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The website of this magazine and the editions take name from the Aegean island in which the Blessed Apostle John wrote the Book of the Apocalypse, isola also known as «the place of the last revelation»
«God revealed the secrets of others ALTIUS»
(in higher than the others, John has left the Church, the arcane mysteries of God)
The bezel used as the cover of our home page is a 16th century fresco by Correggio. preserved in the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Parma
Creator and editor of this magazine website:
MANUELA LUZZARDI
Since I have clearly been accused of being one of those intolerant Catholics who ruin the work of tolerant Catholics, I would like to point out that my discussions with homosexual brothers focus primarily on the fact that in nature, apart from very rare chromosomal aberrations, men have XY chromosomes and women have XX chromosomes.
GENTILE FLAMBEAU,
THIS COMMENT OF HIS, INITIALLY PUBLISHED, IT WAS DELETED AT THE REQUEST OF SEVERAL READERS WHO FELT PERSONALLY OFFENDED BY THE TRULY AND UNTRUE JUDGMENTS THAT YOU HAVE EXPRESSED ABOUT FATHER IVANO AND ME
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo, presbyter
There is no discussion about the viper, Personally I would have said much worse.
Then, give of “Don Abbondio” to Father Ivano, like this, with the utmost nonchalance, and moreover by a … very brave anonymous.
But why, Post comments like this?
Just trash them, it wouldn't be better?
Dear Brother,
you are right, but the thing is a little’ more complex, I try to explain myself.
Many people don't just ask questions but also write comments on articles, which can be positive or negative.
If we only published positive comments, we would make use and abuse of readers selected for “self-congratulatory praise”.
Therefore, it is necessary and proper to also publish negative critical comments, sometimes even highly negative critics, sometimes insolent and sometimes even offensive.
What should not be published, however, are deeply offensive comments written, always and rigor, by anonymous people.
We need to give a realistic vision of things and therefore of reality, also accepting negative and mocking comments, as long as they do not exceed, as I just explained to you, the limits of good taste and decency, or comments that instead contain obvious falsehoods or heresies presented as truths of faith.
Dear Brother,
at the request of a reader who sent us a very touching letter, Mrs. Luisa M. Handserved, then taking into account your public comment, by Don Ciro (Naples) and several other private comments that have reached us, we removed Flambeau's comment, to which you too had responded in a tone of disappointment.
Father Ivano a “Don Abbondio”?
In practice, it's like rewriting history and stating that Leo the Great went to meet Attila, he got off his horse, she threw herself on the ground at his feet and, crying and trembling with fear, begged him, saying … compassion, have mercy on me!
In my opinion, the heat creates devastating side effects for some people.
At the request of a reader who sent us a very touching letter, Mrs. Luisa M. Handserved, we removed Flambeau's comment, to which Don Ciro had responded with this post of his.
Nothing to say about limiting the damage. On the contrary. Moreover, I don't think she's wrong; still 20-25 Years ago, appearing as homosexual or transsexual was a stigma. But that doesn't mean it's something to be proud of. What I meant to say is that the so-called homosexual culture has become so imposed that everyone accepts as obvious a series of terms and concepts that are not at all. You will certainly have noticed how for about ten years now many young people have now considered homosexuality as something completely normal or rather live in the pansexualist idea according to which, precisely, there isn't one “measure” of sexuality. Therefore, – and maybe I didn't make myself understood -, I believe nothing should be conceded to the homosexual mentality, because it necessarily brings with it a distorted vision of reality, unless the person himself realizes he is wrong and tries to change his life, naturally.
Thank you for your prayers which I will try to reciprocate.
… I think everyone, dear Don Ettore, we have known homosexuals who have never proudly flaunted their homosexual condition, unlike what happens today. How true what you say between the lines is, that is, that sexual gender is not a choice, nor could I get up tomorrow morning saying that I feel like a man and that I expect to be accepted as I subjectively feel, except to prosecute in accordance with the law anyone who reminds me that I am a woman and that this is the factual reality. So it's true that homosexualism, understood as ideology, port, as she says, or worse, tries to impose, a distorted view of sexuality.
