Above, Father Roberto Pasolini, 53, an Italian Franciscan Capuchin friar and a biblical scholar from northern Italy.
It was announced on Saturday, two days ago, that Fr. Pasolini has been named the new “Preacher of the Pontifical Household,” arguably the most prominent preaching “pulpit” in the Church, next to that of the Pope himself.
Soon after the choice was announced, it was reported that some of the past statements of this friar, especially regarding homosexuality, seemed little in keeping with traditional Church moral teaching.
This prompted many to ask: Should a man with views like Pasolini be chosen to become the preacher and leader of spiritual retreats for… the Roman Curia, the central government of the Church?
Below, Father Rainero Cantalamessa, the man who has been the “Preacher of the Pontifical Household” for 44 years, since 1980, and who is now retiring at age 90. He also is an Italian Capuchin Franciscan friar. He was named a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2020. Father Pasolini will replace Cantalamessa as preacher to the Pope’s household. [The Italian name “Cantalamessa” literally means “Sing the Mass” (“Canta la Messa“)
“The 53-year-old Italian priest [Father Pasolini] employs a style of preaching that seeks to address issues related to human existence and faith, while making them relevant to contemporary issues and trends.” –A Vatican News report today on the choice of Father Roberto Pasolini as the new Preacher of the Pontifical Household, announced Saturday, November 16.
Letter #50, 2024, Monday, November 18: Pasolini
Ok — fasten your seatbelts… we’re in for a somewhat bumpy ride.
A ride I would prefer not to begin.
I would prefer to avoid the “insanity” — meaning, precisely, things “not sane,” not healthy (“sanus” in Latin means “healthy”) — like speculations about the sexual life of Jesus and Lazarus, and the Apostles.
After incessant speculation throughout our society, including over such matters, one longs for simple things, sensible things, non-crazy things.
Yet here we go.
A 53-year-old Franciscan friar and biblical scholar has just been named the “Preacher of the Pontifical Household.”
His style of preaching is said to “address issues related to human existence and faith, while making them relevant to contemporary issues and trends.”
Here is the essence of the problem.
If one addresses “issues related to human existence and faith” by “making them (those issues) relevant to contemporary issues and trends,” one inevitably distances oneself from the way these issues were seen by Christ, the Apostles, St. Paul, and the Church Fathers.
This way of looking at things in a way that is “relevant” to “contemporary issues and trends” may be called “presentism.” Why? Because “in literary and historical analysis, presentism is a term for the introduction of present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past.” (link)
“Presentism” regards the criteria of “today,” of our “present times,” as decisive.
But the Catholic way of seeing things has always believed that what is decisive is how things were seen in the time of Christ, and just after Christ, that is, how Christ, the Apostles, St. Paul, and the Church Fathers, saw things.
This modern trend of judging things according to “the criteria of our time” may also be called “modernism,” and modernism implies, inevitably, a departure from the apostolic criteria, criteria which from the beginning have been decisive for Christians.
This “presentism,” this “modernism,” is a hermeneutic which draws us away from the apostolic way of understanding, interpreting, and believing.
Back to Father Pasolini.
People watching his videos, reading his writings, noticed that he regularly allows his mind to wander through the pathways of the Scriptures to ask questions like whether or not:
— the stories of David and Jonathan
— the story of Jesus and the friend he raised from the dead, Lazarus
— the story of the Roman Centurion and his servant (the servant whom Jesus healed from a distance)
may have involved homosexual attraction and behavior.
Michael Haynes of Lifesitenews has written a useful piece on this case, here. His piece contains these paragraphs
The Catholic Church has clearly, consistently, and firmly condemned the practice of homosexual actions from Her earliest days. One such Scriptural example is in the first letter to the Corinthians, where St. Paul states that homosexual actions are sinful…
But speaking in February, Pasolini rejected this, saying: “Let us ask a question, because the question is legitimate: but is there any form of approval of same-sex relationships in Scripture? And the answer is not easily no, because in fact there are stories.”
He proceeded to work through passages from Scripture, highlighting certain ones which he suggested could be evidence of homosexual relationships. (Italian blog Messa in Latino has compiled a literal transcription of the friar’s talk, which though in Italian, can be easily translated.)
