Save the seed of faith:
A lesson from the creator of Don Camillo
Translated from
July 19,, 2018
We are approaching the 50th anniversary of the death of Giovannino Guareschi (7/22/68) and we wish to metaphorically lay a flower on his tomb by writing about a beautiful book by Alessandro Gnocchi, who is our best scholar on Guareschi.
The book,
Lettere ai posteri di Giovannino Guareschi (Letter to the heirs of Giovannino Guareschi (Marsilio, 144 pp) is a ‘journey’ – sorrowful and amusing at the same time – through the alarms that, in his own way, with a mixture of humor, sarcasm and poetry, the creator of Don Camillo and Peppone repeatedly launched towards the end of his earthly life, in the face of the inexorable advance of those monsters brought forth by the post -Conciliar ‘new church, all progressivism and reformism", which was committed to rid itself of tradition, and without the least sense of ridicule, to show itself more modern than the moderns.
The interventions reported and commented on by Gnocchi date from 1963 to 1968, the last five years of Guareschi’s life. Half a century ago – it seems like an eternity. And yet in those writings one sees the ‘logic’ of ‘the Church’ today as photographed at its dawning,
the same spasmodic striving for aggiornamento (‘keeping up to date’) if it means giving pleasure to the world and earning the consensus of the enemies of the Catholic faith.
Under his disconsolate eyes, and his mustache that seemed to droop increasingly sadder, Giovannino saw
the advance of a ‘church’ in which the adjective ‘dialogante’ (dialoguing) rhymed appropriately with ‘protestante’, a church that had abandoned its altar in favor of ‘snack bar’ tables, a church that nonchalantly got rid of Latin and all of the marvels of liturgy that had come down to us through the ages, a church that consigned images of Christ, Our Lady and the saints to the attic because they were considered ‘shameful’, a church that transformed the Holy Mass into a social gathering, etc, etc.
The letters which Guareschi, in the midst of the post-conciliar disasters, wrote to his Don Camillo all deserve to be read and meditated on. The parish priest who spoke with the Crucified Lord was now in
a new world where the enemy was no longer the old communist Peppone, no longer the Communist Party, no longer the fellow travllers, but ‘the new church’ that was arm in arm with the Marxists of the day and the radical chic Leftists, the ‘new church’ which – in order to be admitted to the grand ball of dominant ideas, had tossed to the wayside 2000 years of Christian wisdom to follow the ways of the world, a church that no longer spoke of salvation n but of ‘liberation’, which seemed not to believe in the sacraments anymore and was abandoning long-held dogmas to embrace the new super-dogma of dialog, a church that no longer saw itself as the Spouse of Christ, but as ‘a people’.
Today, half a century later, we are experiencing the results of what Guareschi grasped rapidly and well as he witnessed the prodrome of the great ‘deconstruction’: Christ expelled from the house of God; the Host become 'fast food' to be eaten while standing, as at a bar; atheist theologians hailed as prophets; priests transformed into televangelists attached to a microphone; persons proposed to be beatified and canonized only if they are considered pacifists and socially committed (one must read the pages Guareschi dedicates to the soon to be Blessed La Pira, to what Guareshi calls ‘lapirism’ and the ‘lapirate’ (La Pira’s followers).
[The man’s biodata – as recounted by Wikipedia – exemplifies the ideal Bergoglian saint. La Pira (1951-1965) was an Italian Roman Catholic politician who served as the Mayor of Florence twice. In his public and private life he was a tireless champion of peace and human rights who worked for the betterment of the poor and disenfranchised. He was a staunch advocate for peace and made several trips to the East to places such as China and Russia which were sometimes deemed to be controversial in the Cold War era. Those trips were undertaken to discuss peace ventures and ends to conflict, with La Pira also prioritizing ecumenism as a reason for visiting Moscow where he often met with members of the Russian Orthodox Church. La Pira's cause for sainthood opened in the 1980s and became titled as Venerable on 5 July 2018 when Pope Francis confirmed that he had lived a life of heroic virtue.]
But at least 50 years ago, the new conquistadores, however foolish, were animated by a sacred fire, while today we are offered the moldy remnants of their own thought. At least 50 years ago, the new liturgy, however atrocious, seemed to hold something that was vital whereas now, it offers nothing but tired and meaningless remastications, as no one knows anymore why Holy Mass has become a happening instead of the recreation of the Divine Sacrifice.
