin America in the seventies; and my opinion remains in all respects always questionable. However, the problem is of no small importance at a time when this man is no longer the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, but the Roman Pontiff; called “Roman” not for a local delimitation, nor for who knows what "glories" and "imperial glories" of the past, but because Rome has always been a symbol and paradigm of Catholic universality, as in different but similar respects is Jerusalem. All with all due respect to certain Argentine psychologies, convinced that the earthly Paradise was in Argentina and that there, in truth, Adam and Eve were created. In fact, many Argentines are convinced that the Incarnate Word was born in ancient Judea only to technical glitches, all due to the fact that the Creator did not catch the expression of pleasure of the begotten uncreated Son consubstantial with the Father, that he would have liked to come to light in Buenos Aires, not in Bethlehem.

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pictorial image of the Holy Doctor of the Church Alfonso Maria de’ Liguori

We have been hearing the phrase repeated for several years now: "We have to start over...". And each indicates a fundamental point from which to start again: culture, the doctrine, the pastoral, the council … and so on. Personally it is from 2008 that - maybe wrong? ― I insist writing and affirming that it is necessary to start again from the Bishops and then start again from the priests. In fact, to have good priests it is essential to have good bishops; otherwise you can't start from scratch.

In the 17th century Alfonso Maria de' Liguori, Bishop of Sant'Agata de' Goti, future saint and doctor of the Church, he expressed very severe words making harsh analyzes on the disastrous situation of the episcopate of the Bourbon Kingdom, where dioceses were often entrusted to mediocre and arrogant bishops who behaved like high notables, rather than as shepherds in the care of souls. Complaints that different in form but similar in substance resurface in the 19th century from the lips and pen of Blessed Antonio Rosmini, which indicated the way in which the origin of some of the main wounds of the Church derived from the episcopate and from a lack of adequate training given by the bishops to their future priests, or their priests.

to open the funny video by Bruno Bozzetto, click WHO

To understand certain choices and ways of acting of the Holy Father you have to immerse yourself in the Latin American mentality, but making a proper premise: saying Latin America runs the risk of saying everything and nothing. To say then: “the Latin Americans” and draft some analyses, it is misleading. It would be like saying: “the Europeans”, or “the Africans”, thus confusing the fragmented and complex psychological characteristics of certain social contexts. Example: Italy is located in Europe as are Germany and Holland, so the Italians are Europeans, the Germans and the Dutch. Having said that, let's take two “Europeans”: the Neapolitan-type and an inhabitant of the City of Hanover, in Northern Germany. Let's put them both at a red light on a street, while on the other side it seems that no one is coming; and let's see which one is different Europeanness they will demonstrate the European citizen of Naples and the European citizen of Hanover. The first, just to run a red light and get away with it - being in part cunning and in part anarcoide ―, he would even be willing to iron over his mother; The second one, with red, he would never pass even if his mother was across the street being beaten by a group of Turkish immigrants; he would wait for the green and then rush at them.

click to open Bruno Bozzetto's funny video WHO

All this must be combined with those typical instinctive mechanisms rooted in the anthropological structure of these different subjects: if a pedestrian approaches a pedestrian crossing in the Bavarian capital, the cars stop instantly, and no motorist will ever think of honking behind the one who dared to stop to let people cross. Smell, motorists, they accelerate to prevent pedestrians from crossing pedestrian crossings; and if a motorist dares to stop, from behind the others honk it with their horns.