Pasolini pointed first to Jonathan and David, noting how it is “often invoked as a story of homosexual love,” but adding that to say they had a “homosexual relationship is a stretch to the text.” But despite this, he encouraged Catholics to “imagine” and “think” that Jonathan and David were actively homosexual, since “surely there were at the time stories [that is, cases, instances] of homosexual love, that is evident, so nothing prohibits us from being able to think it, from being able to imagine it.”
Pasolini also pointed to the Centurion who approached Jesus on behalf of his sick servant, and whose faith Christ greatly praised. The friar questioned why the Centurion was so devoted to a mere servant, positing that perhaps “as some say, maybe there was a relationship between the two of them.”
To imagine this “is not unseemly” said Pasolini, adding that if this were the case, then Christ would have heaped praise upon an active homosexual. “… Just think if that were the case: Jesus gave the highest praise to whom?”
This scenario would mean “that we have to revise all the opinions we have,” he continued, “or rather we have to ascertain that Jesus was actually not so afraid to speak well of people – to go back to the benediction [Fiducia Supplicans] that the Pope wrote recently and that raised a hornet’s nest.”
(…)
Not content with the above points, Pasolini made further reference to the argument made by homosexual activists that Christ and Lazarus had a homosexual relationship, or that there was such a relationship between Christ and the disciples. While not rejecting the idea, he described such a theory as “a way of trying to project into Scripture our own questions, our own curiosity, that is, we want to find something that is not written: it is a bit like if you read the wedding at Cana and you want to find out how the bride was dressed: it is not written, the Gospel does not tell you, so the Bible does not give us all the answers, because they are not necessary.”
(…)
Reaching the culmination of his argument, Pasolini argued that the Bible has “a certain condemnation of what we might call homosexuality.” But he said that linguistically, the word “homosexuality” has become a noun to refer to things that in the Bible are condemned, such as “homosexual acts, passive and active.”
“The Bible never speaks of homosexuality in general terms,” he said. “It deplores some concrete attitudes, some episodes, some actions, not the person. Here, there is no word against inclination, but against homosexual acts, what we might call ‘homogenitality,’ that is, according to Scripture a same-sex genital act has potentially active significance.”
This, Pasolini argued, meant that there is no Scriptural judgement “on the homosexual condition or orientation, what we today might call homosexuality as a psychological orientation or existential condition, that is, there is no word that goes to this category of people – that is, those who wake up and look at a person of the same sex and feel attraction to them – because these are the ones we are talking about today: not the people who have episodes of homosexuality, but the people who are experiencing something on an emotional, psychological level from which they cannot and do not want to find a distance.”
Furthermore, he argued that “the Bible does not even assume a world in which there is a tendency other than heterosexual: in the culture of that time, the only tendency that existed in the eyes of the authors and the people they saw was the heterosexual one.” Whilst modern society includes the concept of “homosexual people,” in the Biblical times “there was no talk about that, that’s why they were also stigmatized with that force of homosexual acts: they were acts that were immediately categorized as something that did not exist, like a woman putting on pants.”
[End, paragraphs from Michael Haynes of Lifesitenews]
The essence of the problem is that the entire “mens” (mind, worldview, mental outlook) of Western culture has, to put it in terms that Americans may understand, blown two tires on the passenger side of the car, so that the vehicle of our collective mind is now resting motionless, tilted down to the right, in the highway breakdown lane, on the rims of two popped and collapsed tires, rims which will simply shred through the rubber if we try to keep driving before we put on two fully blown up spares and get the vehicle righted again, balanced again.
This means we cannot move this vehicle — this cultural world, this “woke post-Christian West” — without replacing the two blown tires completely — without changing half of our “mens,” half of our entire worldview, half of our entire mental structure.
In other words, we have a trip-stopping problem, a problem which is a virus of the mind, a problem of how we see the world which has seeped into the mind of almost every single one of us, and is making it impossible for us to see things in the simple light of reason and common sense.
Past centuries did not have to speculate on whether Jesus and Lazarus may have had a homosexual relationship, but for an ordinary, studious Italian Franciscan friar of today, there is almost no way to avoid speculating about the matter as part a spiritual reflection.
We are now in the late twilight of Christendom.
Night has been descending for two-plus centuries, since the “Endarkenment” of the French philosophes and the French Revolution which grew out of their thought.
