Antonio Socci
"Libero"
March 10, 2018
The parish
priest of Cisterna in Latina, Don Livio
Fabiani caused a bit of sensation with his words at the funeral of the two
children killed by their father.
Yet perhaps
– for Catholics – the homily of Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, Archbishop of
Florence, at the funeral of the Fiorentina’s Captain, Davide Astori, who died
two Sundays ago of a heart attack, ought to be a source of more amazement.
These two
tragedies have made us face sudden death, the eruption of evil and the suffering
of the innocents. We are all dumbstruck. The words “waste and void” repeated by Thomas
S. Eliot in his poem describe our hearts in these situations.
For
Christians, however, there was and always has been a voice that knows the mystery
of all things, that knows how to make friendship even with “sister death” and
for centuries has had the mission of illuminating man’s path: The Church.
Again Eliot
recalls that She was seen for centuries as the One who: “who will perhaps
answer our doubtings. The Watcher, who sees what
is to happen. The Witness. The God-shaken, in whom is the truth inborn.”
The poet continues: “She tells them of Life and Death, and of all that they would
forget./She is tender where they would be hard, and hard where they/like to be soft./ She tells them of Evil and Sin, and other unpleasant facts.”
CHRISTIAN WORDS
For this the parish priest from Latina in the heartrending Mass for the two
murdered children, asked for prayer “even for the father” who had committed
suicide after killing his own children and wounding his wife.
The Corriere
della Sera reported “that someone from the pews contested the priest’s words
but that he said, after a moment of silence and commotion. “ Pardon me, but the
family have forgiven”.
In the
homily the priest recalled: “I baptized Alessia, gave her First Communion and next May 6th she would
have received the Sacrament of Confirmation and Martina would have begun
attending catechism classes in the parish.”
Then he
emphasized that “we brought Alessia and Martina here, not to a stadium or
sports hall. We brought them here, to church where they first began their steps
in Christianity ” because “it is here that
we find the answers, in our faith in Jesus.”
Simple but vertiginous, Christian words. They should extinguish the
rancor that we have seen elsewhere. ANSA
reports that at Secondigliano the body of Luigi Capasso (the father) was greeted
with “with shouts and insults” but “was
blessed at the Neapolitan cemetery of Poggioreale.”
Even when
anger prevails among the people, the Church never fails in Her compassionate
prayer for everyone, by taking the example from Jesus, Who, nailed to the Cross,
prayed even for His executioners: “Father forgive them for they know not what
they do.”
The Church
is where one goes to seek the prayer we all are in need of and where we find
consolation in suffering or when confronted with death.
The Church is She – who, like a mother who loves
- tells Her children even the uncomfortable
truths they don’t want to hear. Starting with the necessity and duty of prayer
for everyone. A mother doesn’t seek the approval of men, since she wants only
the salvation of her children.
BEWILDERMENT
For this
reason, the words of the Archbishop of Florence, Cardinal Betori at Davide
Astori’s funeral Mass leave us somewhat bewildered.
Actually,
there is not even one reference to prayer in his entire discourse: not for the
young footballer’s soul and his eternal salvation, nor for his family and
relatives who are grief-stricken.
This is astonishing
since a churchman should make it clear that the bond with the dear departed doesn’t end with death, but we can and must
continue helping each other with prayers for our salvation and eternal bliss.
Prayers for
those who have died convey that death is only a momentary exit from the field
of vision, that “life has not been taken away, but rather transformed” . Thus
Christians may cry out: “Death where is thy victory?” .
Prayer for
dear ones who have previously been called by God is a great act of love and
reminds us that we have an immortal soul. As Chiara Corbella used to say: “we were
born and we won’t die anymore.”
These were
the eternal words of the Church that thousands of people in Florence wanted
to hear.
The tragedy
of Davide Astori has cast a chill on everyone as the sudden death of a 30 year
old man is like a punch in the face and confronts us with the terrible
fragility of life. Even when one is in the prime and vigor of his youth. It carries us to the brink of the abyss and
the mystery of life. And it is above all
at these times, that our gaze is directed to that place which promises “words
of eternal life”. In fact, the Church
of Santa Croce in Florence was filled to overflowing as was the piazza in front
of it.
But Cardinal
Betori didn’t embrace the suffering of all those people by inviting them to
pray, thereby teaching them the faith and opening their hearts up to Christian
hope. On the contrary, he said he was
unable to give any consolation. Here is his astonishing preamble:
“The sense
of many things in life escapes us, the “why” remains obscure. First of all
death itself. We have no explanations to offer about death which could serve in
giving consolation. Our suffering
remains, especially when death takes away from us a person we love - a friend. It has happened now to us, with Davide
Astori. Don’t ask me then for comprehensible
reasons, for justifiable conclusions [or] motives to console [you]. I can only
cry with you. And offer you something to think about.”
Certainly,
during the homily he juxtaposed some quotations from the Gospel, nonetheless,
always on the horizontal, social dimension (let’s help others) and without
changing substantially that leaden, awful preamble.
But a Church that proclaims “we have no explanations to offer about death
which could serve in giving consolation” and “don’t ask me then for comprehensible reasons,
for justifiable conclusions [or] motives to console [you]. I can only cry with
you.” , - I say – what’s the use of a Church like that?
It is
completely useless. It is as desolating as an abandoned post office. A despairing
Church cannot help us, we despairing creatures. This is the salt that has
become insipid – as Jesus says in the
Gospel – it is of no use for anything and is thrown away to be trampled on.
We cannot
even attribute this to a blunder by a cardinal, since Betori here has echoed
things said several times by Bergoglio on the subjects of suffering, evil and
death.
The present
Church – at the end of the day – has at present a colossal problem contained in
this question: do Her hierarchies still have the faith? All the drama is in this, as Cardinal Sarah
recently commented.
Without firm
and luminous faith (and the hope of eternal life) there is only an earthly
horizon where you go about seeking the approval of the world. As Bertori did,
by delivering a long eulogy on the Fiorentina football player to his fans.
In truth, in
the past, the Church had prescribed that at funerals a eulogy on the deceased
should not be done, but that the teaching of Christ on life, judgment, the resurrection
and eternal life should be made clear.
Betori
delivered a discourse which was directed at the “violet”* heart of the city, more
than the Christian conscience of the people. He even made detours about
football.
Today the
Church seems to be undergoing a catastrophic, spiritual collapse seeing as the
hierarchies expect the flock of the
faithful to follow their same way.
Perhaps
someone will say that all this - even if enormous - only concerns believers. Except that when there is no longer a place
where hope for eternal life resounds, it is a frightful impoverishment for
everyone. They have switched off the light - now everyone is in the dark.
*the colour of
the Fiorentina football jersey.
Translation:
contributor Francesca Romana