Beyond these different social behaviors however, there are other implications as well: if in Rome a pedestrian crosses outside the pedestrian crossing, or if it passes on the crossroads with the red light, instinctively the motorist brakes and avoids it, then if anything stick your head out the window and using the Roman ritual of sacramentals his father blesses him, Mother, the brothers, her sisters and all of her dead. If in Munich a pedestrian does such a thing, instinctively the motorist does not brake and goes straight towards him; and after having spread it under the wheels, he sues to ask for damages, because the person invested ended up under his wheels because he was wrong and hitting the bodywork of his car with his body caused him damage for which, the driver, now demands due compensation.

cartoon on the Holy Father Francis, notorious fan of the Argentinean football club San Lorenzo. To see the photos of the cartoons reported by Avvenire, click WHO

These examples to try to clarify what words like Africa, America Latina, Europa, in fact they only indicate geographical extensions, or entire continents within which there are countries very different from each other, inhabited by populations with characteristics opposite to those of their neighbors and their distant ones. This goes as far as to say that the terrible character of the Argentines, their congenital stubbornness, their being indomitable and extravagant Argentine-centric, they have always constituted social-characteristic elements that make them, for this reason, an object of irony for other populations of Latin America. And certain characteristics typical of the psychology of his people, the man Jorge Mario Bergoglio summarizes them all; starting from the fact that a delicate dimension of universality cannot be managed while remaining anchored to patterns of provincialism argentinocentrico; nor can they be imagined villas miseries O slums where these do not exist, but consequently behaving as if they really existed, because the miseries and poverty of Italy or of European countries in general are quite different.

The renewal of the Argentine passport by the Roman Pontiff, who, moreover, and not least is also the Head of a sovereign state, the Vatican City.

Although some might argue that it was another world, history and times, the fact remains that when the Venerable Pontiff Pius XII, which also embodied the Roman world; or when the very Italian Blessed Pontiff Paul VI addressed Italian Catholics in greetings or official speeches, they used expressions of this kind: "The Lord bless your beloved country ... on this occasion we address a special thought to the inhabitants of this country of yours". It was only St. John Paul II, born and raised in Poland, that precisely because "not Italian" was addressing our country by saying "Italy", or using it a few times, at the beginning of his pontificate - precisely because he was "foreign" -, the expression "our Italy". Neither to the Servant of God Pius XII nor to St. John XXIII, it never occurred to Blessed Paul VI or John Paul I to renew, by Supreme Pontiffs, the Italian passport, nor to St. John Paul II the Polish one, nor to Benedict XVI that of the Federal Republic of Germany. The renewal of the passport of the Argentine Republic by the Supreme Pontiff Francis - che, needless to remember, is also a Sovereign Head of State -, it is a gesture to be analyzed within the behavioral patterns of the so-called argentinate typical of human psychology Argentine-centric.

the Holy Father during one of his homilies at the Domus Martae Sactae, during which he addressed numerous profound thoughts and precious pastoral indications, if the secularist press, with his size&wash, had not repeatedly put in his mouth what he never said, or phrases extrapolated from far more complex thoughts

Various apologists could be narrated about the Holy Father, starting from the resounding beatings given to the episcopate and the clergy. Beatings that could be an expression of authentic and precious charity, if they were bestowed with the clarity and firmness with which he bestowed them in the 1935 the Venerable Pope Pius XI, of which I recommend reading the splendid and current encyclical dedicated to the priestly ministry: To the Catholic priesthood [cf. WHO]. Instead, what we notice in the Holy Father Francis is sometimes a tendency to express himself and act on the impulses of the Argentinian passion. I cite one example among many concerning an issue I wrote about last year [cf. My previous article, WHO], after the Holy Father had given yet another beating to the clergy with this phrase expressed during one of his morning homilies in Santa Marta:

"How many times we see that entering a church still today there is no price list: for baptism, the blessing, intentions for commissioning. And the people are shocked » [cf. Vatican radio, WHO].

