Journalists From Italy

"In a Benedictine monastery in Andechs, Germany, there is a relic of the miracle that took place in Rome in 595, during a Holy Mass celebrated by St. Gregory the Great. At the moment of receiving Holy Communion, a Roman noblewoman began to laugh because she was assailed by doubts about the truth of Christ's real presence in the consecrated bread and wine. The Pope then decided not to give her Communion, and immediately the bread and wine were transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ."

"Maria Montessori, busy giving lectures in various cities, committed herself to raising public awareness of “modern charity,” where the theme of the “new woman” emerged. She became a champion of women's emancipation and ideals of peace. In March 1896, she became co-founder and deputy secretary of a Roman women's association and in 1899 she joined the Maternal Union. She took up the women's cause in international forums, such as the Women's Congress in London in 1899, where she was approached by Guido Baccelli (1830-1916), who had experienced the barricades that defended the Roman Republic from the assault of French troops in 1849 and was seven times Minister of Education. Also in 1899, Montessori joined the Theosophical Society, founded in 1875 in New York for the study and dissemination of theosophy (divine wisdom) and esoteric sciences. Adhering to the Masonic principle of “universal brotherhood,” theosophy was based on the motto “there is no religion higher than truth.” No specific profession of faith was required of its members. This institution and its official organ, The Theosophist (1879), were founded by Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891), a Russian-born American philosopher, theosophist, occult essayist, and medium, and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907) ."

"Catherine of Siena was only six years old when Jesus appeared to her dressed majestically as the Supreme Pontiff, with three crowns on his head and a red cloak, flanked by St. Peter, St. John, and St. Paul. She devoted herself to serving the Church and, in particular, the clergy and the Pope."

"Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre is one of the most important guardians of Catholic Tradition who distinguished themselves in the 20th century. He is a champion of the deposit of faith of the Holy Roman Church, a faithful guardian of the Holy Mass, of the sanctifying integrity of the priesthood, of the Petrine primacy, and of the stable and firm Creed. In the collective imagination, his name is often linked to the figure of a “rebellious” bishop who was disobedient to the Church. Since the 1970s, just uttering his name seemed to evoke who knows what negativity, who knows what divisions... Much of the press and journalists portrayed him as a “schismatic,” someone who wanted to create his own Church... In reality, he was an uncomfortable figure because he spoke with courageous clarity at a time of great confusion in the Church and in the world."

"The Church teaches that Saint Joseph, a model for both consecrated persons and fathers of families, has an unparalleled power of intercession with the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Furthermore, he who died in the sweet company of the Blessed Virgin and Jesus is the patron of the dying, the hope of the sick, and is able to protect the dying from the attacks of Satan."

"Although born in a strongly Catholic country, at the age of 17 Marie Curie rejected all forms of religion, professing atheism and placing her trust solely in Enlightenment rationality and progress. She therefore adhered to Positivism, which became her mindset and guided her every action. Feminism found in her an icon of redemption and emancipation. Suffice it to say that in 1885, she went to the employment office to look for work, due to the financial difficulties her family was experiencing at the time, and found a job as a governess."

"Nehru Gandhi was inspired by the principle of secularism and a “socialist” and “scientific” model of managing the country's resources, based on the predominant role of the public sector within a planned economy and on gradual industrialization."

"Saint Hilary was a Christian who bowed not to the power of the world, but to the Kingdom of God."

"Why did the Three Wise Men set off for Palestine? They were scholars of astrology and, seeing the comet, they attributed extraordinary significance to it because the doctrine of Zoroaster spoke of “a savior born of a virgin without the touch of a man,” the savior would restore the kingdom of good and evil, and his birth would be signaled by the appearance of a bright star. They therefore followed the path of the star and, knowing the Jews' expectation of a Messiah, set off, illuminated by divine grace."

"In the Litany of the Saints prayed in Purgatory by those who were envious on earth, Saint Michael is the second to be named, after Mary Most Holy, a sign of his great power of intercession (Purgatory XIII, 51). The Virgin Mary and the Archangel Michael are associated in their fight against the Devil and both, iconographically speaking, have under their feet, depending on the case, the serpent, the dragon, or the Devil himself, whom the Archangel holds chained and threatens, ready to pierce him with his sword."

"Saint Ferdinand, who completed the Reconquista of the Iberian domains that had fallen into the hands of Islam, is the only Spanish sovereign to date to be considered by the Church worthy of the glory of the altars. Everyone, even his enemies, agrees in recognizing his purity of morals, prudence, heroism, generosity, meekness, and great spirit of service to his people and the Church. His practice of virtue and wise ability to administer the Spanish kingdoms made him a model Christian sovereign and ruler."