Long would be the speech, as you well know, of teaching gender in schools, why transmit to children, so profoundly influenceable and manipulable, the concept that sexual gender is not something innate since the formation of the fetus in the mother's womb, but a free choice of the person, it would produce disasters that one would prefer not to even think about at the moment.
Dear Father Ivano,
very good article, like always, the rest.
This happened last Sunday: a gay couple attended Mass in my parish hand in hand, with an attitude that to say is provocative would be an understatement. And hand in hand they present themselves to receive Communion, which I discreetly denied him. One of the two began to rant that it was his right to receive Communion which is also given to Camorra members. I went to place the pyx on the altar because there was no point in arguing with the SS. Body of Christ in my hands and I told him yes, it could also be that the Camorra members receive Communion, however, they do not show up in church flaunting their belonging to the Camorra clans and claiming to be recognized and legitimized as such.
As you can see, father Ivano, this is already the present, without waiting for who knows what future.
I completely agree with you, that you question yourself, in the face of certain “ready” which affect all the most symbolic places for Christianity in Rome, what other matters are the members of the CEI and the Holy See busy with?. More or less like when the Gay Pride marched in front of the sanctuary of the Madonna of Pompeii.
(sent a small offering for Father Ariel's legal expenses)
I think (but maybe I'm wrong) what a certain plethora of rather strange Catholics they have, and show, a disturbing inability to understand the obvious. Or that perhaps what is obvious to us is not obvious to others?
This article is a bit’ the continuation of Father Ariel's precedent which explains the necessity of “mediation” and not of compromise. The quote from the Gospel about the king who before waging war against another king has to deal with the soldiers is very apt, with the strength he has.
Dear Father Ivano, I live in the world of school (I have been teaching middle school in a Catholic school since 30 year old), and I totally agree with you that, certain noisy Catholics can only cause serious damage, because the promoters of this bill use their aggressive and intolerant phrases to reiterate the need for this law.
How can they (I won't mention names because it's not necessary), in this very delicate moment, certain Catholic blogs and sites, even those of a certain diffusion, address the homosexual world by calling gays in a derogatory way “reversed, Sodomites, pederasty”?
These Catholics (if they are Catholic!) are working to provide reasons for the passage of this law. And tomorrow, we, we will find ourselves obliged, in private Catholic schools, to teaching gender. In such an undesirable case, I can say right now that we, our school, we'll close it without thinking about it for a moment longer, and I don't think she would be the only one to choose to close.
Thank you dear Fathers, I support you with a prayer and I have sent a small offering on behalf of our religious community for Father Ariel's court costs fund.
Sister Laura M. Michelini
Dear Sister Laura, everyone reacts as they know and as they can, but what is totally unfair in this case is that infamous liberticidal bill, not the reaction of those who can't keep quiet. That certain reactions are inappropriate seems to me to be a secondary problem, Anyway, not at all capable of propitiating the approval of the law, but this is my opinion. However, it does not seem to me to be the case with Catholics “normal” feel free to always put the cross on them “pages”, completely missing the mark, with the sole result of actually proving that those who aren't right are right (“you saw that a law is needed, even Catholics say so?”) and to cause yet another rift between the children of God. Fighting against the Zan law is fighting for freedom of thought and expression, two inalienable rights, even within the Church.
Dear Stefano,
the Catholics, the children of God, they have split by themselves and for several decades.
I do not know, whether Father Ivano or Father Ariel, However, I remember an article on this island in which it was explained in a lucid way (I am quoting from memory) that Catholics rushed to the polls to vote in favor of the referendum on abortion and the following Sunday they went back to washing their hands in holy water fonts.
I'm not a theologian, I studied classics, but I know and have taught the catechism for many years. So the theological Fathers of the Island can explain it much better than me “original sin”, of which we are not to blame, but which has been transmitted to us with all that it entails.
Some of us might even say that it is not our fault but Adam and Eve's, and in fact it is their fault, but the effects of that sin fell on us who did not commit it. Maybe she didn't vote at the time (in fact who knows if he had already been born, I don't know his age), but the consequences of that army of Catholics going to the polls to vote in favor of abortion have fallen on us, in that and various other cases.