The shadows have been lengthening since Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris became the Revolution’s “Temple of Reason” in 1793, 231 years ago. The following is a historian’s summary reconstruction of what happened:
It was the 10th of November 1793 when an attractive young opera singer was carried on a palanquin to the doors of the Notre Dame Cathedral. The singer – scantily clad and bearing the pike of Jupiter – was to play the part of Liberty in one of the strangest performances the 600-year-old Catholic Cathedral would ever witness. Entering through the central doors, she walked down the long aisle of the great Cathedral to her stage – a paper-mache “mountain” which had been erected in the Cathedral’s nave. Around the mountain stood a troupe of ballet dancers, all bearing torches in her honor. On the top of the mountain sat a small Greek temple with the words “To Philosophy” inscribed on it. The singer seated herself below the temple as the gathered crowd sang hymns in her honor – “Thou, Saint Liberty, inhabit this temple, Be of our nation the Goddess,” they cried. When the songs concluded, the singer climbed to the Greek temple, turned to the crowd, and smiled. Uproarious cheers erupted, thus completing the transformation of France’s leading Cathedral into the Revolution’s Temple of Reason. (link)
This was a false Reason.
The true Reason, the Logos, incarnate in Christ, the Word of God, the Reason of God, the Meaning of God, the ordered sanity of the personal mind, has been eclipsed by veils and shadows and idle speculations.
We must return to the holy Logos, source of all being and all reason, and allow our own minds to be renewed into His.
This somehow should be the burden of the daily and hourly preaching at the summit of the Church in Rome, which is supposed to be the summit of Christ’s Church.
Here below are two other reports on this appointment, and the nature of the mind of the man appointed.
First, the rather bland Vatican News report today in English on the choice of Franciscan Capuchin Fr. Roberto Pasolini to be the new “Preacher of the Pontifical Household.”
Second, the much longer Vatican News report in Italian (which I have translated into English.
***
1. Pope appoints Fr. Pasolini as new Preacher of Papal Household
Pope Francis has appointed Capuchin Fr. Roberto Pasolini, a biblical scholar who combines academics with pastoral outreach to the marginalized, as the new Preacher of the Papal Household.
By Salvatore Cernuzio & Devin Watkins
The Holy See Press Office announced the appointment of the new Preacher of the Papal Household on Saturday [November 16, 2024].
Fr. Roberto Pasolini, OFMCap, currently serves as a professor of Biblical Exegesis at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy in Milan.
In his new role, the Capuchin friar will deliver Advent and Lenten Sermons to the Pope and the Roman Curia.
He takes over from Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMCap, who has served as the papal preacher since 1980 under three Popes, and whom Pope Francis created a Cardinal in 2020.
At the age of 90, Cardinal Cantalamessa has become a spiritual guide for millions through his books, lectures, and TV programs.
He will retire after 44 years as Preacher of the Papal Household to the Hermitage of Merciful Love in Cittaducale, Italy. Cardinal Cantalamessa will focus on prayer, reading, and study alongside a community of Poor Clare nuns, while occasionally serving as their chaplain.
Combining academics and pastoral outreach
Born on November 5, 1971, Fr. Pasolini made his perpetual vows in the Orders of Friars Minor Capuchin on September 7, 2002 and was ordained a priest on September 23, 2006.
After earning a Doctorate in Biblical Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, he served as a professor of Biblical Languages and Sacred Scripture at the Laurentianum Interprovincial Theological Institute of the Friars Minor Capuchin in Milan and Venice.
The 53-year-old Italian priest employs a style of preaching that seeks to address issues related to human existence and faith, while making them relevant to contemporary issues and trends.
Besides the many spiritual retreats he preaches, Fr. Pasolini is heavily involved in working with the poor, people living on the streets, people with disabilities, and ministry in prisons.
He is also an author of several books on biblical spirituality and embraces new technology to spread the Gospel, including podcasts and artificial intelligence.
This skill comes from his earlier career as a computer programmer and his involvement in politics before joining the Capuchin seminary.
***
The longer Italian report on this nomination is here.
2. Pasolini new preacher of the Papal Household, Cantalamessa leaves after 44 years
Capuchin friar, biblical scholar and lecturer, engaged in academic activity but also in pastoral work among the poor, disabled and imprisoned was appointed today by Francis. He will preach the catechesis of Advent and Lent before the Pope and the Roman Curia: “Great joy but also awe before such a great task.” He succeeds the famous Franciscan who held that position since 1980, serving three popes, and was created cardinal in 2020. Andrea Monda interviewed him
By Salvatore Cernuzio – Vatican City.
