With regard to the Celestinian Pardon:
When history is ignored
by Lucetta Scaraffia
Translated from
the 8/29/09 issue of
"In the ancient Church, penitence was a serious matter. It had to do with sins like homicide, apostasy, and adultery, and was administered publicly."
Thus starts an article by Vito Mancuso
[lay theologian much lionized by the Catholic left and author of best-sellers that promote heterodox religious thought] in
La Repubblica [Italy's leading ultra-liberal daily which is also relentlessly anti-Church and anti-Benedict XVI], that one can say, even at first glance, is particularly deficient in historical fact.
It is with such 'knowledge' that Mancuso uses to attack the cardinal Secretary of State for an encounter that had been scheduled to take place in a well-defined institutional setting.
Mancuso should know that the Church today continues to consider penitence a serious matter, and that it should not be confused with contingent controversies such as those that the newspapers indulge in.
That is why the Church in Abruzzo celebrates every year the occasion of the Pardon, the gift of indulgence that Celestine V gave to the people of his region in a spirit of spiritual charity as well as for economic reasons.
The occasion of the Pardon - like the Porziuncola indulgence in Assisi - attracted pilgrims and penitents to a place not usually visited by travelers, therefore benefiting the local citizens.
Even Celestine, whose contemporaries saw as the embodiment of the
Papa angelicus, knew that alongside spiritual assistance, material incentives were indispensable to people who are very poor.
And because of the importance given by the Church to forgiveness, the Church celebrated the Great Jubilee of 2000 by underscoring constantly, among other things, that pilgrimage must be accompanied indispensably by repentance, confession and a change of life.
This year, after the serious earthquake that brought such tragedy to the Abruzzo, the observance of the Celestinian Pardon has understandably received particular solemnity with the attendance of the Secretary of State to represent the Pope.
In his selective reconstruction of the history of penitence in the Church, Mancuso seems to forget that starting in the middle of the third century, confession was established as an individual and auditory experience - it takes place between the penitent and his confessor, and it is secret, as penitence should be.
It is a method that doubtless favored recourse to confession by many sinners, but above all - as many historians acknowledged - it also became the basis for the birth of individualism in Western civilization.
Evidently, this confessional secrecy does not please everyone: there are those who want a Church that is ever ready to condemn individuals publicly, instead of the individual care that it gives to individual consciences.
And there are those who want this public condemnation for particular individuals, because whenever the Church states its positions publicly on sexual behavior in general, these same people consider it to be unwarranted interference.
In other words, these elements would want the Church to contradict what is the proper moral position by condemning the sinner and not the sin.
[La Repubblica has been on a months-long campaign to pillory Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for alleged sexual indiscretions and immoral behavior, and apparently wishes the Church to do the same thing.]
Which would also be a nihilistic position as well as partisan involvement in contingent political events - which is exactly what both Benedict XVI and Cardinal Bertone wish to avoid.
Mancuso's superficial moralism leads him to a stunning comparison between John the Baptist's attitude towards Herod Antipas, and what was to have been a social dinner between Cardinal Bertone and the Italian Prime Minister.
Once more, Mancuso appears to ignore that the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod because of his subversive preaching, not just for reproaching his private life. But above all, Mancuso seems to see prophecy as a radical opposition to institution.
Indeed, according to him, the Church should be deprived of its institutional foundation, which along with the prophetic dimension, has characterized it throughout its history.
But the Church, which lives in the world, is guided above all by charity and the salvation of souls.
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Another 'scandal' involving the Church in Italy indirectly has erupted in Italy, arising from a report in Il Giornale, a newspaper owned by the brother of the Prime Minister, in which the editor reveals that Dino Boffo, editor of Avvenire, the Italian bishops' newspaper, for the past 15 years, was found guilty in 2004 by a local court in Terni of telephone harassment of a woman with whose husband he was allegedly having an affair, and fined for the offense. The report said that it was not the first time Boffo had been denounced in Terni for homosexual practices.
Boffo immediately answered in Avvenire that he was the object of journalistic character assassination but did not deny the report itself. The Italian bishops conference also immediately issued a statement of 'full confidence' in Boffo, and this morning in Genoa, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, CEI president, did the same.
The Vatican has not weighed in on the matter, which some quarters find significant. Questions are being asked whether Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who initially hired Boffo, was aware of his alleged 'criminal' record, and whether Cardinal Bagnasco should investigate the matter inasmuch as Il Giornale apparently merely cited court records which are open to the public.
Meanwhile, shouldn't Mr. Boffo resign temporarily until the matter is cleared up? It's a terrible scandal to weigh over the Church in Italy if it should turn out that the moralizing editor of the bishops' newspaper has such a record.
On second thought, if he had been convicted as reported, Mr. Boffo should have informed the CEI at the time of his conviction. Not informing them then merely raises the suspicion level now about his honesty.
Of course, questions have been raised about the timing of the Il Giornale story which came out yesterday - in the midst of the brouhaha over the Prime Minister's attendance at the observance of the Celestinian Pardon. Berlusconi immediately denied he had anything to do with the report.
Whether the timing is suspicious or not, what is more important is for Mr. Boffo to disclose the full truth and for the CEI to do what is right and proper - remembering that any scandal affecting the Church or one of its priests or prominent laymen ends up being laid at the Pope's doorstep. Mr. Boffo and the CEI owe it to the Pope to spare him new grief.
8/30/09
P.S. Mr. Boffo published a reply today in Avvenire to the charges against him made in Il Giornale in which he says, among other things:
1) the claim that he had previously been denounced for alleged homosexual offenses was not from any official report, but from an anonymous letter that had been sent to the CEI and many Italian bishops months ago;
2) that the Italian Minister for the Interior called him to say that his ministry (which is also in charge of all police prefectures) had nothing to do with the release of any document used by Il Giornale, and that to his knowledge, there were no records of previous complaints against Boffo;
3) that Boffo indeed paid a fine to a court in Terni in 2004 for molesting telephone calls made from his cell phone, not by him, he claims, but by a teenage ward that he had been helping to cure of his drug addiction; that he paid the fine of 536 euros to clear up the matter; and that he informed the CEI about all this in 2004.
The Il Giornale story claimed that Boffo was having an affair with the woman's husband, but Boffo says the husband's only involvement in the whole episode was that he, too, had been a ward at the rehabilitation center where Boffo's ward was enrolled [the boy died eventually of drug overdose].
4) that, in effect, Il Giornale manipulated its reporting of available documents to present the story that it did about Boffo.
Lella on her blog observes that the CEI came so promptly to the defense of Boffo, and wishes they were as prompt when it has to do with supporting the Pope.
Actually, Cardinals Ruini and Bagnasco have been exemplary about issuing a prompt response in support of the Pope, when needed - in their personal capacity and in the name of the CEI - but certainly, not the other Italian bishops, in their individual capacity.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 31/08/2009 17:38]