“La Verita”
January 27, 2020
Last January 18, in Munich, Bavaria, a
unique event took place: more than a hundred people lined-up in a square, where, for an hour, they remained standing,, reciting the Rosary in silence, in
defense of orthodoxy in the Catholic Church. The promoters call it Acies
ordinate. Among them was professor Roberto de Mattei, historian and President
of the Fondazione Lepanto.
How did
this Bavarian initiative come about?
It is the
third Acies ordinata demonstration,
the first outside Italy. The previous ones took place in Rome last year: on
February 19th ,before the conference on sexual abuse organized by Pope Francis in the
Vatican and then on September 28th , the day before the opening of
the Amazon Synod.
Why the trip
to Germany?
Munich is
the Archiepiscopal See of Cardinal Reinhard Marx, President of the German
Episcopal Conference, which last December 4th officially launched
the Synodalerweg, an “ongoing” synod, de facto permanent, that aims at transforming the Church in Germany
and thus the universal Church.
Isn’t the
influence of the German Bishops overrated?
There is
a strong theological culture in Germany. The main theologian of Vatican II and the
Post-Council, was a German, Karl Rahner. Some days after his election, the
first theologian quoted by Pope Francis, actually displaying his book, was
another German, Cardinal Walter Kasper, a disciple of Rahner. The German
Episcopal Conference financed the Pan-Amazonian Synod and directed it
theologically. A Brazilian Cardinal of
German origins, Claudio Hummes, was the general rapporteur of the last Synod and the author of a “secret letter” sent
to the Bishops of the entire world to prepare them for the soon to be released
Post-Synod Exhortation from Pope Francis, to whom he is very attached.
How many of you were in Bavaria?
About
130, mainly Italian and Germans but there were also Americans, Austrians,
English, French and Chileans.
Is it a
significant number?
Yes, it
is, because we didn’t launch a public appeal. The participants were invited
individually in a confidential way.
Why such
confidentiality?
Unfortunately,
in Europe we are living in a regime where there isn’t complete freedom of
thought or expression. A pro-family, German leader informed us in Munich that
for two years he had had to interrupt their public demonstration as each time
there was a counter-demonstration. Also in Italy every public event of a strong
nature against the political or ecclesiastical establishment runs a lot of
risks.
What
risks?
Principally
of losing, at the last moment, authorization for the piazza, for reasons of
public order; after that, of experiencing provocations and infiltration; lastly,
of the counter-demonstrations that create havoc in the piazza. Our
demonstrations are always orderly and peaceful due precisely to the surprise
effect: we communicate the event to journalists on the same day.
Why did
you choose the bellicose name Acies
ordinata?
Acies ordinata is the
name chosen by a coalition of international Catholics to express the combative
and orderly spirit they manifest in the public square. A name taken from the Song of Songs, which is a Biblical poem on
the love of God, traditionally referred to Our Lady, described as terribilis
ut castrorum acies ordinata, i.e. terrible as a an army arrayed for battle.
It’s an aspect not usually attributed to Our Lady, Who fights and wins, in this
case, by protecting the defenders of the faith from the confusion we are
immersed in.
A symbolic
army then?
Of
course. It is a public profession of faith, which, nonetheless, had great effect
in the mass-media; all of the mainstream international media spoke of it. It’s
the first time that Catholics manifest public resistance in Germany against the
Episcopal Conference.
You
invited German Catholics to stop paying the Kirchenstauer, namely, the Church tax, didn’t you?
Yes, I
did. It is an obligatory ecclesiastical tax between 8 and 10% of [one’s] tax income.
This is very grave. In my opinion it is spiritual blackmail, since those who
don’t pay are de facto
excommunicated.
Really?
In
Germany the State asks you if you are Catholic and if so, the levy is
automatically taken and transferred to the Church. Those who don’t pay cannot
baptize their children or have the funeral of a relative in church. It is an act of simony; the payment of an
ecclesiastical tax cannot be the criteria for the adhesion or the abandonment
of the Catholic faith. Heretics, if they
pay the tax remain inside the Church. If Orthodox Catholics don’t pay
it, they are expelled.
