Archbishop Refuses Burial to Mafia Boss

In Agrigent in Sicily, the local Bishop has refused Church burial to a known mafia boss.  For the "number two" of the Cosa Nostra in the area of Agrigent provincial city of Siculiana, Giuseppe Lo Mascolo (73), whose memory has been kept by the Archbishop of Francesco Mongtenegro to prayers for the dead, only according to the Roman newspaper "Il Messaggero" on Thursday.  Mafia figures were refused Church burial for the first time in Agrigent said "Il Messaggero".  Lo Mascolo who'd died three days earlier had been in the custody of Italian Police the previous week.  Shortly thereafter he was brought to a hospital for a heart arrhythmia.

 In Agrigent Pope John Paul II had spoken 19 years earlier on the 9th of May in 1993 in a stirring speech condemned the crimes of the Mafia and called for resistance against organized crime.

From kath.net....

Cardinal Says: Communion in the Hand Increases Risk of Sacrilege

Edit: High ranking clergy are now saying things that certain Catholics have been attacking for years.


Italy's Churches Are Confronted With a Rash of Eucharist Theft

Rome (kath.net/pl) The Catholic Church in Italy has been confronted for months with the theft of Holy Eucharist.  It involves broken tabernacles, pilfered ciboria filled with consecrated Hosts as well as the abuse of communion in the hand, in which some put the Holy Eucharist in a handbag for unknown purposes.  The motives of the perpetrators are discussed:  deliberate sacrileges by Muslims?  Or for use by Satanic cults in black Masses?  This was reported by "Vatican Insider".

The Catholic community foresees itself as being forced to take countermeasures.   In some areas the tabernacle is emptied  and left open, in order to guard against theft. The almighty Himself will be kept in a more secure place, so in the meantime He must be stored in a safe, offers "Vatican Insider."  Salvatore Di Cristina, Archbishop of Monreale,. Sizily, has already favored a "hard line" against the criminals.

The Cardinal and canon lawyer Velasio De Paolis explained that sacrileges against the Eucharist are among the most serious of offenses and that these crimes receive the condemnation of excommunication "latae sententiae",  which can only be lifted by the Holy See.  De Paolis holds that even communion in the hand offers an increased risk that the Eucharist can be taken away, profaned or kept for a sacrilegious purpose.

The list of offenses is long.  Two Muslims received the Eucharist from a priest in Sondrio, but they didn't consume it, rather put it in their hand bags.  According to information from police reports, there is a boom in satanic cults.  Filled pyxes, for example, have been stolen in San Giovanni in Bosco/Vasto, filled ciboria in San Vio/ paestum, consecrated Hosts disappeared from the hospital Church of Biancavilla/Katania, the community of Santa Caterina dello Ionia was the target of a night-time attack.  Here and in many other Eucharistic thefts, empty tabernacles, which have been violently forced open with burglar's tools, is the order of the day.

Kath.net...

Young Bishop Calls Benedictines of Nursia for Old Mass

This is what the future looks like.

(Foligno)  The Bishop of the central Italian Diocese of Foligno asked the Benedictines of Nursia to celebrate a series of solemn Masses in the Immemorial Rite.  The invitation followed in the context of an initiative of the Bishop to bring the faithful of his Diocese closer to the Old Mass.  The Bishop participates himself, as much as possible, in the Holy Mass, in order to give through his personal presence, a sense of the importance of this "treasure of the Church", as Pope Benedict XVI called the Old Mass.

The Diocese of Foligno is in Umbria, the home of St. Francis of Assisi.  Msgr Signismondi, born in 1961 is one of the youngest Bishops of Italy.  He studied at the Papal University of the Gregorian in Rome and was ordained in 1986 to the priesthood.  After several years in pastoral work he became the Rector of a seminary and undertook a period of teaching as a Dogmatic Theologian.  In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI named him to the Diocese of Foligno.

The Benedictine Cloister of Nursia, the home town of the Father of Monasticism, Benedict, has been  re-colonized in the last ten years by American monks, who are bound to tradition and celebrate the Holy Liturgy in the Immemorial Rite.

Holy Mass in the Immemorial Rite is celebrated by the monks of Nursia once a month at the church of Santa Maria Infraportas at 10 am.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Benediktinerkloster Nursia

Link to katholisches....

Monks Restore Abbey at Nursia...

Jesuit Cardinal Defends Homosexual Partnerships

Edit: Some will notice a certain similarity to statements by Cardinal Schoenborn and who defended it using the same argument.  Cardinal Martini just spells things about more explicitly in his new book.  Here's an interesting citation from the Jimmy Akin blog:

Cardinal Schönborn, who like his mentor Pope Benedict is a model of openness and transparency, invited the editors of Austria’s dozen or so major newspapers to a meeting at his residence in Vienna. How many bishops can you name who have extended such an invitation to the press? 

Italian Cardinal Martini breaks a lance for homosexual partnerships. -kath.net

Rome (kath.net/KNA)  The Italian Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini has spoken out for homosexual partnerships.  Against fleeting contacts it is "not bad, when two people have a certain amount of stability in relationships",   wrote the previous Archbishop of Milan in a book, from the newspaper, "L'Espresso" published in the Friday edition.  "I do not share the position of people in the Church, who agitate themselves about civil partnerships",  confessed the 85 year old Cardinal.

