Catholics From Italy

"What I criticize is the exhibitionist flaunting of this taste, which often tends to override what is, in fact, the common sense of the majority. Gay Pride? If they want to hold a parade in Rome or Turin, let them do it. One might wonder why they want to show off. Gay Pride claims to be fighting for rights, but even that is debatable. Rights are not differentiated; rights are for everyone. There are no rights for gays, rights for heterosexuals, rights for blondes, for brunettes, for those with blue eyes: there are rights for people. It's exhibitionism."

"Maria Goretti followed in the footsteps of the young martyrs of early Christianity who gave their lives to defend their purity. (...) Keep the testimony of Saint Maria Goretti constantly before your eyes. As a model of martyrdom, little Maria, after bringing her murderer to the path of Christian virtue, continues to help all those who are ready to accept the Gospel with its strict but liberating moral demands. In particular, she encourages you, dear children and young people. Little Maria offers new strength to all who, in the struggle, turn against evil and direct themselves toward goodness, trust, and longing for Christ."

"Maria Goretti's life was indeed a struggle, but its end was both magnificent and dramatic. She was so weak—how could a twelve-year-old child defend herself against brutal violence? How could she not yield to the villain who attacked and overwhelmed her? On one side stood spiritual strength, and on the other, physical strength. Spiritual courage and physical strength began to fight each other. When you look at this scene, you might say that strength won. However, when we look more closely, we must conclude that spiritual courage triumphed. Thus, the weakness of this girl overcame the strength of the criminal. Violence was stopped and defeated by a defenseless, weak, simple, modest child who had nothing else to oppose it but her clear conscience and desire to preserve Christian ideals. Maria Goretti won."

"A small and gentle martyr of purity."

"Maria was also greatly admired for her humble origins, which she redeemed with the strength with which she defended her dignity as a human being and daughter of God. Her cult therefore had social significance, as Palmiro Togliatti understood when he cited her as an example to young communists in a speech in the 1950s."

"Regarding the Finnish girl who was raped in Rome the other night, one feels like asking her: didn't anyone ever teach you not to accept lifts from strangers, especially at 4 o'clock in the morning? I'm sure it's dangerous everywhere, even in Finland."

"It also makes one think that the myth of equality with men is having perverse effects, and that many girls now go out at night without taking the most basic precautions. It would be nice, of course, if men changed and accepted this new freedom for women, but we know that this is not the case, and perhaps never will be. A little realism therefore does no harm, and it is better to avoid dangerous situations. It is certainly not by forcing reality and trying to bend it to our desires that we change the world."

"The ancient idea that men must protect women is perhaps one of the first customs that feminism has erased, since it meant that women had the illusion of protecting themselves. Women, especially young women, need a social context that surrounds them with a protective shield, and they need supportive eyes to watch over them and perhaps even warn them in case of danger."

"(In the hospital, before dying, while forgiving his murderer) I want him with me in Heaven."

"The scientific justification for this choice lies in a peculiar definition of the nervous system, now being challenged by new research that questions the very fact that brain death causes the disintegration of the body. As demonstrated in 1992 by the sensational case of a woman who entered an irreversible coma and was declared brain dead before it was discovered that she was pregnant, it was decided to allow her to continue with the pregnancy, which proceeded normally until a miscarriage occurred. This case and other similar ones that ended with the birth of a child have called into question the idea that in this condition the bodies are already dead, corpses from which organs can be removed. It therefore seems that Jonas was right when he suspected that the new definition of death was motivated more by interest, i.e. the need for organs for transplantation, than by real scientific progress."

"Interviewer: Isn't there an underlying tone of extreme pessimism? Is it so absurd to think that technology can be used for good? Scaraffia: Jacques Ellul didn't think so. For him, it was simply impossible. He even lived in the countryside to protect himself from the effects of progress. His observations on technology are certainly marked by pessimism. But his conception of the world is animated by Christian optimism. He was convinced that God acts in history and that, therefore, He will intervene to save man from himself. There is a tendency to separate his philosophical and sociological writings from his theological ones. But for him, the relationship with technology is inextricably linked to that with God. And, in particular, to the function that God has entrusted to man in the world: that of knowing but not destroying, of dominating reality while respecting it, of aspiring to the best while preserving a sense of limits."

"I would like to nominate [for the title of Doctor of the Church] women of the twentieth century who have not even been declared saints: such as Adrienne von Speyr, who accepted with simplicity and profound humility her role as a mystic and at the same time a doctor, wife, woman of her time, and who wrote beautiful texts that are now almost forgotten."

