Dear Mrs. Kochan,
Thank you for your message. I am so glad that the news from Rome was of interest to you. Below is my translation of an article which appeared yesterday in the paper. I send it along so that you might have a more authoritative take on events in Rome. The translation is mine and there is no copyright on it so please feel free to do as you wish with it.
The article is an interview with Senator Marcello Pera from, "il Giornale", a national paper. It was in the Thursday, January 17th edition. It is worthwhile mentioning that the Rome university, La Sapienza, at which the Pope was barred from speaking because of a faculty-student protest, was founded in the 14th century by Pope
Boniface VIII.
There have been quite a number of pertinent articles such as the one below and it was hard to choose which to translate — this one I guess interested me the most because these words are pronounced by an atheist (which seems such a harsh word for a man as kind as Marcello
Pera) who is a well-known political figure in Europe, and who is highly esteemed in universities around the world for his learning.
Marcello Pera, apart from being a member of the Italian Senate, is a philosopher and professor. These are some of the places where he has been a visiting professor (Visiting Fellow): Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, 1984; The Van Leer Foundation, Gerusalemme, 1987; Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT, Cambridge in Massachusetts, 1990; Centre for the Philosophy of Natural and Social Sciences, London School of Economics, 1995-96.
Best wishes,
Mrs. Catherine Zeppa Di Matteo
The Insult to Ratzinger? The Left's Vendetta by Alessandro M. Caprettini
"What am I waiting for now? That this anti-religious push from the left becomes a boomerang — that on Sunday at the Angelus in St. Peter's square there will be immense crowds… everyone of us should be there. It would be the best response to not having allowed the Pope to speak."
Marcello Pera, past president of the Italian Senate, did not digest well the forced cancellation of Pope Benedict's scheduled address at Rome's university, La Sapienza, inaugurating the new academic year, […] a renunciation imposed on him by a group of faculty members who seemed more like mean-spirited grade school teachers rather than university professors; and then there was the government's embarrassed "silence" adding insult to injury. But from his office in the Palazzo Giustiniani Pera asks himself once again […] what moves the political right should make now that the last [illusion] has disappeared and it is open war between the secularists and the defenders of Christian tradition in Europe.
"I have been saying this for a long time: that that which polarizes the left and the right, after the death of communism, is now secularism. And so what if they laughed at me when I said so then, but now the proof is on the table: the 'Manifesto' of the Italian left has now become about 'anti-religion'. And Benedict XVI has become the catalyzing force of their protest.
President Pera, meanwhile though, can you tell me what the incident at La Sapienza University seems like to you?
"It is an outrageous insult to the Pope, it is a huge, unprecedented diplomatic fiasco that Italy bowed to the violence of these secularists […] and it is a mortal blow for Italian universities. Oh sure, […] they attempt now to minimize, blunt the blow, and to back-track, but there are people with a huge responsibility for what happened. It would have changed everything if Prodi [Prime Minister] or Amato or Mussi had taken a stand and distinguished themselves as not lending support to that anti-papal protest against the Pope's right to speak. Instead, those 67 [faculty members] were counting on the government's silence in order to break down the door. And they did it.
Do you have an idea of what is behind that silence? Why did Prodi and company not intervene?
"I believe that… it was in order to take revenge. Revenge for the way they had to back down on PACS and DICO [PACS and DICO were two projects for introducing laws permitting same-sex marriage and for granting married status in a legal form to co-habitating couples], and on the question of assisted fertilization [and embryonic research] and for the criticism which came from the Vatican about the degrading state of Rome. You know what I suspect? Actually, it's a certainty. And I will say even more: someone wanted to show the rest of Europe that Italy is better than everyone else because it can even shut up a Pope! And that's more than Zapatero has accomplished…"
Do you really think that the rest of Europe cares much?