If homsexuals are living in a stable relationship, the state could guide this, Martini thinks.  Surely, the traditional family must be defended because it supports society.  "If, however, people of different or the same sex would like to sign a contract, to give their relationship a certain stability, why should we be unyieldingly against it?", asks Martini, one of the most visible churchmen and theologians in Italy, in the volume >>Credere e conoscere<< (Faith and Understanding).

Moral teaching firmly holds "for good reasons",  that God wanted the difference between  man and woman.  Some people have decided themselves in honest conviction, because of their previous experiences and habits, from psychological reasons and "possibly also from an inborn inclination" to live in a same sex partnership.  This ought "neither be demonized nor outlawed".  A durable and true friendship between two people of the same sex have in their view a value, even if as a sexual relationship it can not be raised as a model of life as the family can.

Martini expressed the understanding, "not unanimous agreement", for street parades of homosexuals.    In that their necessity for self-expression is apparent, even if this appears "excessively provocative".    As far as the use of condoms the Cardinal said, this could be viewed "in certain situations as a lesser evil".  Other morally acceptable means such as abstinence should not be therefore moved into the background.

Link to original....

Articles of Interest

Cardinal Martini says human life doesn't start at conception.

Cardinal Causes High Level Vatican Meeting

Attacks Church Teaching in Book, "Nocturnal Conversations"

Repeated Defiance of Rome

Of course he's a Zionist

The "Colorful Miracle" of a Bishop: Koran Suras Read in a Catholic Church

(L'Aquila)  The Diocesan Bishop of Teramo-Altri, Msgr Michele Seccia is leading a pastoral visit to the community of Silvi in Italian Abruzzo.  For the beginning of spring on the 21st of March he experienced there a "colorful miracle".  As he visited the church entrusted to the Franciscans, The Assumption in the vicinity of Silvi Marina, a resort town on the Adriatic, there were some Muslim children in the church reading suras from the Koran in Arabic.  The unexpected performance, an expression what is in many aspects a psuedo-interreligious and naively charming mentality, took place before the tabernacle.  The Bishop, who took no part in the program, was faced with an accomplished fact, as Messa in Latino reported.

The incident is reminiscent of the severe abuse of children in a Catholic private school in France , who were brought to a "promotion of interreligious understanding" in a mosque, where they were taught Muslim prayer postures.

The Bishop's comment is unknown.

Source, katholisches...

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Messa in Latino

Kneelers and Communion Rail Ripped From Conciliar Church of Trent

(Trent) The church in which part of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) met, was reopened after extensive archeological excavations in (2007-2010) and renovations.  It surrounds the Marian Church, St. Maria Maggiore of the north Italian city of Trent.  In the course of excavations and rennovations even the pews, kneelers and communion rail was removed from the church, as the Trent internet site Libertà e Pensiero.

In the first Christian centuries, the church was a Bishop's church in the Diocese of Trent.  The Bishop of Trent was from 10-27-1803 also a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire (The German Nation)  and Ecclesial Principality.   Since the 20th century of the previous century, the Diocese was raised to an Archdiocese.  In Saint Maria Maggiore the Council took place in its third period from 1582-1563.  In this church there were various conclusions made, which after the Protestant Revolt and schism led to a phase of renewal and a new blooming.

"The excuse, to remove the kneelers and communion rail is doubly astonishing,  since this after all happens to be a church, in which the Council met, which strengthened the pious knee in the Holy Liturgy and opposed the human conception of the Reformation [Protestant Revolt]," says Libertá e Pensiero..

It reads in the General Instruction to the Missale Romanum of 1975:


Movements And Postures

20. The uniformity in standing, kneeling, or sitting to be observed by all taking part is a sign of the community and the unity of the assembly; it both expresses and fosters the spiritual attitude of those taking part.[28]

21. For the sake of uniformity in movement and posture, the people should follow the directions given during the celebration by the deacon, the priest, or another minister. Unless other provision is made, at every Mass the people should stand from the beginning of the entrance song or when the priest enters until the end of the opening prayer or collect; for the singing of the Alleluia before the gospel; while the gospel is proclaimed; during the profession of faith and the general intercessions; from the prayer over the gifts to the end of the Mass, except at the places indicated later in this paragraph. They should sit during the readings before the gospel and during the responsorial psalm, for the homily and the presentation of the gifts, and, if this seems helpful, during the period of silence after communion. They should kneel at the consecration unless prevented by the lack of space, the number of people present, or some other good reason.

But it is up to the conference of bishops to adapt the actions and postures described in the Order of the Roman Mass to the customs of the people.[29] But the conference must make sure that such adaptations correspond to the meaning and character of each part of the celebration.

Edit: It's not like anyone reads the rules, though.

Translated from, katholisches, which got the story from an Italian site...

Cardinal Cottier Sees the Anger of Satan in Vaticanleaks

As regards self-destructive powers in the Church and in the Vatican:  Satan is angry, because the Church is alive. A further chapter of "Vatican Leaks" turns. by Armin Schwibach

Rome (kath.net/as)  "Benedict XVI is the structural pillar":  the newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference, "Avvenire" entitled its interview on the 21st of February with the former theologian of the Papal House, George Cardinal Cottier (90).  In his address before the Consistory last week the Cardinal expressed himself on the most recent scandal in the wake of "leaks", through a confidential document from various posts of the Roman Curia were to the outside.


