Apocalyptic: Masses Suspended in All Italy Until April 3rd - "Quomodo sedet sola civitas plena populo"

From the First Lesson for Matins of Holy Thursday:

"Quomodo sedet sola civitas plena populo..." How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people, how is she become as a widow she that was was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary. She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits. The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. (Lamentations of Jeremiah, 1:1-5)

Following yesterday evening's urgent decree of the Italian central government imposing a lockdown in the entire region of Lombardy and of provinces in the regions of Veneto, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, and Marche, in order to control the spread of the currently spreading strain of coronavirus, already overwhelming the intensive care units of Northern Italy, the government extended the prohibition of "civil and religious ceremonies, funerals included," to the entire country today. And this Sunday the Italian Bishops' Conference made a shock announcement: Masses with the faithful suspended throughout the country until April 3rd (that's right before Holy Week). 

Masses are still supposed to be celebrated, one hopes in common sense, but in private (sine populo), and the lay faithful can make spiritual communion (see how here).

Not in the many wars of the past, not in persecutions, not ever since the Gospel first reached its shores, have the entire Italian peninsula and adjoining islands remained without Mass for the people. Even in the catacombs, the Liturgy (the work of the people) still went on, under severe persecution of the pagan Emperors.

Is it an overreaction? On the one hand, it is laudable that the Church wants to do her utmost to prevent a complete collapse of a public health system. On the other, we are talking about Italy here, and on this very Sunday, on Ligurian beaches, multitudes gathered to enjoy the sunny day:

The Vatican against Italian Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini

The present Vatican which never makes its voice heard when policies and laws against the traditional family and the protection of the unborn are passed, is violently against Matteo Salvini (who has anyway all the usual national, international and European 'big' powers against him, even more so after last Saturday's rally in Milan).

The President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Bassetti, has also openly condemned Salvini and the Lega Party, telling Catholics not to vote for them. (see here: https://ilmanifesto.it/partecipare-al-voto-pericolo-sovranisti/). 

Here is one strong voice in defence of Salvini, who, it would seem, despite the constant, vicious attacks, has a great part of the Italian people with him. 

How sad to see the Church taking a stance against Salvini

by Dr. Alessandro Meluzzi

SCRIPT OF VIDEO

What a sad and disconcerting stance the Vatican has taken, in the person of the Secretary of State Cardinal Parolin, who accuses Salvini and the sovereignists in general, of a blasphemous use of the Rosary, Marian devotion and religion. 

Was it perhaps blasphemous when Pius V, before the Battle of Lepanto,  invoked the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Queen of the Rosary [...] against the Turks, who, if they had won at Lepanto, would have eliminated Europe and Rome today would be a Muslim city?  But perhaps this is what “Bergoglioism” and “Soroism” want.

Salvini: “Personally, I entrust Italy, my life and your lives to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Let’s entrust ourselves to the six Patrons of Europe.”

H/T Messainlatino blog

Yesterday, the leader of an Italian political party, at a packed rally in Piazza Duomo, Milan, invoked the intercession of Our Blessed Lady and the Holy Patrons of Europe “for the peace and prosperity of our peoples”: words that immediately stirred the hearts of Catholics who love Jesus and His Church "usque ad effusionem sanguinis".

Italian Interior Minister: “Enough now with this ‘parent 1 and 2.' I have restored mother and father”

Claudio Cartaldo

"Il Giornale"

August 10, 2018

Salvini’s blitz on forms for identity cards - it’s back to the past and “No to the horror of 'surrogate motherhood' ”.  Gone ‘parent n.1’ and ‘parent n.2’.  Back to what is natural: mother and father. Matteo Salvini launches the revolution also in the area of the family and gives the go ahead to re-examine the forms for identity cards. 

[Excerpts]

Meet the new Italian Minster for The Family and Disability: The Honourable Lorenzo Fontana

When the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum was issued by Pope Benedict XVI in July 2007, Municipal Counsellor of Verona at that time, Mr Lorenzo Fontana had this to say:“This is an event of historical importance, which marks a return to tradition”.  The New Minister who has been a Member of the Lega Nord * since he was 20 years old, [he is now 38] attends the Traditional Latin Mass and in actual fact was married in that rite. He has a daughter.

Matteo Salvini and ‘Famiglia Cristiana’. Marcello Veneziani: “The enemy is Pope Francis and his secularist policies.”