"The ideology of the left, which now replaces communism, is built on two pillars: Europeanism and secularism. It is upon these two elements that many have anchored themselves, those who for years and years believed in the Marxist ideology and now look for any substitute capable of keeping their faith alive. And they are not even concerned that their choices are paradoxical: Togliatti [founder and leader of the Italian Communist Party] was not a secularist and the number one enemy of Communism was precisely the Europe of De Gasperi, Schuman and Adenauer [the founding fathers of the European Community, post-WWII].
Are you talking about today's Europe which refuses to acknowledge its Christian roots?
"Yes, I'm talking about the Europe which refuses to acknowledge itself, which bows to Islamic fundamentalism and censures Buttiglione [European Member of Parliament] because he distinguishes between morality and rights; I'm talking about the Europe which refused to defend the Pope after the Regensburg speech, about a Europe which considers it a "right" and a "conquest" to be able to offend Christian traditions; about a Europe which no longer has even the courage to say "Merry Christmas" [instead of a more secular "happy holidays"]. The ex-communists are Europeanists because they love this Europe. And they are secularists because they want to destroy European traditions. The true master of secularism is Pope Benedict XVI. He has a political sensitivity much more profound than many of Europe's leaders. He is so secular that he even proffered a secularistic challenge: what does secularism mean? what values does secularism represent? And because they didn't know how to answer these questions they didn't let him speak [at La Sapienza], and so the speech he was supposed to have given was read aloud in his absence during the ceremony. And it was fantastic; it was a masterpiece of doctrine and culture!
[…]
Can the [political and diplomatic] damage be fixed?
"I see that the diplomatic departments of the Italian Republic and the Secretary of State are already at work, but that which has happened is a multiple catastrophe –international, political, institutional and cultural — which is not fixable. Only people can do that, beginning with the Angelus [in St. Peter's] this coming Sunday and then by staying close to the Pope and to the Church.
Well, don't you think that the political right could do something?
"It would have to find a strategy for combating the forces which are against Christianity and develop a serious debate. What is it that makes us different from the left? One or two percentage points, more or less, with regard to taxes? the infrastructure? […]. We are in need of leaders who are capable of introducing something substantially new and who have a strategic vision. Instead, right-wing politics seem little interested in these subjects [European and Christian-Judeo identity, tradition and culture]. They only mouth them or tack them on to the tail-end of their agendas with the risk that in response to secularism on the left, they will fall into a form of clericalism which would be imposed by others from the outside [because of their own empty convictions]. This vacuum today is filled by Pope Benedict XVI or by newspapers like "il Foglio". People know and understand this and that's why I'm convinced that on Sunday in St. Peter's square there will be an awful lot of people."
[End translation.]
PS: forgive me for taking yet more of your time, but there is another thing which I think really needs telling and it is this: Padre Livio, the founder of Radio Maria, the most popular national Catholic radio station (well, after radio Vaticana, it's the ONLY national Catholic radio) and which is cherished by millions of Italians and for which two Popes made known their profound gratitude, has called all listeners to fast today on bread and water for the holy Father and for all priests.
Radio Maria promotes fasting on bread and water every Wednesday and Friday for the intentions of the Blessed Virgin — so, for us it is not such an extraordinary sacrifice since we're used to this regime (but a pizza is kept hot and ready for when the clock strikes midnight!) and people do it most willingly, so profound is their devotion to Mary. But today a special fast was called for the Pope and I'm quite sure that many people, more than normal and even non-Catholics, participated in the fast today. And so I thought this was something really important about the Church in Italy, about the Catholic faith here.
It's a piece of information that would not likely get to the USA–and yet it is so significant I think.
Well, once again, best wishes,
Mrs. Catherine Zeppa Di Matteo
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Dear Mrs. Di Matteo,
I am sure our readers will be very interested in this. Thank you for going to the trouble to make this translation available to Catholic Exchange. It does indeed seem that our Holy Father is markedly bringing to the attention of Europeans the stark realities of the choices they face. God bless and protect him. We knew he was God's man for the job – but wow! he is amazing.
Blessings,
Mary Kochan, Senior Editor, Catholic Exchange