Although it seemed that the problems were solved primarily by the security services of the Vatican, the problem and those responsible have been identified, and the story of "Vatican Leaks" will have a sequen this Wednesday on the 22nd of February.  The TV channel "La7", which three weeks ago had broken the story of a letter with revelations of the former Secretary of the Governorate of the Vatican City State, and today's Nuncio to the United States, Carlo Maria Vigano', and his criticism of "corruptoin", he ascribed in the Vatican, will now interview one of the moles in the Vatican.


As far as this, the mole has also to disclose the motives of the "spies" and their number, which is given  in total about 20. What is clearly brought to the fore is that this is not the result of a "media campaign" but that the colleagues of the Pope in the Curia break their oaths of office and wage their own campaigns in the media.[!]  Why is this happening?  From anger or tedium, this is what the "mole" says in an interview with the show "Gli INtoccabili" (The Untouchables).


Probably it goes perhaps something more of what Cardinal Cottier pointed out in his interview with "Avvenire".  Benedict XVI does not allow himself to be daunted by the thunder storm and flood, which has the intention to shake the Church, because: he knows that the foundation will outlast the superficiality of this aspect.  Cottier had already considered the events of the last weeks during the days of the Consistorium and has contended with other Cardinals about it.


On this he has observed that he had not been the only one to have had these thoughts:  "In the past travails around the Church the work of Satan can be seen.  In the sense:  If the Church were only asleep in mediocrity or only concerned with intrigues and rivalries, the devil would not have much to do with it.  If he is interested in causing much disruption, that means that there is a vitaility in the Church, which Satan wants to oppose.  And this vitality is the power of the Faith, it is the Christian life, which advances all over the world these days."


Link to original...kath.net...

Protests Against Blasphemous Play Intensify -- Theater Seeks Police Instead of Dialogue

Edit: Isn't pelting the blasphemous play with rocks and criticism just more "freedom of expression"?

(Milan, Italy) Andrée Ruth Shammah, the director of the Teatro Parenti is seeking the "political and relgiously responsible people in the city of Milan", the Communist Mayor Antonio Pisapia, the Catholic Archbishop Andrea Scola and probably also the Police Prefect, to take care of the peace and security of the theater, to protect from "daily more serious" waves of protest against the introduction of the blasphemous play "Sul conetto di Volto nel Filgio di Dio" [On the concept of the face regarding the Son of God], which is a huge representation of the face of Jesus which is pelted by stones and mud while the following sentence smeared with excrement, "You're not my Shepherd". The theater "never wanted to be offensive", said Shammah. "We are not looking for controversy, though we have looked for dialogue with mutual respect."

Shammah distributed the release simultaneously at the same release, however, the labels of "good" and "evil". In the production itself, there is no invitation to a "constructive dialogue". They miss every insight of criticism of the piece by Romeo Castellucci. In place of that Shannah dismisses every criticism, that the production only "by reason that there are falsely or misleading interpretations", to be finally brought "to silence" ultimately, because of a word that's conceived as "blasphemy". The charge of blasphemy is categorically denied by the director. What is blasphemous or not is obviously determined by religious sensibilities. [Which don't matter if those are Catholic.] The shift in roles of "black and white" according to Shemmah is: these are free arts, that are completely and unjustifiably threatened, against which demand protection by the authorities, then there are those, where those who threaten them are completely unjustifiably threatened, while they call for the protection of the authorities.

The Jewish Shemmah puts a surprising lack of religious sensitivity toward Christianity in this day, especially since she is heavily involve d in the life of the Jewish community. Even on her Facebook page, there are complaints, however, about the "anti-Semitic" character sound to the criticism of her work.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi image: adrianabolchini.com

SSPX Appoints New Superior for Italy

Edit: this was announced on Tuesday,  20. Dezember 2011 at 20:00 hours on the German Website.  He is replacing Father Davide Pagliarani who has moved to Argentina.

Father Pierpaolo Maria Petrucci has been named by the General House as the new Superior of the Italian District of the Society of St. Pius X. Father Petrucci was born in 1962 on the Adriatic coast in Rimni.

In 1981 he graduated from High School and enter the Priestly Seminary of Econe. Six years later he was ordained a a Catholic priest by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. At first he was active for five years as an educator at the Boys Gymnasium "Etoile du Matin" in Bitche (Lothringen).  Then he was a Director of Spiritual Excercises in Italy from  1993 as pastor in various priories in France (Priory  "St. Regis" in Unieux near Lyon, then Prior of St Louis in Nantes in der Vendée). In 2005 he was the Prior of the Priory of Nantes, the largest operation in the Society after Paris, and Dean of the Society for northwest France.  In 2008 he returned back to Italy and took over the priory of "Our Dear Lady of Loretto" in Rimni at the request of the District Superior.

Link to Society Webpage for Germany...

Traditional Benedictine Society in Italy: Concelebration

Edit: it's not possible to "concelebrate" in the Immemorial Rite of All Ages, but the local Bishop is concerned about that of all things. It appears as though there is conflict in the community. It's not clear whether this is being perceived from the outside by the Bishop or whether this actually exists in the manner of Protocol 1411 more than a decade ago when a few irresponsible and dishonest seminarians wrote a letter slandering the Fraternity of St. Peter and asking to say the Novus Ordo. This precipitated the dissmisal of the superior and the insistence that FSSP priests be permitted to say the New Mass.