A "poor church for the poor"? But whoever thinks this way should avoid going to embrace the rich evangelical pastors who make their own money status symbol. To open the video click WHO

The Holy Father, as demonstrated by the text of his homily, apply to Italy criteria that are not ours, indeed they are just strangers to us. And indeed, in the second part, he refers to his experience in Argentina. Apart from this: the thing that greatly struck the clergy to whom that slap was intended, it was the way the Holy Father then went to Caserta to visit, embrace and ask even Pentecostals for forgiveness [cf. WHO], whose shepherds do have real tariffs, as well as collecting tithes from their own faithful. And since tithes are paid in proportion to income, it is easy to say how much i “good shepherds” court the rich and how little court they do instead to the poor of those villas miseries that the Holy Father likes so much. And when they come to preach in some of their communities, far from arriving dressed in a sack with a pilgrim's stick in hand, flaunt cars, particularly luxurious clothes and accessories, also indicating through their outward appearance that like the stars successful are highly regarded, consequently well paid for their oratorical talent; several of them even arrive in their own private plane. Many Pentecostal pastors who, mixing God and Mammon, they even say that «the wallet is the heart's box opener» [cf. WHO]. All the more reason to ask: it was necessary to slap the priests and then go and embrace the pastors-entrepreneurs Pentecostals who come to preach in theaters rented for thousands of euros, after parking their Mercedes at the entrance and gesturing on stage in front of the audience with gold Rolexes on their wrists and Giorgio Armani suits on? Someone has by chance informed the Holy Father that certain Pentecostal pastors, in Italy, for a shouting sermon “alleluia” e … “a round of applause to the Holy Spirit! “, at the end of their pneumatological heretical rants they come out after an hour with a cash check 5.000 euros in your pocket?

Giovanni Cecini's book dedicated to the historiography of the Israeli military during the Fascist period. Click to read the historical review WHO

It was really necessary to apologize profusely for persecutory responsibilities that Italian Catholics do not have at all towards Pentecostals, since the fascist regime has such responsibilities? Some might argue that some of the persecutors had been baptized into the Catholic Church; and this perhaps suffices to make the Church and Catholics co-responsible? Because with the same logic we should then remember that the fascist power of Ferrara, Renzo Ravenna, he was a Jew, who as such had been circumcised as a child, and at the same time he was also president of the local Jewish community. Just as the deputy chief general of the state police was Jewish under the fascist regime, Dante Almansi, former fascist prefect, who was also president of the Jewish communities of Italy. They were well 250 the Italian Jews who participated with Benito Mussolini in the March on Rome and numerous other Italian Jews were loyal Fascists of the first hour. Nevertheless, I am not aware that the Grand Rabbi of Rome has ever apologized to the Jews for the various Jews highly compromised at an institutional level with the fascist regime; and this for an obvious fact: the Union of Jewish Communities of Italy and Italian Jews, they have no historical responsibility for the infamous persecutions suffered by the 1938 on, just as we Catholics have none for the persecutory actions of the fascists towards the Pentecostals. This is to reiterate that you cannot launch into certain “emotional adventures” style pampero without first having known and assimilated a deep knowledge of the complex history of Italy. It was therefore really necessary to embrace and apologize to the wealthy elders of the Pentecostal sect, when not a few Italian parish priests who have seen that slap bestowed by the Holy Father, they then have serious difficulty paying the church electricity bill, often paid for by their elderly parents with money raised from their modest pensions?

the book by Ariel S, Levi di Gualdo: bitter herbs, the century of Zionism, published in 2006 and soon to be reprinted with a new publishing house

For some children, having to acknowledge the limitations of one's father, it's never pleasant, but sometimes it's necessary just to confirm to yourself and to others that anyway, in spite of everything and beyond everything, he is our legitimate father and as such deserves our deepest respect; and that anyway, although also burdened by limits and an imprudent spirit - as indeed, even more than him, was Peter personally chosen by the Lord Jesus—, at the right moment, «again», he will "confirm" always and in the best way "the brothers in the faith" [cf. Lk. 22, 31-34].