"Mary's Davidic descent is common among the Church Fathers. St. Paul's own statement that Jesus was “born of the seed of David according to the flesh” confirms this. According to John of Damascus, Luke's genealogy is that of Mary, while Matthew describes the genealogy of Joseph. St. John of Damascus' hypothesis was promoted by Annius of Viterbo in 1502 and has since gained widespread acceptance. Luke's genealogy would account for Mary's Davidic descent, first hypothesized by Irenaeus of Lyon, and Jesus would be “son of David” even according to the flesh, making the prophecy of Psalm 131:11 and the announcement of the Angel Gabriel to Mary Most Holy true. St. Thomas Aquinas added to St. Irenaeus' hypothesis that Mary belonged to the tribe of Levi on her mother's side, like Elizabeth, her relative (Luke 1:5, 36)."

"Tradition is an ever-present legacy, ageless, as is God. The Tradition of the Church is gold, and gold cannot undergo evolution or alteration, otherwise it would no longer be itself; the only process suitable for gold is polishing, to revive its color and brilliance, which is the only “development” in the present of Tradition."

"Don't be upset, Neapolitans and the like, but ‘’L'Espresso‘’ and Santoro are right: Naples is truly an impossible, unbearable, sick city. All that was missing were the two thousand criminals released in Naples and its surroundings by the pardon to give it the final blow. Now crime is rampant, with the applause of the people, and Don Clemente Mastella and his deputy Manconi want to say that the pardon has nothing to do with it: while they were repeating this, four criminals who had killed during a robbery were caught in Naples, three of whom had just been released from prison thanks to the pardon. But it's not just a question of the pardon, I agree. The problem is Naples. Which is really a nasty sewer, to put it in local terms. [...] Walk the streets overflowing with garbage, through the neighborhoods where chaos and noise reign, through the squares and alleys where thuggery rules and cunning trickery runs rampant. No, Naples is unbearable."

"Do they prefer to burn Italy rather than waste? They deserve to live in garbage rather than in Italy. They have chosen to incinerate their nationality rather than their garbage. If illegal immigrants can be expelled, then Italians who offend their own country should also be expelled. On their identity cards, under nationality, remove Italian and write: garbage. They deserve to be represented by garbage."

"This law of contempt [for the right parties] prevails throughout the West, Ferrara notes, but even more so in Italy. Three things lead to contempt or civil death in our country: having opinions that are contrary to political correctness and perhaps in tune with common sense, preferring traditional, civil, and religious values; having a different opinion on fascism and anti-fascism, but also on communism, from the dominant canon; preferring Berlusconi to his opponents or former allies. The latter weighs more than all the others, even if it is the least linked to a right-wing identity and the most contingent."

"In terms of facts, it remains true that, in the end, the so-called ‘right’ has made fewer mistakes in practice and in theory than the so-called ‘left’, has been better able to grasp reality and give voice to the people, has been more helpful to development and more effective, has been better able to balance freedom and tradition, freedom and security, and has less harassed, persecuted, and oppressed citizens."

"But in the face of ideological and racial contempt for those on the right, let me urge you to take sober pride in being and declaring yourself to be on the right."

"Those on the right parties who denounce contempt are also accused by subcontractors of victimhood. Take the beating and shut up, don't play the victim. Beaten and cuckolded."

"In general, tradition is a sense of continuity, a legacy handed down and to be handed down. It therefore involves a fruitful relationship not only with the past but also with the future. Tradition is not the cult of the past but a sense of continuity; and with respect to the past, it selects what is dead from what is alive. Implicit in tradition is the idea of transmission, the passing on of the baton from generation to generation, from father to son, from teacher to pupil, and so on. [...] On a historical level, tradition is the nobility of experience, the lasting joy of things, fidelity, reassuring customs, and return."

"There are at least three right wings: the liberal right, somewhat conservative in terms of values, liberal in economics, anti-communist and guarantor of civil liberties; the traditional right, with significant Catholic or rebellious variations; the new right, social and community-oriented, critical of market dominance and the consumerist model. The common trait of the right today is the appeal to popular sovereignty, the preference for a decision-making democracy and a territorial and real love of country rather than constitutional patriotism."

"This country cannot continue to be a poor copy of television, its appendage and its monkey."

"In the bleak month of December, it is heartening to cultivate a magnificent June within oneself."

"(About Fausto Gianfranceschi A man of the right, sanguine and direct, a Roman Catholic, not just in name, a ‘reactionary’ [...] A lively polemicist [...] he was one of the first human and cultural references I knew when I arrived in Rome as a boy."