"If this same balance, even though corporeal, were considered to be not on the earth's surface but in the highest regions beyond the sun's sphere, then the threads, while still drawn to the centre of the earth, would be very much less convergent to each other, would be quasi-parallel. Let us imagine a mechanical balance transported beyond the starry balance [i.e., the constellation of that name] in the firmament, to an infinite distance. It will be understood by everybody that the suspension threads would no longer be convergent, but would be exactly parallel. ... The Geometer has the special privilege to carry out, by abstraction, all constructions [operationes] by means of the intellect. Who, then, would wish to prevent me from freely considering figures hanging on a balance imagined to be at an infinite distance beyond the confines of the world?"

"Many have argued that a vacuum does not exist, others claim it exists only with difficulty in spite of the repugnance of nature; I know of no one who claims it easily exists without any resistance from nature."

"Is it a surprise that into the vessel, in which the mercury has no inclination and no repugnance, not even the slightest, to being there, it should enter and should rise in a column high enough to make equilibrium with the weight of the external air which forces it up?"

"Mulieris dignitatem had the merit of introducing a new point of view: at a time in history when women's emancipation was achieved through the adoption of male behaviour patterns and a consequent denial of the value of motherhood, the Pope's proposal seemed to suggest that emancipation should and could take place while keeping alive the specificity of women, finally recognised as a value, as a form of genius."

"(About Maria Montessori) Italians know her as a maternal and reassuring lady who appeared on the thousand lire banknote for a long time, the only woman depicted on our banknotes, but in her long life she was a transgressive and restless woman, so much so that when asked what nationality she was, she replied: “I live in the sky, my country is a star that revolves around the sun and is called Earth”."

"We Christians know this, or should know it: our faith is characterised by et et, not aut aut. We are not exclusivists. God is one and triune. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is God and man, true God and true man. For Christians, man is flesh and spirit, body and soul. Christians like to integrate and include, not erect barriers. Through the Incarnation, God became man. The Church itself lives by the principle of et et. It is a Church of prayer and action, of great ascetics and great workers, of contemplation and mission. Ora et labora, not ora aut labora. The Church has preachers and confessors, cloistered monks and nuns, and street priests. The Church welcomes everyone: poor and rich, educated and uneducated, young and old."

"When Bergoglio was elected, and I saw him take the name Francis for expressly ideological reasons and appear at the balcony of St Peter's, bowing to ask for the blessing of the people, after saying “good evening” instead of “Praised be Jesus Christ” (“good evening” which, of course, was very much appreciated by the enemies of the Church), I said to myself: “Here we go!" The prediction had come true. After that, it was a succession of painful confirmations, especially for me after Amoris laetitia."

"Interviewer: ‘Is Italy still a Catholic country? Aldo Maria Valli: If we look at the figures for baptisms and children receiving their first communion, it would seem so. But very often it is a superficial Catholicism, linked to family tradition. Participation in the sacrament is more of an occasion for celebration and serves to strengthen family ties. As soon as confirmation comes around, there is a great exodus. In any case, compared to other countries with an ancient Christian tradition, two signs indicate that Catholic values are still alive in Italy: the stability of the family based on marriage (which, despite everything, remains a goal for many young people) and widespread solidarity, which manifests itself in voluntary work."

"The undersigned was among the first to denounce the inadequacy of the Pope's comments on terrorist violence and to gently suggest that he reread Benedict XVI's lecture in Regensburg, when Ratzinger, with foresight, confronted Islam with the problem that this religion has with the use of the sword, that is, force and coercion."

"Sola enim Geometria inter liberales disciplinar acriter exacuit ingenium, idoncumque reddit ad civitates exornandas in pace et in bello defendendas: caeteris enim paribus, ingenium quod exercitatum sit in Geometrica palestra, peculiare quoddam, et virile robur habere solet: praestabitque semper, et antecellet, circa studia architecturae, rei bellicae, nauticaeque, etc."

"Today we have a reigning pontiff who uses the same language as the world and proposes the same theses as dominant secularist thought. On more than one public occasion the pope has avoided giving a blessing using the Trinitarian formula in order not to offend the sensibilities of non-believers and those of other faiths."

"The discovery of female genius was the work of John Paul II, who made it the heart of his apostolic letter Mulieris dignitatem, published in 1988 as the conclusion of the synod on lay people."

"[...] Maria Goretti was also greatly admired for her humble origins, redeemed by the strength with which she defended her dignity as a human being and daughter of God. Her cult therefore had social significance, as Palmiro Togliatti understood when he cited her as an example to young communists in a speech in the 1950s."

"(About q:it:Francesca Cabrini) Not only her relationship with space, but also her relationship with time was modern, so dominated by haste and speed: “Hurry, hurry and cheerfully, my daughters,” she wrote to the nuns, even urging them to act “ardently and quickly”, a phrase with an almost futuristic flavour, which perfectly conveys the sense of her movement in the world."

"[Philosophers and psychologists] have revealed the sense of openness that motherhood brings towards the transcendent, towards the “infinite world”, to use the words of Clotilde Leguil, who writes that recognising that the female body is radically different from the male body “implies a transition from a closed world to an infinite universe”. Leguil quotes the verses of the poet Antoine Tudal, much loved by Lacan: “Between man and love, there is woman. Between man and woman, there is a world. Between man and the world, there is a wall”."

