Monday, March 9, 2015

Vita christiana militia est -- Mario Palmaro Died One Year Ago Today

Edit:  a reader let us know, and we worked this out from Nardi's beautiful obituary on a truly great man.

(Rome) Exactly one year ago, on March 9, 2014,  Catholic legal philosopher Mario Palmaro died after a long illness at the age of only 44 years.
 Palmaro was in his last year, an internationally-known and most astute critic of Pope Francis.
He dedicated his life to defending the Catholic Church. Until his last breath he was an active publicist. "Those who knew him personally, heard his lectures at universities, attended his lectures and read his books, know that he was a real Miles  Christi, and led his good fight to the end with the elegance of a gentleman with mental clarity and lucidity, firmness and freedom of apologists of very different times," wrote the weekly magazineTempi.

Impressive criticism of the pontificate of Pope Francis

Mario Palmaro: "The good seed will bear fruit"
Because of his criticism of the Argentine Pope, he was dismissed a few months before his death, after ten years of service at Radio Maria Italy. The immediate cause was that he published together with Alessandro Gnocchi on October 9th, an article in the daily newspaper Il Foglio  "Christ is not an option among many, certainly not for his representative on earth - Why we do not like this pope ". A convincing critique of the pontificate of Pope Francis,  whose validity has not changed.
It was a text that was obviously read at the Holy See, for three weeks after his dismissal by Radio Maria for "criticism of the Pope," Mario Palmaro received a phone call from Pope Francis, where he was "surprised, astonished and moved above all". The dismissal by Radio Maria was still not withdrawn.
"For me, as a Catholic, what I experienced was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. I have assured the pope my unconditional loyalty as a son of the Church.  But also pointed to my duty to remind the Pope that I expressed together with Alessandro Gnocchi very precise criticism of his actions. The Pope  almost didn't let me finish the sentence and said he had understood that this criticism was made ​​of love and how important it is for him to get those," said Palmaro after the announcement of the call in an interview with the newspaper Libero.

"The hope is our certainty"

Immediately before the Pope's call Palmaro and Gnocchi had released another article critical of the Pope: The Church as a Field hospital of the Followers - encouragement inversely proportional to the clarity of the message? In it they wrote the following almost touching, Catholic, descriptive and also prophetic statement:
"In some small isolated church there will always be a priest, who celebrates the holy sacrifice of the Mass, in some small apartment there will always be a lonely old woman who prays the rosary with unwavering faith, and in some hidden corner there will always be a nun, who provides for a child whose life is regarded by all as worthless. Even when everything seems to be lost, the Church, the city of God continues to exude its light on those human beings."

Short CV

Mario Palmaro was born on June 5, 1968 in Cesano Maderno, a small town in the northern Lombardy. He studied law at the University of Milan, he graduated with a thesis on abortion. After he specialized in studies at the Institute San Raffaele in Milan on bioethics, he was a research associate at the Center for Bioethics at the Catholic University of Milan. Finally, he taught bioethics at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome and Theoretical Philosophy, Ethics, Bioethics and Philosophy of Law at the European University of Rome. A rich intellectual exchange with another defender of the Catholic cause, the historian Roberto de Mattei, arose at the European University. Palmaro was one of the most passionate defenders of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum of Pope Benedict XVI. and was one of the strongest critics of a "miserable, sometimes seedy small mind" with which some bishops impede the Motu Proprio.
Palmaro was the President of the Right to Life Association Committee  of Truth and Life and was a member of the Association of Lawyers for Life and the Catholic Lawyers Association of Italy.
Together with the Catholic journalist, Alessandro Gnocchi, Palmaro published several books and numerous essays and articles. Palmaro and Gnocchi were a congenial duo of sharpness of thought and  fluency.
Mario Palmaro is survived by his wife and four minor children.

Books for the first anniversary of death

Since 2000 Palmaro has published in the Catholic monthly magazine Il Timone.  Now all of  his contributions have been collected in one volume. "A period piece and a chronicle of events in the Church and the world at the beginning of the third Christian millennium by an unerring chronicler," writes the magazine. The proceeds will go to support the widow and four children.
Already since 2 March, a book about Mario Palmaro available in bookstores. "Il buon seme fiorirà" (the good seed will bear fruit), edited by his longtime friend Alessandro Gnocchi. Last Saturday it was presented by Gnocchi and his friends and colleagues in the Cathedral Bookstore of Monza, in Palmaro's  hometown. Following this, a requiem for Mario Palmaro in the traditional Roman rite was celebrated in Monza. On today's memorial an office of the dead will be celebrated in Monza Cathedral.
Edit: At present we know of no titles available in English.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Riscossa Christiana
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

3 comments:

Liam Ronan said...

In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.

Vox Cantoris said...

An example for every Catholic. May he rest in the peace and joy of the LORD!

Anonymous said...

Mario Palmaro was one great man. I like the story that he wanted his Requiem Mass said in, I believe the Duomo. He was a step ahead of the Rector of this great Church. When his Requiem Mass according to the Usus Antiquior was requested, the Rector denied it. Well it turned out that before Palmaro's death he sought and received permission from the local authorities to have his Requiem Mass said in the square of this great Church if the Mass was denied inside of it. Then the Rector changed his mind and it was held in the great Church. It was said that after the Rector saw the Document from the civil authorities, to save embarrassment he allowed the Requiem Mas in the Church. Palmaro outsmarted them even in death, he truly was a very smart man. Requiescat In Pace! May God take care of his Family.
Andrew