I have been reading Father Ariel for years and in his articles he has explained in depth the concept of decadence and what it produces when the threshold of no return is exceeded and it becomes irreversible., topic on which he wrote truly memorable articles.
The problem is that today, depressed Catholics, they only have the ability to listen to themselves, not the guides and teachers, to whom they are only capable of saying “I do not agree … I think that …”. And when they said “I”, with that they said it all, and the matter is more or less closed.
It may be that this law will end up invalid, But, can be finalized approved. We need to think about this second possibility, and if necessary, try to limit the extent of the potential and very serious damage that could result to us Catholics.
Father Ivano, and Father Ariel with his article from a few days ago, they asked a specific question that didn't seem to have crossed her mind, that is, that we, to the state we are reduced to today, we cannot think, it's worse to delude ourselves, to have strength (and also capacity) to fight against a very powerful and fierce international lobby such as the LGBT one.
She thinks she can? Come, by what means, resources and men? “Butter” you tend to blame the Church and the clergy, which is basically the same as saying it's Adam and Eve's fault (and it is) but this does not erase the fact of the original sin that has fallen on everyone, regardless of the direct culprits.
Fighting without means, men and resources means losing any battle, a poor woman tells him 72 years that he made his first religious profession 50 years ago wearing long, black robes, with a bandage on her face and a long veil, and I felt so comfortable, with those austere robes. Today, with a certain embarrassment, I'm forced to carry (like all my sisters), the dress just below the knees, of an indefinable color between gray and blue, because that's how it was decided, and why at the time, those like me who might have reacted to that and many other things, they didn't. Today I don't blame the Church, neither to my congregation nor to the nuns of yesterday and today, I only blame myself.
She, instead, he really thinks that it is always other people's fault and that others have to solve the problems, if anything, even in a rather unlikely way?
Sister Laura, I don't understand why you place me among a “butter” not better specified, used only to mark distances, and why you say that I accuse the Church when it is very obvious who I am angry with. Maybe I seemed hostile to her? I apologize. My intention was only to stop the friendly fire, but the more I shout, the more they shoot at me.
I think so: if the Zan law is approved, it won't be because some of us have expressed themselves in an inelegant way lately, but because this has been decided for some time in restricted international circles who have the power to impose any decision in the legislative field on states, economic and judicial (in addition to wars, pandemics and planetary vaccination plans). If it is not approved, it will only be through a direct intervention of the Madonna, which, however, he wants his children to be united (and what better cause), as well as, contrary, the Enemy wants us divided to exterminate us one by one. A divided Church scares no one, while a united Church, even if it is a minority, it is a barrier to the overflow of evil. In such a holy and far from unlikely circumstance, remember who to thank. Believe me, they won't be the ones who wanted to make deals with the devil.
She has a big problem, I tell you this with profound pastoral tenderness: first of all, he is incapable of reading and understanding what is written, he misunderstands him because he does not have the ability to listen to anyone but himself, at last, without realizing it, it also becomes insolent and offensive.
Unfortunately, to people who have articulated discourses based on common sense, the logic and undeniable reality of the facts, he didn't even realize that he had insulted them by accusing them of wanting to make deals with the devil.
She's in bad shape, My dear, which I deeply regret, but I know how difficult it is, sometimes impossible, help those who don't want to be helped and make those who refuse to articulate even elementary logical and rational reasoning think.
And finally the magic shot: the figure of the Madonna transformed into a cross between the Wizard Merlin and the Fata Morgana who at a certain point will arrive with the magic wand to solve our problems.
It's this one, she, by chance he also calls her “Catholic faith”?
P.S.
So that the Church is united, those like her must learn to listen to the masters and follow their teachings, instead of saying “I think that…” and not caring about all the teachers and priests.