Forty-four years of preaching, every Lent and every Advent, before three popes and the Roman Curia. Probably one of the most enduring assignments in the Vatican that held as preacher of the Papal Household by Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the well-known 90-year-old Capuchin who has become a spiritual reference point not only between the Leonine Walls but also for millions of Italians with his books, lectures and TV programs. Today, Saturday, Nov. 9, Cantalamessa ends the mandate entrusted to him by John Paul II in 1980 and continued by Benedict XVI and Francis, the Pope who in 2020 also wanted to grant him the purple (which Cantalamessa accepted, asking, however, to keep the Franciscan habit).
The new preacher
It is certainly an important inheritance that his successor, appointed today by the Pontiff, collects: the Capuchin Roberto Pasolini. But for a friar who used to give catechesis at the Navigli, in the midst of Milan’s nightlife, engaged for years as well among soup kitchens, pastoral work among prisons and the disabled, and food distribution to the homeless, challenges are certainly nothing new. As of today, Father Pasolini, a biblical scholar and professor of Biblical Exegesis, will therefore be the one to give catechesis before the Pope and the Roman Curia during Advent and Lent.
“Picking up his witness, an enormous vertigo.”
Contacted by the director of L’Osservatore Romano, Andrea Monda, Fr. Pasolini turns his thoughts to his predecessor and says, “To pick up the legacy of Father Cantalamessa, of whom I have been a great admirer since I entered the order, seems to me an enormous vertigo… I listened to his Good Friday homilies, his meditations, I read all his books, I always found great inspiration in him. On the other hand, I try to believe that if I am now being asked precisely to try to carry on this tradition that has great value for the Church and in our order it will mean that he can do it in a way that corresponds to me, in which I can simply manifest myself, without feeling the need for a comparison with those who preceded me and who inspired me.”
With Vatican media, the new preacher expresses his “ambivalent” feelings: on the one hand, “a great joy and gratitude for a great and wonderful call that I have received”; on the other, “a sense of fear and inadequacy before a task that seems enormous and in front of which I feel so small.” With both joy and fear, the friar will go forward in this new mission, “in the great confidence that I will be accompanied by all the people who have helped me over these years to mature an understanding of the Word of God and I will try to make this Word resound in the heart of the Church, entrusting myself to the Lord.”
Between academic and pastoral activities
Fifty-three years old celebrated Nov. 5, born in Milan, Pasolini has been in the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor Capuchin since Sept. 7, 2002, ordained a priest in 2006. He has been lecturer in Biblical Languages and Sacred Scripture at the Laurentianum Interprovincial Theological Studioof the Capuchin Friars Minor in Milan and Venice, and now teaches Biblical Exegesis at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy in Milan, collaborating with the Ambrosian Archdiocese in the formation of teachers of religion and with the Italian Conference of Major Superiors. An activity, this academic one, that the newly appointed preacher combines with an intense pastoral activity: formative meetings, preaching of retreats and spiritual exercises, spiritual accompaniment and also charity initiatives among the most fragile segments of society that he carries out alongside the novices of whom he is a trainer. He is also the author of several articles and books on biblical spirituality and looks with interest at new technologies, new media such as podcasts and the opportunities of Artificial Intelligence. Perhaps some reminiscence of when he was a computer scientist as a young man, engaged in those years as well in politics before discovering-as he revealed in an interview with Tv2000’s Soul program-that ideologies do not make man freer. The only freedom comes from God because “true freedom is to free oneself from guilt, because Christ’s redemption has restored the bond of good with God,” he said.
The thanks to Father Cantalamessa
Father Pasolini’s is a type of preaching that addresses the deepest themes of human existence and faith, always linked to current events and new trends. It is a trait he shares with his predecessor Cantalamessa, who will now continue his life of study, reading and prayer at the Hermitage of Merciful Love in Cittaducale, territory of the diocese of Rieti, alongside some Poor Clare nuns to whom he serves, in a sense, as chaplain. A true institution for many of the faithful, those more advanced in years who have been following him since the days of the famous RAI program “The Reasons for Hope” with his cordial smile, unmistakable beard and the usual “Peace and Good” greeting, but also for the younger ones who have become followers of him through social media, relaunching his reflections, which are never taken for granted, always fascinating and original. A landmark, then, even on the web, with a hermit’s life, behind him four decades of service to three popes and four years as a member of the College of Cardinals.
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