The Church cannot be governed with schemes standard similar to those of fashions, but above all it cannot be governed with the popular national passions typical of the warlords. In my previous article already mentioned [cf. WHO] I spoke with all concern about the case of the new "fashion" through which bishops are selected today, presupposition of which is that of having been - really or by fiction - at the service of the poor and marginalized, to have attended immigrant centers and visited Roma camps. I had to write about this too with a touch of painful irony [cf. WHO], why read the "files" for the presentation of the new bishops, if it weren't tragic it would induce a smile. Let's take one of these as an example “cards”, because it contains those key elements that have been repeated for two years now in the "files" of all the new bishops, or at least nine out of ten:

«[…] Particular attention to the poor, underlined by Cardinal Vallini, who recalled the visits to some Roma camps in which don Lojudice has accompanied over the years: a reality of "frontier" that the bishop-elect had chosen to follow a few years ago along with a group of students of the Roman major Seminary, where was spiritual father by 2005 al 2014. A sign of recognition by Pope Francis "for the diocese's commitment to charity - said the cardinal - carried out by Caritas, Parish, by associations" [cf. WHO].

… «Difficult, make fun of those who make fun of themselves» – Father Ariel photomonted on the image of Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe holding the cruet of San Gennaro; photo released on the occasion of the memorable event “April Fool“, When the island of Pamos announced his appointment as titular bishop of Laodicea Combusta [see WHO, WHO]

Such a card, which now corresponds to the outlines of a script standard, it also accompanies the recent appointments of the bishops of two very particular sees: Bologna and Palermo. I avoid summarizing the various texts of this script lavished on these two newly elected, because anyone can go around the Internet and read the presentations made not so much by the newspapers of the secularist press, who always leaves the time he finds, but from the official press releases of the Holy See, of the dioceses, of Catholic Associations and so on. I curriculum of the new bishops are a riot of poor people, immigrants, Rom, disadvantaged of various kinds … but above all they contain authentic exaltation of social poverty; as if poverty were the supreme value, instead of a state of discomfort and suffering from which to get out and help those who really suffer to get out of it. Not to mention the obvious common sense principle: not all poor people are good, because poverty is not a prerequisite for goodness, quite the opposite. Often the poor, due to their poverty situation, they are made aggressive and mean by it, sometimes even evil. Which I am not stating by hearsay, but from pastoral experience, because despite not being born and raised in the "existential suburbs", I've had to do ― and not once by accident, just to give news of this in a curriculum - with situations in which, six or seven year olds, they had already been rendered by their environment of origin and birth of the criminals made, finished and finished, victims of unspeakable human and moral degradations. And how many of them, at eighteen years and one day, I then went to visit the prisons! But I prefer not to delve too deeply into all of this, because if I also add the declaration that I was a "pupil" of Blessed Pino Puglisi - if anything, for having glimpsed him twice, as in reality many of his heralded have glimpsed it “pupils”, including bishops - or who are a priest particularly esteemed by that populist demagogue Don Luigi Ciotti … there, in times of madness clerical-transformation running today, they would immediately set about retiring Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe to elect me Archbishop of Naples in his place.

the current models Franciscans of pastoral staffs of the new ones leopard-bishops from the Poor Church for the poor, no longer produced by skilled craftsmen and goldsmiths of the old trade, but directly from the carpenters

Never like in recent times similar falls in human and priestly dignity had been seen, all referred to those priests who until yesterday begged their bishops to place them in an office of the curia, or to send them to a pontifical university to take a doctoral degree, thus adding a piece to the passport to the episcopate. Today, these same subjects, they beg the bishops to send them to difficult "existential" parishes, where to do their utmost to open reception centers for immigrants and soup kitchens, because the Church of Christ is not the Church of all men of good will, is "the Church of the poor for the poor". And when had priests ever been seen who, after making false papers to have a teaching chair in a theological study, after having treated old parish priests for years with the snobbish typical of those who let you understand "I am an intellectual and you are a poor ignorant parish priest”, they suddenly drop everything to go and be parish priests in some "existential periphery"?

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«And behold, an old man is coming towards us by ship, white for ancient hair, shouting “Woe to you, they make anime! Never expect to see the sky" [Dante, Inferno, canto III].