This unfortunate maneuver was widely regarded as proof by others that Rome couldn't be trusted to keep its word.

Now apparently, the local ordinary here is interested in bringing a similar degree of Liturgical uniformity on the newly founded Benedictine Monastery of the Immaculate.

The following is a letter addressed to the local ordinary of Albenga-Imperia and addresses the points as to why these Benedictines won't be saying the New Mass, and how they have the canonical right not to do so.

To His Excellency,
Monsignor Mario OLIVERI
Bishop of Albenga-Imperia

Excellency and Dear Monsignor,

Thank you with all my heart for having phoned me yesterday and for having told me very simply your thought about the problem of concelebrations that divides our communauty. Our conversation suggested me a few thoughts of which I would like to open my heart to your Excellency.
[…]
Strictly looking at the Code of Canon Law, canon #902 lets to hear that the general rule in the Holy Church is the individual celebration of the mass and that the concelebration is only allowed (sacerdotes Eucharistiam concelebrare possunt), that the concelebration is even sometimes forbidden and that, in all the cases, freedom stands for each priest to celebrate individually. So it would be unjust to put a strain on each priest and on each community for not concelebrating.

If our community built itself around the exclusively traditional rite, it was therefore its right and moreover Church admitted it as such through its Constitutions. After having attentively read those Constitutions, my former professor at the University of Law of the Opus Dei, Antoni Bishop Stankiewicz, presently dean of the Roman Rota, gave me in June 2006 a full confirmation of it.The Proper Law (lex propria) of the diverse Institutes is not a territorial law, leading to think for example that the traditional rite of the mass is an obligation only inside the abbey. The comment of the Code by the University of Salamanca on the contrary explains, about the Can. #13, that “some laws affect directly people whom they are intended to, not because of their link with a territory, but for a motive that touch them more personally, so that these laws follow the people who are subjected to them everywhere they go”. So our proper law obliges us, even outside the monastery.

It is obvious that this Community choice, canonised by the Church, is based on a conviction of faith, that hierarchy did not always include and even less accepted. Linked “collectively” to ecclesiastic institutions in crisis, the bishops, too often impregnated with the mind of the world and with its ideologies, were only paralysing the supernatural life in souls. After forty years of such a regime, its dramatic consequences have spread out sadly under our eyes. And those who among the bishops admit the above and deplore it, do not always succeed in reacting with the necessary means and vigour.

Our attachment to the traditional rite is a wedding of faith and love that, in the image of the conjugal union, obliges us to an exclusive fidelity. It supposes and shows a theology and a pastoral that cannot match with a liturgy which turn the back on The Lord for the dialogue and “the being together”.

Cardinal Ratzinger had already noted (in La mia vita, ed. San Paolo, Roma, 1997) the “very grievous damage inflicted on the faith by the liturgical reform”. The denunciation and unmasking of the modernist taboo of being “in conformity with the spirit of the Council” is gradually opening people’s minds, allowing increasing numbers of thelogians and of the clergy to recognize publicly the deficiencies and the doctrinal ambiguity of N.O.M. And, as noted by John-Paul II, in Ecclesia de Eucharistia, n ° 10, “The Eucharist is too great a gift to tolerate any lessening or any ambiguity”.

Such is the drama which saw a traditional reaction: while wishing to conserve the Ecclesiastical hierarchy wanted by our Lord, it refuses to make friends with a ritual in which, although valid and lawful, it does not admit the authentic expression of faith without ambiguity. Cardinal Ratzinger was entirely aware of this when he wrote in his autobiography: “I am persuaded that the crisis of the Church which we are living today is widely based on the disintegration of liturgy”. Is not this the fundamental reason for which the pope himself desires to reform the liturgical reform bringing it back into line with the traditional Mass?

It is true that this serious fault of the current liturgy, even when it is celebrated with the necessary dignity, is not always and easily observable to theological minds because the language of liturgy is not that of doctrine. The latter handles interior concepts, the former exterior signs. Doctrine speaks intelligence, whereas liturgy speaks to the whole human being, body and soul. Liturgy, said Péguy, is “stretched-out” theology. If liturgy is the work of the faith of our Fathers, it is as a result not only its expression but also its guardian. Anything which shocks the traditional liturgical sensibility is, to say the least, to be considered dubious. To give one example: the altars where the priest has his back to the tabernacle are an affront to the traditional liturgical instinct. I know of only one bishop — and this honour goes to you, Monsignor — who has requested his priests to remove this table from in front of the altar. [Liturgical direction indeed means that the worship which we return is first for honour and glory of God and not autocelebration of the assembly which, has talks oblige, require to move the crucifix on the quoting; in the centre, he would be too embarrassing.] This sacred liturgy which has been handed down to us, part of the 2000 year-old tradition of the Church, is Opus Dei and not opus hominum, a liturgy, as Cardinal Ratzinger writes, coming from God and not something “manufactured”.

