Posted on 08/19/2019 8:48:27 AM PDT by ebb tide
By now it is evident. The point of no return was marked on August 1 by the meeting between Benedict XVI and Livio Melina, made pblic four days later by Catholic News Agency and ACI Stampa, complete with an official photo and with these words calibrated one by one at the residence of the pope emeritus:
“[Benedict XVI] wanted to receive Prof. Mons. Livio Melina at a private audience. After a long discussion of the recent events at the Pontifical Institute John Paul II, he granted his blessing, expressing his personal solidarity and assuring him of his closeness in prayer.”
From that day forward, the expulsion from the institute of a few of the most representative professors, starting with former dean Melina, and the abolition of some of the most emblematic chairs, “in primis” that of fundamental moral theology, have not struck only the purged professors, but also the pope who committed himself most to supporting the Institute founded by his predecessor, meaning precisely those avenues of study on marriage and family that are now subjected to destruction out of deference to the new course of the current pontificate, from “Amoris Laetitia” on.
Ever since Benedict XVI openly took to the field, in fact, it is unlikely that the makeover of the Institute set in motion this summer by its Grand Chancellor, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, and moreover by Pope Francis himself, will get up to speed in painless fashion.
Because those now protesting - as taken for granted - are not only some of the purged professors. Not only some of the students. To these protests the current officials of the Institute thought it was sufficient to reply with a press release on July 29.
Now rising up are dozens of scholars on all continents, among the most talented and respected, as proven by the letter-appeal to Archbishop Paglia and to the current dean of the Institute, PierAngelo Sequeri, made public on August 6 and reproduced here below.
What unites the signatories is an editorial initiative produced by the Institute before the present-day destruction: an imposing “Dictionary on sex, love, and fecundity,” published in Italy in 2019 by Cantagalli and curated by none other than one of the purged professors, José Noriega.
The signatories of the letter-appeal all contributed to the composition of the dictionary, in the entries of their respective expertise. And in scanning their names there also appear personalities that until now had not come out into the open among the critics of this pontificate.
There is, for example, Francesco Botturi, former ordinary professor of moral philosophy at the Catholic University of Milan.
There is the Jesuit Kevin L. Flannery, ordinary professor of the history of ancient philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
There is Carlos Granados, a biblicist at Saint Damasus University in Madrid, former director of the Library of Christian Authors.
There is Harvey C. Mansfield, ordinary professor of political philosophy at Harvard University.
There is John C. McCarthy, dean of the School of Philosophy at the University of America in Washington, D.C.
There is Jean-Charles Nault, abbott of the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Wandrille, France.
There is Paolo Ricca, a Waldensian theologian and one of the most illustrious, professor emeritus of the Waldensian Faculty of Theology in Rome.
There is Giovanna Rossi, former ordinary professor of the sociology of the family at the Catholic University of Milan.
There is Tracy Rowland, an ordinary professor of theology at Notre Dame University, Australia, and a member of the International Theological Commission.
There is Eugenia Scabini, professor emeritus of social psychology and president of the Center of Studies and Research on the Family at the Catholic University of Milan.
There is Carlos Alberto Scarpone, a professor of fundamental ethical philosophy and of fundamental moral theology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina, Buenos Aires.
But it is the whole list of signatories that raises interest. And this is their open letter to the current managers of the Institute that continues to bear the name of John Paul II.
*
Open Letter to His Excellence, Mons. Vincenzo Paglia, Great Chancellor of the Pontificio Istituto teologico Giovanni Paolo II per le Scienze del Matrimonio e della Famiglia, and to Mons. Pierangelo Sequeri, President of the Institute
2nd August 2019
His Excellence, Mons. Paglia,
Rev. Mons. Sequeri,
In the past three years, we, the undersigned members of ecclesiastical and secular academic institutions throughout the world, have had the privilege to participate at the recent great international scientific enterprise of your Institute: the now published “Dizionario su Sesso, Amore e Fecondità” (1102 pages, Edizioni Cantagalli, Siena 2019).
It has been a very fruitful and professional scientific collaboration which has highlighted to us the outstanding academic profile of your institute as well as the great scientific and editorial competence of the main curator of the “Dizionario,” Professor José Noriega.
It is therefore with great distress that we learned the news about the sudden dismissals of two full professors, José Noriega and Livio Melina, together with other colleagues: Maria Luisa Di Pietro, Stanisław Grygiel, Monika Grygiel, Przemysław Kwiatkowski, and Vittorina Marini. All of them are scholars of outstanding international reputation and some of them have equally collaborated with us at the “Dizionario”.
We cannot see any convincing reason – academic, doctrinal or disciplinary – which justifies their dismissal.
If your institute wants to maintain its high academic profile and international reputation, we ask you to revoke these dismissals and to reassume the aforementioned scholars among the faculty of your Institute.
Sincerely yours,
[The signatories of the Open Letter]
Ping
Pray for B16. Lord have mercy on him for his weakness and for the damage he did with his ill-fated resignation. His purgatory is now as he’s been forced to watch in real time the consequences of his actions.
Amen!
"Dear Heretics,
Please demonstrate that you have not joined forces with Satan, by your dismissal of faithful Catholic staff at the JP II institute, and replacement with members of the homosexual mafia.
Renounce your heretical actions and restore the prior JP II staff in full.....NOW!
Sincerely Yours in Christ....."
Prayers up for Holy Mother Church.
At least Benedict has some pull, some influence.
It’s clear that we have none.
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