Posted on 01/06/2025 3:14:47 PM PST by ebb tide
Catholic philosopher and analyst Luisella Scrosati strongly criticized the decision of the official Catholic daily newspaper owned by the Italian Bishops’ Conference to run an interview with a biblical scholar questioning the virginity of Our Lady as well as the relevance of the Holy Family.
Scrosati, the author of several articles on chastity in the Catholic tradition, took to the digital Catholic outlet La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana (also published in English as The New Daily Compass) to criticize both the timing and content of L’Avvenire, which on December 29, the Solemnity of the Holy Family, published an interview titled “A Contemporary Holy Family: Mary and Joseph, subversives of love.” In the article, self-professed Italian “feminist theologian” Simona Segoloni Ruta dismissed the importance of the virginity of Mary and the Holy Family as a whole.
In Scrosati’s criticism of the Catholic paper, she began by quoting a disturbing passage of the interview, in which Ruta had said that “at a certain point, there was a disconnect between what the Gospels tell and the operation that led to transforming [the Holy Family] into a sort of devotional picture, a holy card that does not do justice to the protagonists of this story.”
“What is certain,” Ruta said, “is that the Gospels had no intention of idealizing the family of Nazareth and indicating it to us as a reference model, at least in the way we have long understood it.”
Scrosati pointed out that Ruta is a visiting professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences, the institute originally created by Pope St. John Paul II. The institute has since been completely gutted of its pro-life and pro-family identity under the guidance of Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who is also the current president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
According Scrosati, “under the no less than morbid pressing questions of [L’Avvenire interviewer] Luciano Moia about the sexual life of Mary and Joseph, Segoloni Ruta could only advance a reading of the Gospels completely detached from the interpretation that the Church has always offered and that any Catholic [with] the basics of catechism is well aware of.”
Ruta had claimed in the interview that “the Gospels are not interested in the sexual life of Mary and Joseph and therefore tell us nothing about it. Can we conclude then that this is not an essential element for our salvation?”
“According to the theologian [Ruta],” Scrosati explained, “Mary’s virginity would be nothing more than her condition at the moment of the Annunciation, that is, that of a young woman legally married to Joseph, but not yet entered into his house: ‘Mary has not yet “known man,” that is, according to the logic, albeit distorted, of patriarchy, she is not yet possessed by anyone, and therefore can dispose of herself autonomously.’ Thus, [Mary] is nothing more then than a girl who arrived a virgin at marriage, but of whom nothing more is known…”
Scrosati went on to explain that the teachings of the Church are not unclear about Our Lady’s virginity. In “the encyclical Redemptoris Mater,” she wrote, “St. John Paul II confirmed what the Church both in the East and in the West guarded and transmitted about the virginity of Mary ante partum, in partu and post partum [before, during and after birth,]; a teaching that was clearly stated in the Lateran Council of 649.”
“It is therefore surprising the superficiality and hastiness with which Segoloni Ruta believes that the issue is not such a relevant element of faith,” Scrosati wrote. “Most likely because she has not understood what the preciousness of virginal consecration in the Church is.”
The critic also argued that Ruta’s comprehension of Catholic teaching is “gravely distorted by contemporary ideology.”
“In the bosom of the Catholic faith,” explained Scrosati, “sexuality lived in marriage has never been considered an obstacle to sanctification; if instead one refers to sexuality lived outside of marriage and its purpose, then we are keen to remember that this is Catholic doctrine, not a ‘sex-phobic attitude,’” as Ruta had claimed in the L’Avvenire interview.
In fact, in the interview, the professor of the John Paul institute had claimed that “after so many centuries, we have, in short, become aware of the fact that sexuality gives glory to God as it is, because it builds intimacy, pleasure, life. All good and beautiful things. So it’s better that it’s there. And that women and men can live it in freedom, truth, and joy, without feeling guilty.”
But Scrosati explained that “the idea that sexuality gives glory to God ‘as it is’ completely misunderstands the reality of original sin and disqualifies two millennia of Christian asceticism.
Sigoloni Ruta has shown that she does not understand what it means to read the Holy Scriptures in the Church, nor does she understand what virginity consecrated to God is, as she does not know Catholic doctrine on the consequences of original sin.”
“One wonders,” Scrosati concluded, “how it is possible that someone who boasts such an approach can teach in a pontifical faculty. And write for the newspaper of the Italian bishops.”
Assuming these estimates are accurate, how was Francis elected? Was it a matter of conservative/traditionalist Cardinals being deceived? Can we expect better due diligence in them selecting the next (post-Francis) Pope?
Anathematise them all.
CC
I don’t know what the Catholic doctrine on the consequences of original sin has to do with her point about sex within marriage.
Jesus Christ was illegitimate?
Short answer- It depends on how you define traditionalist or conservative.
Slightly longer answer- Don’t believe everything you read- especially from “According to some sources”
Believe it or not, Bergoglio had a reputation of being conservative, most likely deliberately created.
Mary’s virginity at Christ’s birth is a matter of faith. I believe it; God can do anything. But her remaining virgin afterwards is in question. Jesus was called firstborn and is said to have had siblings. A Jewish marriage without intercourse would not be valid, if I read the rules right.
Where were those "siblings" at Christ's crucifixion; and why did Christ entrust His Blessed Mother's care to the Apostle John and not one of His "siblings"?
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