The traditional mentality, while admitting the canonical validity and legality of N.O.M., does not find in such a liturgy the plenary expression of its faith. Such is the deep reason of its distance in relation to that liturgy and of its instinctive refusal to use it. The concelebration, at Mass, which is neither a legal obligation nor a theological necessity, would not shock the traditional mentality as such. In our epoch, when people feel “together”, concelebration certainly expresses a fraternal link between priests which is a sign of ecclesial communion. What casts down the traditional mentality is more the rite than concelebration as such. If one must concelebrate, then one much prefers the older and traditional manner of doing it, with deacon, sub-deacon, acolytes etc., expressive of a “hierarchical” communion more in accordance with a sane ecclesiology than is the “egalitarian” communion which arose with the liturgical reform and which bears the heavy imprint of the democratic mentality of our day.

Dom Gérard, our founder, as Dom Guéranger by liturgical idea, wrote in one of his many works on this subject : “The Church, Wife and mystical Body of Christ, is the most manifold, most structured society, most organised into a hierarchy which exists: of the summit up to the base, everything carries in her the footprint of a sacred hierarchy emanated from its exhilarating centre. This celestial Church composed of angels and elected representatives whom our primitive painters represented the wide open eyes, reached hands and lined up by order around the Lamb, since the big Seraphs up to souls of the Purgatory which go up to set up among the countless choruses, it is it which is our true fatherland and while seeing it beginning to take shape under our eyes, we trains as eternity.” (La Sainte Liturgie, éd. Sainte-Madeleine, p. 59-60, Le Barroux, 1982.)

Please excuse, Monsignor, the frankness of the above comments which to be sure call for further nuances. My chief motive in writting this letter has been the desire for complete openness vis-à-vis your Excellency. I trust that any possible and legitimate differences of opinion, will not cast a shadow on our future collaboration, and that you will grant me a place in your diocese where, in union with the Pope, yourself and all the episcopal collegiate, I can help, through my filial obedience, prayer and example, in your apostolate. If for the time being you cannot provide a place where I can settle, alone or with one or two confrères, perhaps at least you could give me your agreement in principle to receive me in your dicocese? We could then look together for some practical solution, with the help of several of your diocesan priests who have shown great willingness to have a monastic presence and witness in their vicinity. I would never be abble to thank you enough for allowing me to pursue my Benedictine vocation in reacquired peace.

Let me end, Excellency and dear Monsignor, by expressing once again my filial and respectful good wishes, in Jesus and Mary.

Fr. Jehan, O.S.B.

Link to original...

Sicilian Priest Refuses Communion in the Hand

Edit: this story from Sicily is of interest. It was reported in Messainlatino a few days ago on the 18th.

A layman wanted to receive Communion in the hand, but the pastor of Acquaviva Platani is opposed to this practice. There was a confrontation after Mass in the Sacristy and the police were called.


CALTANISSETTA - The police were called 'to intervene and restore calm to a faithful Pastor in Acquaviva Platani, Don Francesco Novara, had refused delivery of the Host in his hand.'

This priest only gives Communion on the tongue. This decision by Don Novara has already split the community between those who believe it's the correct decision by the parish priest and those who think it's exaggerated. The man who had been denied the Host, came to the Sacristy after the church service, as reported in the edition of the Journal of Caltanissetta of Sicily, and railed against the priest. The police were called shortly after that by others in the Sacristy. The police arrived and convinced the offended layman to desist from his protests and to return home.

source: the Repubblica.it / chronicle of Palermo


Bravo, Don Francesco Novara! Communion only in the mouth!

Link to Messainlatino...

Freemasons Blocked From Church

Italy. From the 21th to the 26th of August the "Grand Lodge of Italy" and the "Grand Orient" have organized an event in the 3,000 population city of San Leo near the Adriatic. On the 20th of August the Bishop Luigi Negri of San Marino-Montefeltro, had published a pastoral letter in his Diocese which was read against the Freemasons. At the same time, the Bishop made clear that the Catholic religion is incompatible with Freemasonry. These live for their antagonism to the Church and desire Its destruction. The pastor of the village, Father Andrea Bosio, ordered that during the event that all houses of God in the city will be closed outside of Mass times. He explained to the Italian media that normally it wouldn't be justified during the day. Bishop Negri has supported Father Bosio's precautions.

From the bottom of kreuz.net's daily news...

Franciscan Imitates St. Francis, Rebuilds Church Alone for Fifty Years

Editor: Franciscans are "friars" not monks.

God Willed It

The unbelievable story of Father Pietro Lavini: From 1954 to 2003 he rebuilt a monastery completely alone, in an untraveled mountain area in the Apennines.

Montemonaco (kath.net) In the spring of 1954 Father Pietro disappeared without a trace from his Cloister to rebuild a ruined Monastery in the Apennines Mountains. In the summer of 2003 the Bishop of Father Pietro received a letter with the sentence: "The Monastery is finished."

Andreas Englisch told the story of the Italian priest in his book "Traces of God: Miracles of the Catholic Church". Englisch had also related this story to the Hamburg evening news.

In the spring of 1954 the Abbot of the Franciscan Cloister by Ascoli Piceno in Adria noticed that Father Peitro had vanished. After a fruitless search he was removed from the list of priests, which entitles them to government support. He was reported as missing.

In the Summer of 1971, in the mountains near Gola del Infernaccio, a deep canyon in the middle of the Apennines mountains, which are famous for falling stones and avalanches, a mountain climber met the monk and told his Bishop: "The priest had very long, matted hair and a filthy beard. He lived in the cold of the high mountains in a kind of improvised hut made only from a few branches and a torn plastic tarp."