For this reason I affirm that the Holy Father, passionate and perhaps not a little naive, seems not to pay any attention to the fact that some marpioni of a hair much older than what may be his "smart" Argentine hair, which compared to theirs, however, is a "milk hair”, they are literally bumming him, pretending to please him and do what he wants, just to get what they want. All of us who live in the Church of the real, not of the sentimental or worse than the ideological, we are witnesses and spectators of the fact that today, certain new careerists, wind changed and casually wore a new gabbana, they claim to come from peasant families, while in truth they come from families of agricultural entrepreneurs who usually earn in a single day what a bank employee earns in a month's salary. The dignified clothes are deposited inside the wardrobes of their private homes and the most beautiful vestments with which our churches are equipped are locked up in those of the sacristies, they go around more sloppy than resigned, and their liturgical vestments are a triumph of cheap acrylic rags. The pectoral crosses and the new pastoral staffs of the new bishops of the Poor Church for the poor they are no longer produced by good craftsmen and goldsmiths with decades, sometimes with centuries of tradition in the manufacture of liturgical articles; they are produced directly by the carpenters, why the new “ecclesiastical fashion” — Cardinal of Lampedusa docet — now imposes pectoral crosses and wooden pastoral staffs. And while the devout faithful truly and deeply suffer in seeing their own bishops reduced to the often most ridiculous pauperistic slovenliness, those who don't even go to church for Christmas and Easter and who don't even know the first five words of the "Creed", instead they magnify the simplicity and poverty of the bishop in hand, obviously continuing not to go to church even for Christmas and Easter, But … "Ah, he is a humble and poor bishop, just like Pope Francis!».

the Holy Father Francis receives the imposition of ashes in the Dominican basilica of Sant'Alessio on the Aventine Hill

In a beautiful exhortation addressed to the members of the Coordinating Committee of CELAM, the Latin American Episcopal Council, the Holy Father stated: «The bishop is a pastor close to the people, do not lord it over or have the psychology of a prince, but you love external and internal poverty" [cf. WHO]. Poverty, evangelically understood, which in certain respects is a close relative of the spirit of penance, but it is not external, but all internal, according to what Christ God says: « When you fast, do not assume a melancholy air like the hypocrites, who disfigure their faces to show men that they are fasting. Truly, I say: They have already received their reward. You instead, when you fast, perfume your head and wash your face, so that people don't see that you fast, but only your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, It will reward you " [cf. Mt 6, 17-18].

cardinal's choir dress

The recent history of the Italian episcopate it is also full of extraordinary figures of bishops who are in public, until their extreme old age, they have always presented themselves with the sober dignity of the princes of the Church; they always dressed in fine fabrics and used the best vestments in their cathedral churches. Only after their death was it discovered that every penny that entered their pockets went out shortly after to enter those of the most disadvantaged families. And their death, their bodies, they were dressed in their best clothes and vestments, and they were all they had left, because in their completely empty chest they hadn't even left the money for their own funeral expenses. We can say the same, in the near future, of that class of new bishops who on the one hand are covered with cheap acrylics, who compete in the show of the most "humble" wooden pectoral cross, but who at the same time are preparing the super attic or the precious country house in which to retire to a quiet life as bishops emeritus? I personally know a bishop who is a triumph of second-hand flea market vestments, who proceeds with the wooden pastoral, the wooden pectoral cross around the neck, who doesn't want to be called “Excellence” ma “Dad”, which he recently gave away 10.000 euros of pocket money to his lazy nephew who, at the tender age of 32 year old, after eight years off course he finally graduated. And here it is the case to say: … and having said that, I will stop without proceeding further with other painful examples linked to those bishops of today who outwardly correspond to the pastoral styles of the Holy Father Francis.

when we bowed with devotion to kiss the hand to the fullness of the apostolic priesthood of our bishops, instead of clapping their hands on their shoulders and welcoming them to the sound of guitars singing «you are one of us» …

