23 Settembre 2022 Pubblicato da Marco Tosatti

Marco Tosatti

Dear readers of StilumCuriae, recently, as you have seen, there has been a lot of discussion at Stilum about Fatima, Ratzinger, and various connections to these topics. Our friend offers us this reflection. Enjoy your reading.

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In the third century, Pope Pontian, the 18^th Roman Pontiff, found himself a prisoner in Sardinia, perhaps in view of Tavolara itself, which overshadows my house, or perhaps on the island of Molara, just to the south. Here amidst the waves and the blue waters, declaring that he was in an “impeded see,” he passed the Ring of the Fisherman to the man who succeeded him for only about two months, Saint Anterus, a Calabrian of Greek origin. Saint Pontian, as I have already written, died of hardship and mistreatment in Sardinia, and it was Saint Fabian, the successor of Anterus on the papal throne, who brought Saint Pontian’s remains back to Rome, where he was buried in the Catacombs of Saint Callistus. And now he rests, along with many other martyrs, in the stupendous church of Saint Prassede [inside the city of Rome], transferred there by Pope Paschal I [in the 9^th century], where every so often I go to pay him a visit. Yes, the “impeded see” was at that time Sardinia, far away, a “harmful island” for the Romans, a wild, rustic, and indomitable place. Certainly it was nothing like the little convent where Benedict XVI lives in the Vatican…

I admit that I have not read [Andrea Cionci’s book] The Ratzinger Code, and I am not qualified to deliver a nuanced theological opinion on who is the reigning pope today as I write this on the vigil of the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. The only thing speaking through me is the sensum fidei and the immense love that I have for the Lord. I love Benedict XVI: for me he is and always will be the sweet presence of Christ here on earth. I love his tenderness, his calm voice, his heart that is full of love for Jesus. It consoles me to know that he is alive and that he is praying together with us, here in the dark valley into which the proud Bergoglio has thrown us. It gives me great relief to watch videos of his catechesis from time to time; it moves me to see him in Munich, at Marienplatz, singing the Bavarian hymns under the clear blue sky. … For me, for my heart, he is the only Pope and Pastor, and at times I call him, when I am alone and no one else is listening, “Benny” …

And I loved him long before he became pope, through the stories told to me about Cardinal Ratzinger almost every afternoon by Arcangelo Paglialunga, the Vaticanista of [the Italian daily newspaper]Il Gazzettino, who was a close friend of the future pope. Both of them loved music. Paglialunga, who wrote his articles on an antediluvian typrwriter (long after the invention of the computer) was in addition to being a Vaticanista also a Romanista, in the sense that he wrote for a magazine dedicated to all things Roman called Romanaccia. He was devoted to his faith and to his wife Caterina; he always spoke with deep sympathy and great esteem for Cardinal Ratzinger. I saw them, together, in my imagination, walking side by side in Saint Peter’s Square, speaking of Bach and [Dietrich] Buxtehude, with the breeze of Elijah in the air, filled with the sublime notes of the two great German musicians (if you have never heard “Membra Jesu Nostri” by Buxtehude, I advise you to listen to it as soon as possible). He was an “Archangel” both in name and in fact. He was an expert in Gregorian chant, and he told me of one of his most terrific years, when he had only attended Masses with Gregorian chant. I felt my heart rejoicing. Oh, how I would have loved to do that myself! When I found out that Cardinal Ratzinger would be the successor of John Paul II, I wrote an email to a friend of mine who is Australian, who is actually my former nanny, who watched me grow up and taught me to speak English like a mother teaching her daughter. The rest is history, and as for Jane, well, imagine her with her jaw dropped in wonder…

I have the supreme honor of having received five letters from “my” Benny, even if they were signed by His secretary. In one, he recalls our mutual friend Arcangelo, who I believe and hope is watching over us from Heaven. The content of the other letters close to my heart and guarded in the secret of my soul, which burns with love for the Lord and always smiles at even the tiniest thought of Benedict XVI.

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Tag: bdv, de vito, ratzinger

Categoria: Generale