The Peculiar Case of Ernesto Buonaiuti: A Comedy of Errors in the Catholic Church
Ah, dear readers, let us dive into the fascinating, somewhat tragicomic tale of Ernesto Buonaiuti. Grab your popcorn; it’s not just a church story – it’s a whole melodrama replete with villainy, martyrs, and an institution that’s as stubborn as a mule in a salt lick!
Our tale begins with Buonaiuti, a man tangled in the web of institutional hypocrisy, a man whose theology was perhaps too bright for the dim corridor of the Church’s hierarchies. No, seriously, folks! He faced the kind of marginalization that makes you want to scream “The Inquisition called; they want their tactics back!” But alas, had he written a letter not after the fact but during the storm, who knows how many ecclesiastical hearts might have fluttered at such bravery.
The article gets juicy, though! A group of theological Tag Teams—yes, you heard that right!—featuring notables like Giovanni Franzoni and Vittorio Bellavite, have rallied for Buonaiuti’s post-mortem rehabilitation. You’d think they were trying to resurrect a pop star, but no, it’s just good ol’ church politics. Come on, does it take a cult following to get a pat on the back from the Vatican?
And, oh boy, the silence from the Church is deafening! The mass celebrated by Cardinal Zuppi hardly counts as rehabilitation. Come on, that’s like throwing a crumbled cookie at a starving child and saying, “Hey, you’re fed!” The Church apologizes for many but hasn’t yet found its own voice to say “Sorry!” to Buonaiuti, but they can spare a kind word for Galileo. Talk about misplaced priorities!
Everyone gets a little something from the pie of victimhood in this ecclesiastical drama. Maria di Campello? That poor woman experienced exile at the hands of the Holy Roman Inquisition. It’s like being sent to the naughty step… to suffer for eternity. The crux of her ousting seems to be a disinterest in swearing allegiance to Mussolini. Who knew fascism and theology made such strange bedfellows? Is “excommunication” just code for “I can’t believe she didn’t kiss the ring?” Heaven help us!
One could argue that Buonaiuti has been sitting at the door of enlightenment long enough, waiting for the Church to open the gates. Maybe they’re looking at the shining light of his teachings and thinking, “Close the curtains quickly! Don’t let the modernists in!” The accusation that the Church might be fearing some kind of crisis due to Buonaiuti’s insights is painfully hilarious. A church that still views women with suspicion and has its own little army? Talk about an anti-modernist theme park!
Not to mention that Buonaiuti’s passing on Holy Saturday drops the mic hard on this whole charade. It’s as if the cosmos itself said, “Surprise! Here’s your divine checkmate!” I mean, who needs a resurrection when you’ve got the ultimate punchline manifesting in history?!
So, dear readers, as we wrap up this whimsical jaunt through religious bureaucracy, let’s remember: the tale of Buonaiuti peaks with the urgency of the Church seeking forgiveness. Here’s hoping that one day, rather than sending a regretful half-hearted letter to the past, they actually take the pen and write a commendation to all those they’ve marginalized. Let’s raise a glass and hope they don’t choke on the ink!
*Image credit: Unsplash
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Taken from:
Adista Segni Nuovi n° 36 of 19/10/2024
Dear Ernesto Buonaiuti, I would have liked to write to you when you were in the heart of the storm, marginalized, humiliated. I imagine I would have done it, due to the harmony and admiration I always felt for her. But one of our defects, as humans, even more so as Catholics, is not doing things when they should be done. Wait. Saying after things happened. Out of “prudence”. A way to hide the courage you don’t have.
If I write to you today, it is because your “case” has not yet been closed. And she still has a letter waiting for her. A group of women and men, including female and male theologians, wrote an appeal for his post-mortem rehabilitation. Among them were Giovanni Franzoni and Vittorio Bellavite. But so far the Catholic Church has not made a gesture of rehabilitation. The mass celebrated by card certainly is not. Zuppi almost secretly, last June, in the crypt of the cathedral of Bologna.
Something has changed in the air. Not enough, though.
The institutional Church apologizes after centuries, as for Galileo. For Don Milani and Mazzolari, 50 years were “enough”. Franzoni could have been rehabilitated during his lifetime: he was one of the few living council fathers. But he never received the letter.
Everyone experienced their own marginalization, their own humiliation. For example Maria di Campello, linked to her by friendship and passion for the Gospel, who had a vision too big for a Church that was too short-sighted. Perhaps, however, of all people, it was she who received the most violent and scandalous attack. Excommunicated expresse vitando: anyone who came into contact with her in turn incurred excommunication. For the Church, she was a “leper” who infested. For this reason, asking for forgiveness has become urgent and can no longer be postponed. She herself writes of the violence she had suffered: «Now the ban hanging over my head was complete. The Holy Roman Inquisition of Pius XI, the concordat pontiff, had violently expelled me from the ecclesiastical body. Mussolini’s University chased me away from my teaching room, which was also part of my priesthood.” Fired for not having sworn loyalty to fascism as a teacher. There were only 12 of you in all of Italy who did it. Excommunicated in the most violent way, left without a salary, without a pension… (article 5 of the Lateran Pacts had been created especially for her).
Faced with this she writes: “Providently the freedom of my soul would have been infinite and boundless.”
Why, Buonaiuti, isn’t he rehabilitated now? The suspicion is that you, as a Church historian and theologian, having highlighted the system’s infidelity to the Gospel, would still put today’s Church in crisis. It would call into question his power, his organization, his priestly and celibate caste, his patriarchal approach.
The Church does not want to rehabilitate a man, a theologian, “modernist” like her (Pius . A Church that today does not recognize within itself the equality between women and men remains anti-modernist; a Church that, in the face of sexual and spiritual abuses of power, does not change educational settings and structures, does not recognize in deeds and not just in words, the wounds, rights and compensation for victims, remains anti-modernist. A Church that has its own army, albeit small, with uniforms and weapons, remains anti-modernist… Could we think that the Church, Buonaiuti, does not want to rehabilitate it, because it would be forced to change? I was impressed that you died on Holy Saturday 1946. The day on which you hold your breath in front of a dead man locked in the tomb, killed by power and hypocrisy. On the threshold of the morning of resurrection. It seems like a surprise, a divine “checkmate”. An indisputable “rehabilitation” of the sky”…
*Photo press from Unsplash, original image and license
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