He sustained himself with heavily moldy bread, greens and tree bark. With self-made tools, he broke stones from the cliffs, there he was completely alone, without money or machines, where he wanted to rebuild the ruins of a Monastery. He had even built an aqueduct which carried water across the canyon. He collapsed from work many times, suffered broken bones, which he cured by himself with herbs. He showed me his serious injuries. I feared, the man was severely mad."

The Bishop then sent an inspector with the mission to bring the priest to a psychiatric clinic of the Franciscans. After his expedition, the inspector reported to the Bishop that after many discussions attempting to persuade Father Pietro, that "the brother isn't mad, rather he is a saint. I bid his blessing and hope that the Church will leave him there, where he is, completely close to God. I fear our time is mad, so that for us, the example of a man like Father Pietro is so rare." All attempts by the social office of the Bishop to induce the Priest to return, were unsuccessful.

Father Pietro had contact with a family from the village of Montemonaco, which lays some 20km from Father's abode. The father, Franco D'Agonsino, then wrote to the Bishop, "I don't wonder that he doesn't starve up there! The climb is difficult, and I bring Father Pietro something to eat, and every time his larder is bare. he appears not to be concerned by it. When the snow falls, he is cut off for months at a time. I don't know how he endures."

In the summer of 2003 a letter arrived at the Diocese of Ascoli Piceno: Father Pietro wrote only one sentence: "The Monastery is finished." The Bishop traveled by helicopter to the place and wrote a report to the Vatican thereon only one sentence: "What I have seen, is a wonder."

The Village of Monemonaco in central Italy has about 700 inhabitants and lays about two hours by car from the beaches on the Adriatic. And suddenly visitors from all parts of the world came to the village to ask the way to the Gola del Infernaccio
canyon in order to see "a saint". Great gaps in the cliff walls are witness thereto, how over decades of work by hand, block upon block had been separated from the cliff.

After four hours of climbing the visitor suddenly arrives at a beautiful Monastery building. Father Pietro Lavini receives visitors happily and says: "Naturally, I could never have built these great buildings alone. That was beyond the power of a man, God desired it. God had given me this life's dream: 'Build me there, where it is impossible, a house under impossible conditions, and I will sustain you, heal your sickness and give you to eat, even when you think you must starve.'

The video in Italian is here.



From kath.net...here.

Holy Father: No Opposition Between Tradition and Progress in the Liturgy

Editor: Pope Benedict is addressing one of the chief sources of Liturgical abuses in the Church today, the Benedictines of Sant'Anselmo. He seems to make a backhand swipe at Dom Beauduin, perhaps. New Liturgical Movement got an Italian translation which describes Benedict's critique in terms of going "beyond" the Council. [About which Rorate Caeli was more circumspect, and Vatican Radio didn't touch on any of this at all.]Basically, this is more reform of the reform talk to Old Liberals who will do their best to ignore the Holy Father's admonitions and prescriptions. That doesn't appear in the following essay by theologian Armin Schibach, but there it is:

'sana traditio' and 'legitima progressio': The program of reform of the Council Fathers. Back in the future on the way to "Sacrosanctum Concilium'. The river of Tradition. by Armin Schibbach

Rome (kath.net/as) In the area of Liturgy, Tradition and progress are not put together in "an "awkward manner" one against the other. Actually, both enrich each other: Tradition contains in itself the principle of development and is always a living reality: "The river of Tradition always flows from its source as it strives toward its mouth". With these words Pope Benedict addressed today's Friday lecture, taking part in the event, organized for the the Papal Liturgical Institute 'Sant'Anselmo', on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of its founding.

Benedict XVI next addressed the reason for the memorial, which lead to the founding of the Liturgical Institute. In this, it was the wish of Pope John XXIII to take up the Liturgical Movement [Editor: Its Revolutionary character, founded primarily in illicit and therefore sinful liturgical abuses don't get mentioned in talks like this.], whose aim was to give a new impetus to the prayer of the Church, shortly before the Vatican Council, by forming the Liturgical Institute at the Benedictine University at the Aventine. The Pope was to have a firm basis for the Liturgical Reform of the Council in this way.

On the eve of the Council, continued Benedict XVI, the need for the reform of the Liturgy made itself ever more certain. The pastoral necessity, which the Liturgical Movement ensouled, made it requisite that the active participation of the faithful in the Liturgical Celebration would be encouraged by the use of the vernacular and that the adaptation of the rites deepening the various cultures.

Similarly, there has been a necessity present from the beginning, to study the depths of the Liturgical foundation, "in order to avoid falling into Ritualism or to validate the subjectivism and protagonism of the celebrant." The reform should find itself centered in the area of the offering of the divine Sacrifice and its justification in the Tradition of the Church.

Proceeding with the theme of the Congress (The Papal Liturgical Institute between Commemoration and Prophesy") the Pope stressed that the reason for the institute is "Commemoration". The Institute has accomplished its task toward the reception of the IInd Vatican Council. For that reason it has become possible to help the holy people of God, "to live the liturgy as an expression of a praying people, as Christ's presence in the midst of the people and as constitute an actuality of salvation history".

