Italy: Letter Published in Il Foglio of 5 August by a Group of Faithful

Holy Father Francis,

the latest book by Andrea Riccardi, founder of Sant'Egidio and a well-known voice in the progressive Catholic world is entitled “The Church burns. Crisis and future of Christianity".

We have not written any book, we have not conducted any detailed analysis, but we see every day the slow fire that devours and destroys the Catholic Church in Italy and in the world.

The resignation of Benedict XVI eight years ago left many in desolation and others in hope. For some time, there was talk of the 'Bergoglio effect', alluding to a rebirth that unfortunately never took place.

Rather! The "outgoing Church" has remained a slogan without any reality. On the contrary, the holy city of Christendom, in the age of covid, was the first to barricade its churches, giving the world a signal of total desertion.

We have witnessed synodical processes that have resembled veritable civil wars, with manoeuvres committed to guaranteeing a Soviet-style democracy, and which have led to controversial and, practically, totally useless documents. The Churches, the confessionals, even the Vatican coffers are increasingly empty: a sign that God's people do not recognise the voice of the pastors.

The Chinese Catholics, led by Cardinal Zen, are suffering because of the Vatican's agreements with the Chinese dictatorship; cardinals who have been at the forefront for years, at your side, such as Becciu, have ended up in economic scandals not seen since the days of Marcinkus; others, such as Caffarra, Burke, Sarah, Müller, Pell have been humiliated, silenced, ignored; still others, very close to you, have prevented the American Episcopal Conference from getting to the bottom of the paedophilia affair...

As if that were not enough, entire Catholic religious orders have been placed under commission and have had to suffer persecution that was unimaginable even in the darkest days of the Holy Inquisition; even personalities of a completely opposite orientation, such as Enzo Bianchi, have been 'mercy-ized' overnight, with unprecedented harshness. So have bishops, priests, religious... all over the country.
The Church today is a real "field hospital" full of wounded, which urgently needs not so much speeches on mercy, but real, concrete mercy, real peace.

Your latest measure against the so-called Latin Mass has further wreaked havoc and division, for no reason whatsoever. Why deny what your predecessor had granted? Why humiliate a small flock of the faithful, accusing them all summarily, without appeal, and, as is increasingly evident, without foundation?

So, after 8 years, the "church is burning" as never before: it is divided and torn, in Italy, in China, in the USA, in Germany... as in Luther's time.

We lay people too - although freer and not subjected to the growing arbitrariness of the clerical world - suffer from this climate that has become heavy, almost unbreathable, this now total disappearance of any healthy plurality. The Church, which used to be Mother, seems more and more like a stepmother, imposing anathemas, excommunications and commissariats at a continuous rhythm.

We therefore humbly beseech you: put an end to this civil war in the Church, like a Father who looks to the good of all his children, and not like the head of a clerical current that seems to want to use its monarchical authority, to the hilt, often beyond the confines of canon law, to achieve an ideological personal agenda.

Pictures: Joseph Shaw, CC-BY-NC