"In Asor we contemplate the failure of the practical and political left, that of struggle and government, ridiculous in its maximalism but also pathetic in its decisiveness, a fake left that pretends to be right-wing, and therefore doubly fake."

"But bets are being taken that this will not happen!... If there is to be political censorship against Santoro and Biagi, I too will take to the streets to prevent it, to demonstrate in their defense."

"(Referring to a little girl who wants to be called “Silvia Berlusconi” and her parents) There is no conversation with adults that does not lead to Berlusconi. When her little brother Andrea Riccardo asked his parents, “But why does God exist?” she immediately asked, “Mom, why does Silvio Berlusconi exist?”, grasping the connection between the two questions."

"Gypsies & Garbage bins, human garbage and urban garbage. There are two theories circulating: since the right wing with the Lega has been in government, gypsies and immigrants are two chapters of the garbage emergency. The other theory says: no, the right wing and the Lega are in government because people consider gypsies and immigrants to be two chapters of the waste emergency."

"In 1978, Giuseppe Berto published the novel La gloria (Glory), dedicated to the story of Judas. The apostle was redeemed in precisely this way. Judas sacrificed himself for the glory of Christ and the salvation of mankind. A similar thesis was expressed in a novel-essay by the Catholic writer Francesco Grisi. **“Giuda, un garibaldino d'altri tempi”, il Giornale.it, August 15, 2013."

"Liberalism would like to be the ideology that transcends the categories of right and left, indeed pulverizing ideologies and presenting itself as something beyond them. Its totem is the market and its natural habitat, its horizon is capitalist society, which does not get on well with conservative movements, but definitely does not get on well with left-wing statist models. If, on the other hand, we move to the level of customs, family, and civil rights, then the liberal spirit is more to the left, but it borders on the radical."

"Revisionists are those who rethink their own ideas as well as historical facts."

"The conservative party balances haste with slowness, the local with the global, the artificial with the natural, novelty with memory, mobility with roots. And this corresponds to a biological need, since we need both novelty and disruption as well as security and persistence. Conservatives are realists, they have a sense of proportion, limits, and boundaries, they know that life inhales and exhales, has systole and diastole, is a round trip."

"So why do these successful programs only come from the left? I reject the ethnic-political hypothesis suggested by the left itself: that we leftists are more intelligent, more ethical, and possess the truth. No, I don't believe in these anthropological differences and in this Word incarnate in an ideological camp."

"With the optimism of despair, which is much more relevant today than Gramsci's optimism of the will, I say that this era smells too much of death and decline, sings and dances on the edge of the precipice, warns that it is one step away from paradise and two from hell, in automatic sequence."

"And the day of Judgment came, and the world was judged by a stupid god. A world led by idiots and presided over by the prince of idiots: I have no other words to sum up the meaning of the cosmic hoax of the Wikileaks revelations. Frattini says it was the September 11 of world diplomacy, but to me it seemed like April Fools' Day. Sure, a clever guy surrounded by clever guys has gained from it. But do you realize what a planetary bullshit we are dealing with? These are summary and stupid judgments expressed by some official who has to write his briefing notes for the White House and copies from newspapers and TV; they are not the Lord's report cards on who will go to heaven and who will be damned to hell."

"There is a need to understand, and I will never tire of repeating this, that shared memory is not a joke."

"There is a maniacal and artisanal stinginess in small things that gives more satisfaction than avarice in big things. Repairs invisible to the eyes of others, small acts that you do in secret, you are ashamed of them and therefore you keep a secret to yourself and a complicity with things. You feel smarter, more thrifty, and a little mischievous. And you delude yourself into thinking you're living for free. A happy life is made up of petty delights."

"In Rome, there is only one wall that cannot be crossed, and that is the Vatican walls, where the Ruler preaches to the world, but not at home, to tear down walls and welcome everyone."

"Fini eliminated Fascism as if it were a kidney stone."

"Democracy is based on the possibility of choosing and sending one group or another to government. [Until 1994] this did not exist: democracy was guaranteed through quotas of local or peripheral power subcontracted or granted to the opposition (on the left, of course). It was the so-called ‘consociationalism’. […] On the other hand, the media-cultural-judicial-trade union-employer-administrative system did not favor the growth of an alternative ruling class on the right. On the contrary, it bombarded every promising emergence, at the local and national, cultural and civil levels."