In your
view then, a Catholic in order to remain faithful to the tradition of the
Church ought to have himself excommunicated?
I realize
that this is a very delicate matter of conscience. At the press conference
following the demonstration, I sought to give theological, moral and canonical
reasons for which, in conscience, one has the right not to pay the tax and for
which parish priests don’t have any right to deny the Sacraments. After that, in
practice, everyone acts according to their own conscience.
Your idea
then is a simple provocation?
If even a small minority began
to move in this direction, it might well put in serious difficulty the perverse
system which makes the German Episcopal Conference an enormous economic power,
with hundreds of thousands of employees. The German Church, in the eyes of a
Christian, looks like a business and bureaucratic organization, subject to
public opinion and the civil authorities.
The money
will be used also for works of charity.
This tax
is unjust even if the money was being spent in a good way. In reality, it
is being employed to de-catholicize
Germany. In their “synodal path”, the German bishops want to impose marriage
for priests, liberal sexual morality, the priesthood for women and so on: can a
Catholic, by way of his taxes, finance this process of secularization?
Do you
prefer the Italian ‘8 for a thousand’?
Certainly.
It is free and if I don’t sign for it there are no consequences.
Do you
pay it?
In recent
years – no longer. I would put off Catholics paying it after the direction
taken by the Italian Episcopal Conference which is applying Amoris laetitia in its most radical
version.
Namely the opening up to the divorced and remarried?
There are
also those who are encouraging blessings for homosexual couples. And then there
is the pro-immigration policy. The Italian bishops have stopped reminding us of
the truths of the faith and Catholic morality. They only talk about political
and sociological themes. I don’t see why I have to finance all this.
Do you
believe all the Italian bishops think like this?
At the
top – for sure. Not even all the German bishops think like Cardinal Marx. But
the Episcopal Conferences have assumed a hypertrophic role, undermining the
autonomy of bishops in their own
dioceses. All of this despite the fact that in the hierarchal structure of the
Church, willed by Jesus Christ, there are Popes and bishops, not Episcopal
Conferences or other bureaucratic organisms, which, today, superimpose the
Divine Constitution of the Church.
You have
been described as Steve Bannon’s man in Italy.
I know
who he is, but I have never met him nor had any contact with him.
Can you
confirm that Monsignor Carlo Maria Viganò was there in Munich?
Yes, he was.. I didn’t know though that he would
have taken his place in the line-up. It was his first public appearance in a
long time; a courageous gesture that I appreciated a great deal.
Do you ever hear from him? Do you know where he lives?
Precisely,
no. In any case, even ours is an invisible army until it manifests itself. We
have to move prudently in order to be freer.
How did
Monsignor Viganò come to know about the demonstration in Munich?
He
follows attentively everything that is happening in the life of the Church. He
is in contact with priests and lay-people, but also with cardinals and bishops
who support him. He
has not yet said all that he knows.
The
Bishops daily newspaper described you all as a “digital handful”. Don’t you
think this a bit simplistic?
Very
simplistic. A presence in the piazza is not a digital or virtual presence. Wherever
I go to hold conferences, in Italy and abroad, I meet a real crowd of Catholics
who hesitate showing themselves in public, but are in a much greater number
than Avvenire can perhaps imagine. Or
perhaps Avvenire knows and for this
reason tries to minimize us.
Isn’t
this [progressive] rushing ahead by the Germans being lead also by a minority?
I’m
convinced of it. The radical transformation of the Church has been carried out
by a small minority, who, however, are backed by great financial and media
resources. It is important that this minority wanting to overturn the doctrine
and customs of the Church find themselves faced with a minority defending the
Catholic faith with no less passion and determination. At this time, the Church is a terrain where
two religions are clashing: the traditional one and the Germanic-Amazonian one,
while the large majority of the Catholic world is made up of moderates experiencing
considerable confusion.
You then,
don't think of the as Church a field-hospital?
No, I
don’t. Today it is a battlefield.
Translation:
Contributor Francesca Romana .