The Holy Father Francis immediately gave precise and clear directives for the selection of new bishops that he wants to correspond to certain "schemes", with all the risk that this may entail, seen and considered that a bishop must not conform to the "fashion" of a scheme, but to the grace of God and the actions that flow from it. But there's more: the Prince of the Apostles was never commissioned by Christ to create duplicates in his image and likeness, but rather to exalt in Christ the mystery of our image and likeness to God. And to understand these obvious things, you don't need to be one at all pope theologian, all that is needed is simple and basic pastoral common sense. The problem, so, it should be to give good bishops to the Church; that they are as good as Christ wants them, not as "I want them". That correspond to specific patterns of divine grace, certainly not those fashions so well represented by Severino Boethius: «The external forms are like wildflowers, that wither and change with the change of season».

the current models Franciscans of pectoral crosses of the new ones leopard-bishops from the Poor Church for the poor, no longer produced by skilled goldsmiths of the old profession, but directly from the carpenters

Through this new batch of “Poor bishops for the poor ”, the Holy Father undoubtedly wants to send a message to the Italian Church which in his opinion perhaps deserves a very special lesson. What must be recognized to the Holy Father is his admirable audacity and the spirit of the general leader ready to govern and, if necessary, to impose himself, as it should be. However, I fear that he is missing an element that one day could even prove fatal: the Italians ― also known as ocelots, not only in Sicily but throughout our peninsula ―, they are much older and more shrewd than the Argentines; and the Italian Church predates the birth of the Society of Jesus itself by centuries and centuries. Or as I said years ago to a young Argentine priest convinced he could learn German in a few weeks: "You see, dear Brother, German is a language that due to its structure and its pronunciation, deserves at least a modicum of awe". And obviously, from good argentinocentrico, never learned German, but not his fault, the fault turned out to lie entirely with the German language.

no one has yet informed the Holy Father that the German one has always been considered the richest Church in the world?

Italian ecclesiastical psychology perhaps it too deserves - I am not saying "reverent awe" - but total prudence, because it is as a people, both for social mores, political and ecclesiastical, we are the undisputed masters of turncoats and change-makers; we are the unbeatable specialized in singing the most disparate different political anthems to the notes of the same band, because we are anciently and dangerously Italian. And maybe, someone, he has already made up his mind that to deceive a “young” and passionate Argentine is all in all child's play; a game, precisely, Italian style.

Is finally wonder If the Church's children are Italian, as such, children of a Lesser God. For example, compared to the Germans. Come May, in Germany, contrary to what is happening in Italy, It is not enforced and multiplied certain types corresponding to those bishops' pastoral criteria "amiably" imposed "by the Holy Father Francis? And if we talk of spirit or even more princely feudal spirit, despite all their romanofobo progressivism applicable, we all know what the Germans by far exceed in what Italians; not discussed even in the discourse of shameless wealth of the German Church, or tax revenue that benefits, by comparison with which the Eight Thousand Italian is little more than a mite.

a group of German cardinals, in the center the Metropolitan Archbishop of Munich

Perhaps the Germans are considered by the Argentine psychology of the man Jorge Mario Bergoglio of the children of a greater god, because no one has yet occurred to him to impose a parish priest from the German diocese “existential suburbs” who spent his ministry, for real or fake, to serve meals to immigrants, or to do pastoral work of evangelization among prostitutes in Hamburg. And indeed, German bishops still they continue to have business cards that open into four sections to contain within them all the academic specialist, doctorates, the long line of master postdoctoral, their scientific publications and so on. From this we must deduce that certain criteria of the Holy Father, like the one below, are applicable only to children of the lesser god, where he indicates the selection criteria for new bishops:

«He is a great theologian, a big head: that he goes to university, where it will do so much good! Shepherds! We need it! Let them be, fathers and brothers, are mild, patient and merciful; who love poverty, interior as freedom for the Lord and also exterior as simplicity and austerity of life, who do not have a psychology of principles, that are not ambitious, who do not seek the episcopate" [cf. WHO].