"I don't know how many people today, 40 years after his death, remember an essential aspect for understanding Dino Buzzati, the man and his work: his old-fashioned conservative nature, apolitical, pessimistic and even reactionary, as he himself admitted, but reactionary in private, he specified, “attached to old things, to tradition, rather than to the things of tomorrow.”"

"I always disembark in Naples with anxiety. I feel like I'm stepping onto a treacherous stage, where the performance is choral and you are observed and treated like the newcomer. You fear the pitfalls of the stage and the complicity of the audience. These may be prejudices and even ancestral legacies of the villager who landed in the historic capital of his kingdom, like a mask from my village, Don Pancrazio Cucuzziello, who was tricked in Naples because of his naive peasant crudeness. But when I arrive in Naples, I feel a danger that I don't even feel in the most unsafe Arab or South American cities. I endure the Neapolitan hell only as a necessary transit to access the paradise of its islands and peninsulas or to enjoy the company of a few friends. I will not write yet another essay on Naples, the Camorra, and feelings; if anything, I would write about a great failed capital. One that fascinates with the voluptuousness of its decline, almost the coquetry of undressing in public."

"(According to Glenn Alexander Magee) Hegel is a hermetic thinker: he replaced the philosopher with the sage and philosophy with theosophy, drawing on the Kabala, Alchemy, Rosicrucians, Gnosis and the Hermetic tradition, from Hermes Trismegistus onwards, in a broad line that goes from Meister Eckhart to Böhme, from Agrippa to Lullo and Paracelsus, from Pico della Mirandola to Giordano Bruno, to occultism and spiritism, astrology and the esotericism of Freemasonry. Hegel refers to an Invisible Church in his correspondence with Schelling and Hölderlin... But Hegel remains a Christian and a professor, not a magician or esotericist. He is inspired more by Luther than by Paracelsus."

"[...] in the first rift between Croce and Gentile, Croce is the closest to original fascism. It is Croce who introduces Georges Sorel, one of the first cultural references of Fascism, into Italian culture; it is Croce who speaks, albeit in a critical dimension, of the ethical state; it is Croce who even encourages fascism and compares it to Cardinal Ruffo's Sanfedist hordes, believing that fascism has the function of sweeping away Bolshevism and the spiritual crisis and restoring the authority of the Italian state. Finally, I recall that it was Croce who suggested Gentile as Minister of Education to implement the school reform project that he, as minister, had initiated during the Giolitti era. In this vision, Fascism has a preparatory function for Croce in restoring true liberalism."

"[...] what remains are the aristocratic works of the defeated, Tomasi, Buzzati, Praz and Morselli, Berto and Alianello. Or of the defeated who feel uncomfortable in the camp of the victors, such as Pavese and Pasolini."

"At the dawn of Mussolini's government, there were 267 parliamentarians affiliated with Freemasonry: more of a lodge than a chamber. Freemasons of different rites were other important names in the history of Fascism: trade unionist Edmondo Rossoni, Grand Minister Araldo di Crollalanza, Jurist Alfredo De Marsico; Peppino Caradonna, Bernardo Barbiellini Amidei, Aldo Finzi, Balbino Giuliano, and Costanzo Ciano, father of Galeazzo, Alberto Beneduce, future head of IRI, and Giacomo Acerbo, author of the electoral law that bears his name; Ezio Maria Gray, who would later become a member of the MSI, Armando Casalini, and many others."

"Marcel Proust traveled the 20th century in reverse, looking in the rearview mirror. He went back to the 19th century and revived it in the full modernist and futurist fervor of his time. Outside, the future raged, the Sun of the Future shone, and the beauty of machines and speed was sung. But inside his cork-lined room, the spasms of modernity did not reach him; the journey was accomplished in his enamored mind, together with an extraordinary revolution, in the astronomical sense."

"Anyone who wants to scientifically prove that God does not exist is, scientifically speaking, an idiot. I am also prepared to acknowledge the opposite observation: scientific proof of the existence of God is utterly stupid. Two opposing acts of militant and presumptuous insanity."

"[...] It is primarily thanks to Adriano Tilgher that Spengler became known in Italy, especially through his anthology on contemporary relativists. Tilgher can indeed be considered the “Italian Spengler.” There are many similarities between the Italian thinker and the author of ‘'The Decline of the West’': from historical-philosophical relativism to the comparative analysis of culture and events, art and civilization, from the sense of decadence to the “Faustian” category. Tilgher, in fact, claimed chronological priority, and in any case the autonomy, of his thought with respect to Spengler's."

"One could then deduce a sort of general law of public opinion according to which those on the left are better at criticizing, while those on the center-right are better suited to governing."