Dear Father Ariel, with his ears still down after his reprimand, I come across this news relaunched by Repubblica. At least pass me this provocation – coming from me – then everyone will process the reality data as they see fit: Catholics who know how to listen?
https://www.repubblica.it/politica/2021/07/13/news/ddl_zan_appello_approvazione_cristiani_cattolici_base-310162808/
When yesterday in the Senate, for just one vote, the discussion of the Zan bill was not postponed indefinitely (read definitely sunk), moreover with the unjustified absence of seven senators between FI and Lega, I thought about who above reminded me of the good common sense of the Gospel, that is, to evaluate carefully whether it is worth going to war with 10.000 men to whoever comes to meet you with 20.000, e, if anything, Don't try to reach an agreement with him while you still have time. Too bad that this time it was the enemy who had to deal with his own first 10.000 men, while we 20.000 Boeotians with victory in hand, applying the Gospel in reverse, we immediately opted for the downward agreement. Congratulations to the CEI strategists, to say the least.
Stefano,
don't be funny enough, at least with me, then organize a signature collection to propose a referendum to repeal the law on abortion, then tell us – with numbers in hand – how many Catholics rushed to sign, numerous to the point of clogging up the squares where the signature collection stalls are located.
She lives outside the world of reality. So the problem is not ours as we try to live in reality and in the light of common sense, the problem is all his own.
Dear Father Ariel, I would never allow myself to be funny with her, in the sense of disrespecting her, I'm just trying to lighten the gravity of the situation by using irony. Nor am I angry with the fathers of the Island of Patmos for their position in favor, Let's call it that, of the “lesser evil”. My esteem for you does not change even if I consider this position to be wrong, in the first place, in the order of reason, but also in the order of faith, Why, in the dilemma between two alternative and inevitable evils, the lesser evil is indeed an obligatory choice but, certainly cannot guide a political agreement to avoid prison, in sé, it is not even a bad thing or even inevitable (especially when you can still count on a sufficient majority in Parliament to counteract the homo-trans-totalitarian drift). The story of the vote in the Senate demonstrates this (but it was already known) that there is a majority that, due to ignorance or bad faith – who can say? – some more Catholic than the others have programmatically given up on compacting, preferring that the pantomime of the fake opposition skewered by the snipers be staged, for the sole purpose of sacrificing the truth to that ideological totem called “dialogue”, refusing, even if you can, to definitively bury a liberticidal law. Now, if you wanted to refute, the merits, this thesis of mine, that is, without throwing it on a personal level, for example alluding to my alleged psychiatric problems, as if this were a decisive argument, I would be sincerely happy. I'm also a little tired of being a voice out of the chorus.
On the way to the 70 I can say that to our parents, above all, but also to us as adolescents and young people, that we were, it would never have occurred to him to insult priests as some people have taken to doing … “Catholics” on an internet often reduced by them to a great cesspool. Today we have to deal with people who don't even come to church for Christmas and Easter, but only for Christmas, that in front of less than 10 minutes of preaching throw all sorts of abuse at you, or why 10 minutes are too many, or because you didn't speak well, or because what you expressed as perfectly adhering to Catholic doctrine they don't share and if anything (it happened to me, and not just once) they also come to tell you … “ah, I don't agree with what he said”. To then return to the following Christmas, without having even the faintest idea of what happens from the beginning to the end of the Mass, and above all what is celebrated and why.
These are the “Catholics” who insult us on social media. And these Catholics should act as a barrier to the Zan bill?
Dear Sister Laura, what the Zan bill aims at is not a hypothetical protection of homosexual people from unjust physical or verbal attacks, but the tout court approval of homosexuality on a social and legal level, with the relative criminalization of all those who think differently. Condemning homosexual practice or having a healthy disgust for it must not become a pickaxe to be thrown at people, who are often ignorant or even in good faith, but we are very careful about the use of all the terminology that the homosexual world has effectively imposed: gay and in homosexual life there is nothing happy at all because it is a deadly sexuality, community, almost as if being homosexual was the basis for establishing a society within society, homophobia, when a good portion of people are not afraid of homosexuals, but annoyance and even disgust for what they usually practice, heterosexuality, when sexuality, by nature he is straight and so on. The whole homosexual movement, from its beginnings to the end of the war in the USA and a bit’ later elsewhere, it was nothing more than a demand for recognition of what he cannot have. I remember the words of John Paul II after the gay pride of 2000: they don't seem to have passed 21 year old, ma 200.