Libero

Quotidiano

July 25, 2018

The enemy of Christianity is not Matteo Salvini, as “Famiglia Cristiana” insinuates.

The enemy is inside the Church and it’s the secularist politics of Pope Francis. This, mixed with the Islamic invasion and atheistic materialism, is the great danger for our Western culture and for our world, so explains Marcello Veneziani in Il Tempo. 

Socci: From Siena to New York ( through Rome, London and Brussels ) the collapse of the Left - a historical shock

Antonio Socci

Libero Quotidiano

July 3, 2018

Amid the cheerful, colorful streets of Siena, in festivity for “Il Palio della Madonna di Provenzano”, and a week following the electoral tsunami, some of the city’s leftist big-wheels and intellectuals wander around like they are lost;  questioned by national newspapers, they admit they are  “in shock” and bewildered at the collapse of their ‘red sovereignty’ which had lasted for a period of 70 years.                                                                                                                                                      

Even in other major Tuscan cities the Democratic Party (PD) has become the acronym for “Loses Everywhere”. And it can’t even blame the elusive Russian Hacker for its defeat in Massa, Pisa and Siena (MPS) after having lost the other Tuscan towns.

De Mattei: Italy is changing, but Mattarella is unaware of it

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

May 30, 2018

On Sunday May 27^th,  Professor Giuseppe Conte, appointed by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella to form a government, arrived at the “Palazzo del Quirinale” to present the list of his ministers, fruit of an intense work of collaboration between the political representatives of the two main parties in Parliament: “Movimento Cinque Stelle” and “La Lega”. 

De Mattei: The historical background of the abortion law in Italy

Abortion in Italy forty years later (1978-2018)

Roberto de Mattei 

Corrispondenza Romana 

March 21, 2018

Recently the attention of the media in Italy has been focused on the fortieth anniversary of Aldo Moro’s kidnapping. On March 16th 1978, in an ambush on Via Fani in Rome, the Christian Democrat politician was kidnapped and his bodyguards murdered by the Red Brigade. On May 9^th, after a captivity of 55 days, his body was found riddled with bullets in the boot of a car in Via Caetani. No-one has yet to recall though, that, during that same springtime of 1978, the law n.194 on abortion was debated and approved by the Italian Parliament and that since then, it has been the cause of six million victims in our country. 

De Mattei: Is “deep sedation” a masked form of assisted suicide?

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

January 10, 2017

Marina Ripa di Meana, the provocative exponent of the Italian jet-set who died in Rome on January 6, 2018, chose to die through deep palliative sedation, manifesting her last will and testament in a video: “After Christmas my health conditions precipitated. Breathing, speaking, eating and getting up: everything now is difficult for me, and causes me unbearable pain: the tumour has now taken complete possession of my body. Not of my mind though, or my conscience. I telephoned Maria Antonietta Farina Coscioni, a person I trust and esteem because of her personal story, to tell her that the end indeed had arrived.  I told her of my interest in assisted suicide in Switzerland. She told me that I could go the Italian way of palliative treatment through deep sedation. I, who have travelled with my mind and my body all my life, didn’t know about this way. I want to launch this message to say that even here at home or in hospital, with a tumor, people have to know that they can choose to return to the earth without [having to go through] ulterior and useless suffering. “Let it be known. Let it be known.”

THE ULTIMATE INTERVIEW to Understand all About Pope Francis: Marcello Pera, Italian politician and close Ratzinger friend

Benedict XVI greeting Marcello Pera

Marcello Pera is an influential intellectual in Italy. A former president of the Italian Senate, he is a close friend of Benedict XVI, and even co-authored a book of lectures with him on the decay of the West (Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam)

In an interview with Naples newspaper Il Mattino, published on July 9, 2017, Marcello Pera presented what can reasonably be called the general view of Pope Francis by the wide moderate spectrum of Italians, and Europeans, of all classes.

***

"Bergoglio just wants to do politics, the Gospel does not matter at all"

Pera: "The indiscriminate welcoming [of migrants] risks exploding tensions"

Il Mattino

Naples, July 9, 2017

Interview by Corrado Ocone

Pope Francis, in a new exclusive interview granted to Eugenio Scalfari for "Repubblica" intervenes in the political debate with strong and explosive opinions that at one time would be considered "leftist". This time, the Pontiff turned to the great of the earth assembled in Hamburg for the G20, opposing as a matter of principle to every policy intending to control and limit mass immigration from poor nations to Europe. In order to better understand the ideas, and above all the political and media action of the Pope, in relation to those of his predecessor, we have posed some questions to the former President of the Senate Marcello Pera. He, a [classical] liberal and Catholic, has, as it is known, shared many ideas with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (even writing in four hands with him a book: Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam, Mondadori, 2004).