What does it serve to dig this all up, my friend Gnocchi asks, saying clearly he has no ‘solutions’ out of pocket, and we ask ourselves, too, especially in the face of current events.
Let us consider the proposal made by Cardinal Coccpalmerio, who has suggested to the pope that he should insert a new norm in the Code of Canon Law that would be dedicated to the ‘grave duty’ of every Catholic to improve the natural environment. We all know that after
Laudato si, an anomalous wave of ecologism washed over the ‘Catholic Church’, but we did not imagine it would come to this! While we are at it, perhaps the Holy See should ask Greenpeace to draft the new norm!
But here is what Coccopalmerio himself suggests: “The Code of Canon law, at the start of Book II, in Canons 208-221, under the title
‘Obligations and rights of all the faithful’, presents a list of these obligations and rights, and therefore constitutes an authoritative identikit of the Catholic faithful and his life as a Christian. Unfortunately, it says nothing of one of the most serious of all duties: that of safeguarding and promoting the natural environment in which man lives. I propose to ask the pope to ask the Dicastery for Legislative texts
[which Cocco led until his recent retirement upon turning 80] the insertion of a new canon that would be something like this:
“Every faithful Christian, remembering that Creation is our common home, has the grave duty not only not to damage but to improve, whether by normal good behavior or by specific initiatives, the natural environment in which every person must live”.
All very well. But why not do more and better? For example, in the light of the new and urgent duties inspired by the ecologist ideology, why not rewrite Canon 211. What, you don’t know what Canon 211 provides for? It says:
“All the Christian faithful have the duty and right to work so that the divine message of salvation more and more reaches all people in every age and in every land.”
Ah, but divine message? Salvation? Come, come! The new paradigm needs far different perspectives. So the Bergoglian Canon 211 would read:
“All the Christian faithful have the duty and right to work so that the defense of the natural environment more and more reaches all people in every age and in every land.”
Which would also, among other things, eliminate the problem of proselytism. Which, according to the new paradigm, must be avoided like the plague.
And what are we to say about this Father Zanotelli who has expressed the wish that all Catholic churches be transformed into hostels for ‘illegal aliens’ and has promoted a fasting marathon in St. Peter’s Square where participants would relieve each other as relay teams do. And of Mons. Nogaro, emeritus bishop of Caserta, who agreeing with Zanotelli’s notions, has said he is morally ready, as a man of faith, to transform all Catholic churches into mosques in order to save the lives of the poor and the unhappy?
One is dumbfounded. But we cannot afford to be. We are reminded by the Crucified Christ himself who, when asked by don Camillo what can be done in the face of the disaster to the Church, replied:
“What the peasant does when the river overflows its banks and invades the fields: he must save the seed. When the river goes back to its bed, the earth will emerge again and the sun will dry it up. If the peasant had saved seed, he can now sow it into earth that has been made more fertile by the river’s deposits, and the seed will flourish and bear fruit, and those ripe golden spikes will give man bread, life and hope.
"The seed must be saved – that seed is faith. Don Camillo, help anyone who still has the faith and keeps it intact. Today the spiritual desert is growing more vast by the day, and every new day brings new souls drying up because they no longer have faith. With every new day, men of many words and no faith are destroying the spiritual patrimony and the faith of others”.
And there is a thought from Aleksandr Solzhenitskyn that Gnocchi cites at the end.
"When lies seem to dominate everywhere, there is always one thing we can do: refuse to participate personally in the lying, so that if it dominates, it is not due to something I did”.
In one of his letters, Guareschi writes don Camillo: “Hold fast, don Camillo. When the generals are traitors, then we need the fidelity of soldiers even more.” So, take courage and move onward.
“As often happens when intellectuals, theologians and pastors lose their heads," Gnocchi comments, "the sensus fidei of the ordinary faithful becomes even firmer. And we can be sure that where the true sense of the faith survives, it also broods over the sensus traditionis”.
Guareschi makes this point very clear in a scene he imagines with the Bianchi family (characters he created in order to show the encounters and skirmishes among various Catholic types), in which the progressivist priest don Giacomo, the progressivist Catholic layman Signor Bianchi, and the ‘unlabelled’ (plain) Catholic who is Signora Bianchi have this exchange:
- “We must form a committee of parishioners who have modern ideas,” says Don Giacomo.
- “Count me in!” says Signor Bianchi.
- "What about you, Madame?”, the priests asks the Signora.
- “No. One cretin in the family is enough."