Rev.mo Don Ettore,
I had just finished replying to Stefano who, just sent the message, I read this comment of yours.
Not by the merits, completely shareable, of what you essentially say; and he states it with knowledge far superior to mine, because as a priest you exercise the ministry of confession and have very direct and profound contact with certain problems.
So I repeat that, if this bill is not killed (which as far as I'm concerned I hope), we must hope that it is approved with a whole series of amendments that safeguard freedom of opinion, expression, education and teaching, therefore the Church's freedom to transmit, teach and reiterate what is good and what is bad, what is moral and what is moral disorder etc …
As I already answered shortly before, I agree with Father Ivano and Father Ariel when they explain that we have no strength at the moment, means and soldiers to wage and win a battle against such a powerful and battle-hardened army. In my humble opinion, I consider Father Ariel's exhortation to be wise, referring to the Gospel, explains that a king cannot with 10.000 men wage war against a king who has it 20.000, he will then try to send him a peace embassy. It is not about, who, to make peace with LGBT people, but to mediate, which doesn't mean (as he explained by Father Ariel) seek compromises, which should always be avoided, but try to limit the damage as much as possible when, Unfortunately, you are not able to wage and win a war that, Unfortunately, on our part, in the state we are realistically in, it would be lost from the start.
Then it could also be that I'm wrong, if anything even in a sensational way, all the more I trust in his priestly understanding and his precious prayers.
Masterfully balanced article, wisdom and realism.
Thank you dear Father Ivano.
I also looked at the comments on Facebook … and what can I say: if Catholics were the ones who write certain things all of us, very reasonably, we should hurry to change “craft”
Luigi (Apulian priest)
For a well explained Zan bill I also suggest watching this very simple and instructive video:
https://youtu.be/3qEXM0PnN98
Bologna 13 July 2021
Very Rev. and dear Father Ariel,
I share several things with her, first of all the content of his articles and then of his books, which I have all, and on several occasions I have purchased them as gifts, especially to certain confused and lost Catholics.
I also share another thing with her: the date of birth. We were both born on 19 August, albeit with a difference: she will accomplish 58 years and me 80, so I could be his mother. And God only knows, of a priest son like her, How proud I would be!
She is an esteemed person, well-liked and followed by many, and many of us are grateful. How many doubts it has dispelled in many of us, and how many consolations he has given in years of journalistic and editorial activity!
I ask you a personal favor, which is not said to be required, in any way, to give me.
I would like you to delete the caustic and defamatory comment written by a certain Flambeau, which he is silent about “Don Abbondio” a wise priest like Father Ivano and she of other disgusting things. Finally bringing up Msgr. Antonio Love.
I was linked and for years in contact with the late Msgr. Antonio Love, I last saw him in May 2018, while I was on holiday in Trentino. In those days he held a conference in Rovereto, in the birthplace of Blessed Antonio Rosmini, which I went to hear.
On that occasion I told him that the articles I read on the Island of Patmos were comforting to me, online magazine he co-founded. Monsignor replied verbatim: “Father Ariel is a theologian of great doctrine and profound human and moral depth. He does not negotiate the truth and is not accommodating on certain theological issues, because you don't have to be. If he had bargained on the truth, today he would hold a chair in some Roman pontifical university and would later be made a bishop”.
These words, Mgr. Livi, he didn't tell them to me, face to face, but in the presence of my husband, of my daughter, of my eldest nephew and three of his friends, I assume they were organizers of the event, therefore six eyewitnesses.
I also know that, in the acute period of his illness, she worked very hard for him. Which I don't think those who today try to use his name in a false way have done.
Only intellectually dishonest individuals can mistake some of your theological exchanges for arguments and spite..
This is therefore the personal favor I ask of you: tolga, please, from this forum, Flambeau's comment. I understand that you try to give everyone a voice, but that comment is first and foremost false, very offensive to Father Ivano, author of this article and a talented theologian, for her, for the memory of Msgr. Livi to whom certain anonymous poisonous jokes certainly do not pay homage.
If he can, I am grateful to her.
Luisa M. Handserved