Mr. President, what is the judgment you have reached regarding the continuous calls made by Pope Bergoglio on the welcoming of migrants? An indiscriminate, unconditional, total welcoming?

"Frankly, I do not get this pope, whatever he says is beyond any rational understanding. It's evident to all that an indiscriminate welcoming is not possible: there is a critical point that cannot be reached. If the Pope does not make reference to this critical point, if he insists in a massive and total welcoming, I ask myself: why does he say it? What is the true end of his words? Why does he lack a minimum of realism, that very little that is requested of anyone? The answer I can give myself is only one: the Pope does it because he hates the West, he aspires to destroy it, and he does all he can to reach this end. As he aspires to destroy the Christian tradition, Christianity as it has realized itself historically.

Illegal Immigration: Mayor against Bergoglianism in Rome -- stage set for a huge confrontation

Today, the Mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, sent a letter to the Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs to ask for a solution to the immigrant crisis in the City. Considering the unending papal support for the continuous flow of new groups from North Africa and the Middle East into Italy, the stage is certainly set for a great confrontation on the issue.

The following is our translation of a text posted by the Mayor on her Facebook account:

Rome is undergoing a strong migratory pressure. We cannot go on like this. I have sent in the past few days a letter to the Prefect* of Rome to demand of the Ministry of the Interior a moratorium on new arrivals of migrants in the City.

Papal spokesman praises radical pro-abortion, pro-divorce politician

Yesterday, on word that "bisexual," atheist, radical politician Marco Pannella had died, Fr. Federico Lombardi praised -- in a written statement, not off the cuff -- the man who helped lead Italy in the 1970s to legalize divorce and abortion. 

A fan of Pope Francis, Pannella was sent a copy of the pope's book by Francis himself, and the pope had even called Pannella asking him to end a hunger strike.

ANSA editorial

May 19, 2016

“I remember him with esteem and in friendship.  I think he has left a human and spiritual legacy of some significance;  candid relations, free expression and generous civic and political commitment towards others, especially for the weak in need of solidarity” said the Pope’s spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi. Pannella was a person with whom, in the past, we were often in disagreement. However, his complete, disinterested commitment to noble causes cannot but be appreciated.” 

Grazie, Santo Padre ! - Vatican silence leads to backroom deal - Italian Senate approves Same-Sex "Unions"

Marriage Italian Style: in the 1964 film, Domenico (Mastroianni) made an honest woman
out of his mistress Filumena (Loren). Soon, Italian men will be able to join their rentboys
in Civil Unions in City Halls all over Italy.

So, what happened today in the most important chapter of the Cirinnà Bill -- the Italian bill establishing civil unions for normal and "same-sex" couples in Italy? 

The Prayer of a Faithful Italian Bishop - (as most remain silent when faced with the destruction of the family)

Today, as the Italian Government is about to vote the proposed law on civil unions, here is a bittersweet commentary on the theme of the family and morality by the Bishop of Ascoli Piceno, Giovanni d’Ercole.

The Prayer of a Bishop

February 21, 2016

Today the Senate will bring to a close the vote on civil unions. We have fought the good fight. We have insisted opportunely and importunately. We have explained the reasons of truth… we took to the piazza to give witness to it. It seems however, that despite the signs given, the Pharaoh’s heart still remains hardened. It seems that God has decided to deliver Italy into his (the Pharaoh’s) hands so that he tastes in depth the bitterness of sin. So, now more than ever is the moment for prayer.

On Family Day, the God of Surprises surprised Pope Bergoglio and Prime-Minister Renzi (by Antonio Socci)

RENZI AND POPE BERGOGLIO (along with others) TAKEN ABACK BY THE PEOPLE OF FAMILY DAY

“The Surprises From The Holy Spirit”

Antonio Socci

“Libero”

January 31, 2016

There are those who are green with envy at yesterday’s immense and momentous Family Day, which, for the first time in Italian history filled up Rome’s Circo Massimo with no union, political or industrial organizational backing and no paid travel expenses. These were people who went to the Circo Massimo at their own expense, with enormous sacrifices, for an ideal, for their children, faced with a political class that has thrown ideals under the bus, seeing as it is only motivated by power. A political class that is quite incapable of representing these people and in reality, was never given any power by the electorate.

