- "Father, you're deluded if you think whirlwind won't hit you." Professor de Mattei responds
Responding Letter from Prof. de Mattei to Radio Director.
February 13, 2014
Dear Father Livio,
With an e-mail message of February 13, you tell me that you have decided to suspend the program "Radici Cristiane" [Christian Roots] at Radio Maria, because I would "have been continuously increasing" my "critical position regarding the Pontificate of Pope Francis." "Your position" -- you write me -- "is incompatible with the presence in Radio Maria, which calls for, in its guiding principles, adherence not only to the Magisterium of the Church, but also support to the pastoral action of the Supreme Pontiff."
First of all, I thank you for the invitation you offered me four years ago to conduct the transmission “Radici Cristiane” on Radio Maria. Since then, until last January 15, every third Wednesday of the month, I tried to carry out to the best of my ability, the task that you had entrusted to me, by developing themes of a historical nature, apologetics and a spiritual and moral defense of the Church and Christian civilization. I thank you also for having publically defended me when, as a result of some of my transmissions, I was violently attacked by the secular press. All of my activity and apostolate has been and remains at the service of the Church and the Roman Pontiff, to whom I dedicated my latest book, Vicar of Christ: The Papacy - Normality and Exception Devotion to the Papacy is an essential part of my spiritual life.
Catholic doctrine teaches us however, that the Pope is infallible only in determined conditions and he can make mistakes, in the sphere of ecclesiastic politics for example, in strategic choices, in pastoral action and even in ordinary magisterium. In these cases it is not a sin, but a duty of conscience for a Catholic to criticize, provided that it is done with the maximum respect and love due to the Supreme Pontiff. The saints did so, and they have to be our models.
The Church allows Her children this freedom to criticize, and it is not a sin if one points out, with due respect, the faults of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Instead, the one who is silent because of cowardice or conformism, does sin. The drama in the Church today is precisely the fear in priests and bishops, who constitute the pars electa of the Church, in denouncing the terrible crisis which is occurring, identifying its causes and proposing solutions.
I re-read the article which represents the reason for my dismissal - and it seems to me that there is nothing disrespectful in it towards the reigning Pontiff, but simply some considerations of a historical nature more than theological, motivated by a pure love for the Truth. Besides, I did not express my concerns about the actual situation in the Church on my monthly Radio Maria transmission, but on my own information agency.
Dear Father Livio, you have every right to dismiss me from your radio, but it would have been better if you had done it without motivations, rather than advance such weak reasons, which are, if I may say so, unfounded. This incident does not bode well for you and I am truly sorry about it. The motion of events has accelerated at an increasingly faster pace and sooner or later the whirlwind will involve you and Radio Maria, constraining you to assume, in one way or the other, positions, which you are deluded in thinking can be avoided. The time will come, however, when one has to take sides. [Emphasis added] As far as I am concerned, I shall continue to exercise my Christian freedom, to defend the faith that I have received with my baptism and is the thing I hold dearest.
May the Holy Spirit help me never to succumb to any pressure or flattery, and never cease to state the truth, and to state it as loud as the silence of those who should be giving voice to it.
With deepest respect,
Roberto de Mattei
these Documents below:
1. Letter of Removal from Director of Radio Maria to Prof. de Mattei.
2. Responding Letter from Prof. de Mattei to Radio Director.
3. Article "Motus in fine velocior", by Prof. de Mattei.
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are at link below
link: rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/…/dictatorship-of…