The Constitution of the Holy Liturgy "Sacrosanctum Concilium" poses the twofold theological and ecclesiological character of the Liturgy: "The celebration simultaneously makes real an Epiphany of the Lord and an Epiphany of the Church, two dimensions, which is bound to the reality the Liturgical assembly". In the Liturgy of the Church "gives the active presence of Christ: What he brought into fruition during His stay among the people, whose focus formed in the Eucharist is made real."

The Liturgy of the Church "goes out from the 'Conciliar Reform'", says Benedict XVI. Its goal is not, above all, to change the rites and texts, but it is much more to renew the mentality and put the Christian life and the pastoral care of the celebration of the Pascal Mystery of Christ at its center.

"Unfortunately the Liturgy would-- even among us shepherds and experts -- be seen as an object, that it was necessary to reform, and not as a Subject, that is capable of renewing the Christian life, where there was a very narrow band between the renewal of the Liturgy and the renewal of the whole life of the Church: the Church draws its power to live from the Liturgy." In that point, he recalled Pope John Paul in his Apostolic writing "Vinesimus quintus annus" (4. Dezember 1988)on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Constitution of "Sancrosanctum Concilium".


The Liturgy is "the highpoint, to which the action of the Church reaches and is the source from which all of her virtues proceed", said Benedict XVI. So She becomes the great tutor of the primacy of the Faith and of Grace. The Liturgy is the "privileged witness of the living Tradition of the Church", in truth Her fundamental mission, in the "Today" of human affairs the "opus Redemptionis" between the apparent and the existent. For that reason the Liturgy lives "of a correct and standing relation between 'sana traditio' and 'legitima progressio'" (compare. Sancrosanctum Concilium, Nr. 23).

With these two concepts the Council Fathers desired to lay out their "program of reform", "to put the same weight on the great liturgical Tradition of the past with that of the future".

Immemorial Rite Canceled by Diocese of Treviso

That's the way it always happens

 

A pastor wanted to celebrate a Holy Mass in the Old Rite of his youth for his sixtieth priestly jubilee. Actually though, there was still a Diocesan Bishop, who'd been named there by Benedict XVI.

The Mass of all Times

(kreuz.net) For white Sunday the Priest of many days Pietro Mozzato of Vetrego planned to organize a Mass in the Old Rite in his parish.

The 1400 person community of Vetrego is a suburb of the city of Mirano -- it's about 25 kilometers northwest of Venice. Vetrego belongs to the Diocese of Treviso.

Father Mozzato wanted to celebrate his 60th priestly jubilee in the Old Rite of the Mass.

A celebrant, Father Konrad zu Löwenstein was foreseen as the celebrant. The father takes care of Traditionalists in Venice.

The Priestly Council supported the wish of the priest.

Fr. Mozzato had even printed invitations for the event.

Actually, then, the Diocese of Treviso caught wind of the situation.

The General Vicar Giuseppe Rizzo wrote quickly on the spot. He forbid the Old Mass.

This was the report from Vaticanist Andrea Tornielli directly on his Website 'andreatornielli.it'.

The "Diocesan Curia" is set against the Mass -- the General Vicar hides himself behind a board.

The Bishop of Treviso is the former Franciscan Conventual and Roman Curial Bishop, Msgr Gianfranco (67).

He was named to Treviso by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.

Tornielli explained that the local Priestly Council had received word of the Old Mass -- and confirmed it.

If the Old Liberals are questioned, they intone the authority of such Boards -- otherwise, they're ignoring this one.

The Priestly Council has protested in vain to the Bishop in Treviso.

According to word from Tornielli they haven't even received word.

In the meantime Fr. Mozzato has smoothed out the official abuse of his curial powers.

The Old Mass has been denied.

Read further original, kreuz.net..here.

Photo: © joebrad 1326, Flickr, CC

Pope Benedict Consecrates New Church in "Little Hell"

Italy. Yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the new Titlular Church of Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, the new parish church of St. Corbianiano in the Roman suburb of "Infernetto". The name is translated as "little Hell". In his Sermon the Pope recalled that St. Korbinian († 730) traveled to Rome and had his mount ripped from under him. Thereupon he put his burden on the bear. As he came to Rome, he turned the animal free again.



Brought over from Kreuz.net...

Cardinal Brandmüller Celebrates Pontifical High Mass

Editor:  You'll remember the Cardinal for his apt criticism of German politicians who thought they could weigh in on the Catholic doctrine of celibacy and how he was in turn unjustly criticized by Cardinal Lehman.

Walter Cardinal Brandmülle celebrated a pontifical high Mass in the Immemorial Mass of All Ages, in the sanctuary of the Dolors of the Virgin in Camovacallo di Osimo [Marken].

Campocavallo di Osimo (kath.net) After the solemn procession in the sanctuary at 15:00 the Cardinal led prayers before the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, according to the prayers of the "Hora tertia Pontificalis" and vesting for the celebration of Holy Mass at 15:45.

Musically the liturgy was sung by the Schola Cantorum "Sancta Cecilia" from Corridonia under the direction of Alessandro Pucci with the "Missa secunda Pontificalis" by Lorenzo Perosi.

Since 1893 the sanctuary of Campocavallo village honors the Dolors [sorrows] of the Mother of God.  Campocavallo is located in the vicinity of the great Marian sanctuary 'Casa Santa" [Holy House] of Loretto.  Every Sunday and on feast days a Mass in the Immemorial Rite is celebrated  at 16:45, and on workdays at 7:00.