There are “ envious individuals” in the “Palaces of Power” (political, ideological and journalistic), but even in the palaces of ecclesiastical power, who did all they possibly could to defuse Family Day.

On Family Day, the Catholic Majority spoke in Italy - despite Pope's silence (by Roberto de Mattei)

THE ITALY OF FAMILY DAY

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

February 3rd 2016

The Family Day of January 30th brought to light the existence of another Italy, quite different from the relativist and “pornomania” one proposed to us by the media as the only real one.

The Italy of Family Day is that portion of the population, much larger than we can perhaps imagine, that has remained faithful, or has won back in recent years, what Benedict XVI defined as “the non-negotiable values”: life, the family, the education of children, with the conviction that only on these pillars can a well-ordered society be founded.

Interview with the only Bishop to take part at Rome's "Family Day" - "It's easy for the other bishops not to be here"

Bishop on the battlefield says: too easy not to expose oneself

Serena Sartini

Il Giornale

January 31st 2016

The Archbishop of Campobasso scolds his absent colleagues and appeals to Mattarella: “If the Cirinnà Bill passes, don’t sign it.”

He is one of the few bishops present at Family Day, perhaps the only one. Without fear of exposing himself or of being criticized by the other bishops, alongside the families, saying no to the Cirinnà  Bill on civil unions and with an appeal to the President of the Republic, [he says]: “I hope that the Bill will be examined by the Head of State, Sergio Mattarella and that he doesn’t sign the decree: it is in conflict with article 29 of the Constitution which states that the family is based on matrimony.”

The Bill should be completely rewritten – or better still, withdrawn

Monsignor Giancarlo Maria Bregantini, Bishop of Campobasso-Bojano, set out at 5 o’clock yesterday morning with a group of faithful from his diocese to be part of a demonstration at Circo Massimo. As a  shepherd does, not  abandoning his sheep.

Your Excellency, why did you want to be part of Family Day?

This is a civic and secular battle, a battle of basic dignity for three reasons: first of all, because the family is of perennial significance; second, because the snares regarding certain  secular positions of some days ago are in the increase; and third, if we give in on the family, we are giving in also on the social level.”

Rome's "Family Day" - Defiant Catholic Laity against "same-sex unions", despite little support from the Vatican

The "Cirinnà Bill" being debated in the Italian Parliament to allow "same-sex unions" in that central nation of Catholicism managed to bring Catholics from all over Italy to Rome this Saturday.

The image from the Circo Massimo is unmistakable: on this "Family Day", a huge multitude of Italian families (including many friends of this blog) gathered to protest the government's support of the counternatural bill.

Antonio Socci: "The Catholic Church is not the Bergoglio Party" - "for 2 years, nothing about extermination of Christians, but on Muslim migrants they can't stop talking!"

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS NOT THE BERGOGLIO PARTY

Antonio Socci

‘Libero’

August 23rd 2015

[Bp. Nunzio Galantino, appointed Secretary-General of the Italian Bishops' Conference
by the Pope and new laughingstock of Italian political and ecclesial life]

To the courageous headline in yesterday’s “Libero” (“The Pope’s Party. The Vatican’s Political Shift”) only one idea should be added: the Bergoglio Party is one thing (which is doing harm, but will fade with him), the Catholic Church is another. The other day Matteo Salvini* rightly noted this in the polemics he had with Monsignor Galantino. Plus, the very caustic interview with Giovanni Sartori - the king of political analysts - helped clarify it all:

“To me, this Vatican that utters such nonsense is a disaster. They aren’t interested at all in the real facts and focus on very petty things”. [Note: Sartori also declared, "Galantino? To me, he seems... demented."]

Sartori has always torn Italian politics to shreds, but to the Bergoglio Party he says: “Let me do the work of the political analyst – you attend to the things priests attend to”.

What would those “real facts” be that the priests should be attending to? Sartori is merciless:

“for two years” – he says – “those in Bergoglio’s Church haven’t said a word about the extermination of Christians, the slaughter of Catholics in Africa and the rest of the world, along with the continuous persecution of the Kurds. They should focus on these issues and leave alone the things that are not of their competence”.

It’s true that there are some shocking cases of Christians condemned to death for the faith – like Asia Bibi or Meriem – whom Bergoglio has always refused to mention.