to the Italian episcopate the stick to the German one the carrot …

In short, to the Germans the carrot to the Italians the stick, since both are wrong, but especially, the underlying error, it's in the evaluation: the Germans, over time, they have lost all the wars, for this they are trying to win the "economic war" on the skin of Europe, that in the end they won't win, because the loss is part of their ancient collective unconscious desire to “atonement”. Italians, the reckoning, they have won wars even when they have apparently perso, leaping like unsurpassed athletes from one chariot to another, today with the gold cross around his neck, tomorrow with the wooden one, why the fire passion of the various Bergoglios, he arrives, burn and pass, but the Catholic and papist Roman spirit and the Christian Italian spirit remain, with all the sincere respect for … Don’t cry for me Argentina, do not Cry for Me Argentina [cf. video by Evita Peron, WHO].

Here's what it means, and here is the substantial difference between being an old Italian and instead being a young Argentinian, sure in good faith and with the best intentions of being able to inaugurate overnight, on the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, guarded for two millennia by the Italian Church for the universal Church, a church from soap opera sentimental-pauperista, where for directing needs, accepted by many actors for purely personal gain, even the rich pretend to be poor to please the new director. Or to put it in other words: even for a Supreme Pontiff it can be very risky to play with the old and dangerous ones ocelots Italians. So let the Holy Father Francis learn at least from more recent history, that of its predecessor, who knew the dangerous ones well ocelots, given that he lived in the Roman curia for almost half a century; and despite, the painful epilogue was what it was …

The Holy Father and Don Luigi Ciotti – Someone tell the Holy Father to keep away from these subjects. And if he really wants to shake his hand, who gives it to their face to subtract them from their own indomitable ego and call them back to their authentic priestly duties [cf. WHO]

To be heard or to be heard from an anthropologically hard head like that of the man Jorge Mario Bergoglio is not easy and can involve serious risks. However, if the Supreme Pontiff is buggered in this way before our eyes, perhaps it would be appropriate to at least try to warn him. For example by warning him that the anime pie which the bishops have just packaged for two important Italian sees, Palermo and Bologna, on the one hand they numbed him with wonderful stories about two model candidates who embody the idea of Poor Church for the poor, conform as such to his desire for revolution, ma, at the same time, however, they let two elements pass under his nose that were formed according to the schemes of the “improve” catholic-communist progressivism of the Dossettians, or gods Radical-chic of the Community of Sant'Egidio who arrive with the Porsche Cayenne to serve meals to the poor. Two new bishops raised by theologians of questionable doctrine of the caliber of Giuseppe Ruggieri, bred at pane&Rahner and stuffed with the best of the worst of the authors of the New Theology. And these bishops, tomorrow, they will favor the appointment of bishops just like them; of subjects who without restraint and modesty have already put themselves on the list and therefore launched into their unbridled courtship. For this I say: those who are close to the Holy Father and can speak to him and express opinions, not warning him of his dangerous errors of evaluation and choice, not explaining to him which appointments i ocelots they are inducing it behind the flattery of the ideal candidate as devoted heart and soul to the poor, they end up falling into the grave sin of omission, doing grave damage to the Church and far greater damage to one's own immortal soul, since these days, the streets of Hell, they risk being paved over with bishops, of cardinals and priests “poor for the poor” who slyly launched into an ecclesiastical career in a much more unscrupulous way than what happened previously, being even more mediocre and even less Catholic than those who preceded them.

Said one of the characters of The Leopard: “If we want everything to stay as it is, everything needs to change". Having said that I add: one can be Supreme Pontiffs, you can be real or presumed smart Argentines, one can be a Jesuit with the winding complex of having one step more cunning than the others, you can be anything you want, but to defend against the dangerous and ancient ones ocelots, we need to know them and know how to fight them with the weapons of holy prudence and holy wisdom through unceasing openness to the gifts of God's grace, otherwise one day, turning around, it is suddenly discovered that they have been locked up in a cage, without even knowing how it was possible to end up in it.

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The leopard, work of the Italian scholar Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

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