Every day  at 18:30 after Holy Mass the Blessed Sacrament is exposed and the rosary is prayed with a concluding Eucharistic blessing.  Every Saturday from 21:30 till 5:30 the next morning, there is a Eucharistic vigil.

Pope Hemmed in by Negative Forces

Yesterday and today as well, there are those who would like to reduce the Mass to the “social realm.” Mons. Negri makes this point in regard to the “reform of the reform.” 

DOMAGNANO - “It is in relation to the Liturgy that the destiny of the Faith and of the Church is decided”: thus spoke Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI in the first volume of his opera omnia, Theology of the Liturgy. (This book is known in the English-speaking world as "The Spirit of the Liturgy" -- CAP) On November 27th at Vespers for the beginning of Advent, the Pope also defined the Liturgy as “the place where we live the truth and where the truth lives among us.” Let us confront these themes in a one-on-one with the bishop of San Marino-Montefeltro, His Excellency Luigi Negri, who is preparing for the Pope’s visit in 2011.

Read further...Rorate

Diocesan Priest Joins the SSPX: Italy

A pubescent parturient Church and Liturgy aims more toward including people than to making them holy.

(kreuz.net, Italy) At the end of the last year Father Massimo Sbicego (38) quietly, but suprisingly left his assignment.  This was according to the regional paper 'Corriere del Veneto' on 12 January.

Fr. Sbicego belongs to the Old Liberal Diocese of Vicenza in Northern Italy.

Since September 2009 he was assigned in three outlying parishes in the vicinity of Val d'Astico -- south east of the city Trent.

The ground for his departure remains unclear.  Some in the parishes even suspected a romantic affair.

Actually, on the 11th of January the clergyman sent a litter to his Parishes and another letter to the Vicar General of Vicenza.

Therein Fr. Sbicego made known the reasons for his departure to the Society of Pius X.  he criticized at the same time the Liturgical situation in the Conciliar Church.

He could not bear that the Holy Mass of today which some would subordinate it, that they find it "boring",  and who want "more creative" forms or knew nothing of our Lord and Savior.

"For this reason it's clear to me that this problem with the communal nature of the Mass is connected to the use of the national language."

For the clergyman there is the danger that today a Liturgy and a Church will be constructed, that is pubescent and aims more "to include" than to make holy.

He regreted that the past church catechesis substantiates this claim -- "above all, where the Catholic teaching is forgotten, not instructed and sometimes even held to ridicule, in favor of "human aspects"
which don't come penetrate reality.

His decision to join the Society, was a "painful" one for the clergyman.

 He had considered his decision for a month: "In the Society I have found a deep sense of the Catholic priesthood."

Many prefer the impression that he left the Diocese: "Actually as a Catholic, I'm coming back home."


Translated from kreuz.net...

Homosexual Propagandist Abused Boy: Priest Sentenced Ten Years

Editor: It certainly bears repeating.  There is a confluence between liberalism and the sexual abuse of children by homosexuals.  It also goes hand in hand with what the Holy Father said recently.


This priest has fought publicly for the widening of homosexual perversion in the Church.  Actually now, he's behind bars.

Fr. Pezzini on the Website 'repubblica.it'

(kreuz.net)  Fr. Domenico Pezzini (74) has been sentenced today to ten years in prison in an abbreviated trial for the charge homosexual abuse.

He must also pay his victim 50.000 Euro.  This has been in the Italian media.

Fr. Pezzini who was always clothed as a civilian was known as the "Priest of the Homosexuals".

He is been in jail since his apprehension in May.

In June a Judge refused a release on bail because of the "alarming way of carrying on" of the Priest and because of his numerous contacts with young men from the third world.

His condemnation was based on the serious sexual abuse of a pubescent male from Bangladesh.

Pezzini had repeatedly raped him between the years of  2006 to 2009.  The abuse began when the boy was 13 years old.

The victim lived in the street and was picked up by the priest in a park.

During the investigation he requested one more foreign victim by undercover Police.

It was clarified that the homosexual priest was to have abused a boy younger than fifteen years old.  This misdeed was in any case barred from taking place.

Fr. Pezzini was a professor for English Linguistics at the University of Verona and was also an instructor at the Catholic University of Milan.

For years he promoted the homosexual ideology in the Italian Church.

He founded homosexual groups and fought for Church rectification of homosexual perversion.

One of his last books bore the title: "The Hands of the Potter:  a homosexual son.  What must be done?" [If the book title sounds like it's creepy, it probably is.  Reminds us of "Father" Richard Rohr, who advocates getting naked on retreats.]

In the past the abuser criticized the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger for the uncompromising repudiation of homosexual perversion.

So he said in 2005 for the newspaper "Corriere del Veneto':  "In homosexual circles, even among Catholic homosexuals, the name Ratzinger doesn't sound good."

The priest's house yielded  an abundance of homosexual pornographic materials.

The earlier preisident of the largest homosexual organization of Italy, 'Arcigay', Arelio Mancuso, pretended to be surprised at the arrest of Fr. Pezzini:

"In this moment there are a lot of discouraged homosexual Catholics , who knew Pezzini personally or through his deeds."

Homosexual lechers  could "always" depend on the attentiveness of the priest.

The abuser is said to be "a defender of the worth of homosexuals within the Church."

Translated from kreuz.net...