Marcello Pera: I Sacerdoti pedofili e il Papa (Portuguese) Marcello Pera,
Italian philosopher and agnostic senator.
Published in Corriere della Sera 17.III.10
Dear Director,
The issue of homosexual and pedophile priests that has recently appeared in Germany, targets the Pope. Committing would, however, a serious mistake if we thought that the coup could not achieve the target, given the enormity of the initiative. And it would be a mistake even bigger if one considers that the matter will be quickly outdated, as many others. Not so. There is an ongoing war. Not just against the person of the Pope because, in this field, the war is impossible. Benedict XVI made impregnable in his image, in its serenity, its clarity, firmness and doctrine. Just your gentle smile to defeat an army of opponents.
No, the war is between secularism and Christianity. Secularists know that if a splash of mud hit the white cassock, it will get dirty and the Church, the Church is getting dirty, so having it will also fouled the Christian religion. That's why the secularists are attached to their campaign with questions like, "Who still send their children to church?" or "who still send their children to a Catholic school?" or even "who will treat their children in a hospital or clínicacatólica?". A few days ago, a secularist blurted out his intention. Wrote: "the extent of dissemination of child sexual abuse by priests calls into question the very legitimacy of the Catholic Church, as the guarantor of education of the least." Never mind that this sentence has no proof and is carefully hidden under the words "diffusion length" one percent of pedophile priests? Ten percent? All? No matter what the sentence is devoid of logic: just replace "priests" with "teachers", or "political" or "journalists" to "undermine the legitimacy of public schools, parliaments or the press. What matters is the implication, even at the expense of the rudeness of the argument: the priests are pedophiles, so the Church has no moral authority, then a Catholic education is dangerous, so Christianity is a fraud and a danger.
This war against the secularization of Christianity is a pitched battle. It should bring back memories of the Nazis and communism to find a similar situation. Change the means but the end is the same. Today as yesterday, the aim is the destruction religion. At the time Europe has paid the price for this destructive fury with his own freedom. It's amazing that, especially in Germany, while beating continuously with a hand on his chest due to memory price-inflicted throughout Europe, in Germany today is a democracy, and do not forget to understand that democracy itself would be lost if Christianity was deleted. The destruction of religion behaved then the destruction of reason. And today will not mean the triumph of secular reason, but a new barbarism. On the ethical level there is the barbarism of those who kill a fetus because his life would be harmful to health her mother's psychic. Who says that an embryo is a "bunch of cells" good for scientific experiments. Who kills an old man because he no longer has a family that question. Who hasten the end of a child because he is not conscious and is incurable. Who thinks "parent A" and "Father progenitor B" is the same as "father" and "mother." Who believes that faith is like the tailbone, a body that no longer participates in evolution, because no man no longer needs the tail is erect and for himself. And so on. Or, considering the political side of the war of secularists to Christianity, barbarism will be the destruction Europe. Because slaughtered Christianity, multiculturalism remains, believed that each group has the right to their culture. Relativism, who thinks that every culture is as good as any. The pacifism that denies that evil exists.
This war on Christianity would not be so dangerous if Christians to understand. Instead, all these involve many misunderstandings. Theologians frustrated by the intellectual supremacy of Benedict XVI. Unsecured Bishops who believe that any compromise with modernity is the best way to update the Christian message. Cardinals, in a crisis of faith, which begin to suggest that priestly celibacy is not dogma, and it might be better reconsider it. Catholic intellectuals fuzzy thinking that there is a question of women within the Church and an unsolved problem between Christianity and sexuality. Episcopal Conferences who cheat on the agenda and that, pending a policy of open borders for all, do not have the courage to denounce the aggressions that Christians are suffering and humiliation they are forced to prove to be all, indiscriminately, sitting in the dock.
Or those chancellors coming from eastern countries that display a beautiful gay minister while attacking the Pope on any matter of ethics, or those born in the West and who think that the West must be secular, ie, anti-Christian. The war of the secularists will continue, if for no other reason why a Pope like Benedict XVI, who smiled but did not moved a millimeter, the feeds. But if you do not understand why it is withdrawn, then takes up the matter at hand and not waiting for the next blow. Who is limited only to sympathize with him is like someone coming into the Garden of Gethsemane at night and in secret, or as someone who did not understand what is happening.