"By signing the motion of no confidence in the Berlusconi government together with Bossi, Buttiglione has shown himself to be a double-dealing fool."

"(About Silvio Berlusconi) The Prime Minister has a terrible fear of women. Jokes, vulgar remarks and sports bar comments are just a way of avoiding any real engagement with that world. But the more someone acts like a bully, the more they try to reduce women to sex objects, the more it shows that they feel insecure and unable to handle the situation."

"He makes one mistake after another and says incredible nonsense. He has destroyed three parties. But as a writer he is exceptional."

"Silvio sincerely loved his wife, and the break-up was a profound trauma that he tried to overcome in the worst possible way. Bunga bunga was his response to the pain. I heard him talk about Veronica: he didn't see her as a sexual object, she was the woman of his life, the mother of his children..."

"As an ethical relativist, the only certainty that sustains me is not wanting and not knowing how to impose my way of life on Professor Buttiglione. He cannot say the same."

"I'm better at wooing than Berlusconi: I can prove it to you."

"From a political and social point of view, I am against any discrimination against gay people. But morally, I think it is wrong. However, there are many things that are morally wrong but which the law should not prosecute."

"I haven't changed my opinion on gay people. Politically and legally, I am in favour of non-discrimination, but morally, I think what the Catholic Church thinks: homosexuality is a moral disorder. If God gave you a male body, you can never be a woman. You can never get pregnant. And pretending to be something you are not makes you feel bad; you lose your life in exchange for a fiction."

"There is a politicisation of the judiciary that negatively distinguishes our country in the European context and shakes citizens' confidence in the judiciary. An entire political class has been swept away with a few convictions, but with many notices of investigation, sometimes with the suspicion that these were carefully calibrated to achieve political effects."

"We are writing to you with a request to improve the quality of life in the Senate. The refreshment bar does not serve ice cream. We believe it would be useful to do so and we are certain that this reflects the wishes of many. Would it be possible to arrange this?"

"In conclusion, I would like to remind posterity – but we all know this because it is written in the history books – that Mr Buttiglione was rejected as European Commissioner by the European Parliament because of his countless statements, defined by the European Parliament as discriminatory against homosexuals. Buttiglione's words and statements over the years regarding homosexuals are not linked to ideological reasons, but to personal reasons."

"He has the unbearable pretension of appearing to be a philosopher when he is, at most, a professor of philosophy."

"My party is called Popolare (People's Party) and I believe that the people still hold Christian values, including “thou shalt not steal”, which is one of the commandments. People saw Di Pietro as the embodiment of these values that we in the Popolare Party seek to represent, so it goes without saying that I would be delighted if Di Pietro were to join us."

"Di Pietro appeared to be someone capable of enforcing the law against bullies, a bit like Robin Hood."

"Berlusconi cannot act as a prophet of bipolarism, preaching rules that God has revealed only to him and that authorise him to contravene the rules of the Constitution. The Constitution is what it is. Berlusconi thinks that elections are held and that votes are like shares that can be put away. Instead, the people elect members of parliament, and they are accountable to the voters, not to Berlusconi."

"As a Roman Catholic, I consider homosexuality a sin, but not a crime. Mine is a moral position that does not affect the rights that must be recognised for all."

"Those who attack the judiciary do so to find themselves an alibi... The primary enemy is corruption."

"Children who only have a mother and no father are the children of a not very good mother. And children who only have a father are not children, because a man alone can make a robot. But he cannot make children."

"Mani Pulite began as a simple police operation in a case of bribery. Thanks to a fortunate combination of circumstances and the intelligence and tenacity of Judge Di Pietro, it developed into an investigation involving an entire political class. The mechanism that had protected the system of corruption until then had two pillars. The first was the belief that everyone did it and that therefore the laws had essentially fallen into disuse and only fools still felt bound by them. The second was the certainty that if, by chance, someone fell into the clutches of the law, powerful friends would protect them or, at least, compensate them. Antonio Di Pietro and his colleagues succeeded in subverting these two pillars."

"Silvio is great. We do not regret the good things we have done with him, but he is the past, let's say it loud and clear. The country can no longer hold out and needs someone to show the way to the future."

"Can I link Luca di Montezemolo and Pope Benedict XVI? Both condemn ethical relativism, understood as the transfiguration of the Italian art of getting by, looking out for oneself and disregarding the common good."

"Jesus, our bliss, teaches us a path to happiness, opening up before us every day the ways to happiness that every human being longs for."

"The saint is the new man, the one who lives according to the model left by Jesus Christ; he is the man of the beatitudes; he is the man who has stripped himself of his selfishness and lives for God and others; he is the transfigured man. He is the truly and fully human man."