Bishop Galantino: The Prelates, For Whom Unborn Children Are Just a Millstone Around the Neck

Bishop Galantino: Handpicked "Man of the Pope"
in Italy's Church Has bergolian difficulties
with the Unborn 

(Rome) The Secretary General of the Episcopal Conference of Italy distanced himself from the defense of life. Therefore, he was heavily criticized, and is now attempting a self-pitying correction, which was in reality a criticism of his critics. It's another signal as to how annoying some prelates find  the struggle for life, when John Paul II led the struggle to the last and Benedict XVI. declared it a non-negotiable principle.  But then came Pope Francis.

Bishop Nunzio Galatino Cassano all'Jonio made a brilliant career move under Pope Francis, however, he became known simultaneously in a controversial, perhaps scandalous manner. Until his discovery by Pope Francis, the Bishop was completely unknown to the world outside of Calabria. As bishop, he stands at the head of an old dwarf diocese, as they actually exist only  for historical reasons only in Italy. The new pope made unilaterally the Secretary General of the Italian Episcopal Conference at the end of 2013. Although Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco is still chairman, the real "man of the Pope" has been Msgr Galantino ever since.

On May 12, the Bishop gave an interview in which he distanced himself from the strange way he addressed pro-lifers  who perform prayer vigils in front of the modern death camps and there pray the rosary for the protection of life and for an end to abortion (see separate report Bergoglio Effect: Secretary of the Episcopal Conference Distancing Himself From Pro-Lifers  ). It's not a random statement, but a deliberate signal to the dominant forces for the killing of unborn children as a "right", to which you must not be challenged.

Pontifical Galatino

The interview was made ​​in Catholic circles, but especially crated among life advocates an international sensation. It fit into a series with a no less irritating interview, that Pope Francis gave in September 2013 for the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica. The head of the church said that  Catholics  were "obsessed" with the right to life and that one can "not always" speak out about issues such as abortion  (see separate report And he wept over his Pope - Pope Francis is silent on abortion and homosexuality, and finds it a good thing ). The irritations were more violent, as the Catholic Church is the last major, global institution that still opposes the abortion dictate, and the popes have raised their voices courageously against the murder spree charged from the Encyclical Humanae Vitae to Pope Benedict XVI. Ten months had to pass and  ever stronger murmurings rose within the Church, till Pope Francis for the first time brought the word "abortion" in his mouth in January 2014 (see separate report "The Horror of Abortion" - Francis Pope calls abortion for the first time by name ).

All Just a Misunderstanding on Which the Media are to Blame?

Now  Bishop Galatino laments in a recent interview for the monthly magazine  Sempre, the fierce criticism that hit him after his first interview. The Secretary General of the Italian Episcopal Conference saw no need for a correction of his first interviews. The criticism he described as "aggression, which in reality hurt me a little." Monsignor Galatino is of the opinion that it had all been a misunderstanding which goes back to an instrumentalization by the media. "The said interview was developed in a specific context: the influence of social communications. On this occasion I warned for vigilance, especially with regard to television, where images are used only to support one's own message. I gave the example to those who then only blank faces of those show who pray the Rosary against abortion in front of clinics. It was a method of the media, who don't  just want to invalidate the rosary prayed in front of the clinics  but also the large and unusual movement that stands behind it."  According to Bishop Galatino he wanted to warn you to be vigilant against such media manipulation.

From the "Malice" of the Rosary

The reason for the misunderstanding  was that his statement was taken out of context. "Sometimes the representative of certain of our movements don't read the interview completely, but only the titles and headlines of the media, who of course, have every interest to write something sensational and create problems. So it came to 10,000 tweets and 15,000 Facebook posts "Against Bishop Galantino, who showed himself to be  " impressed"  by this wave of criticism from within the ranks to dismiss the "malice of certain people who claim to pray the Rosary."  It is  "worrying to know that someone who prays the rosary, then is able to express himself in such tones and with such verbal aggression." Pro-Lifers shake their heads. Bishop Galantino has thus proven just one more time to have little idea of ​​the reality of war, which is against under way against the unborn children worldwide, and the protection of life, about which he speaks, however.

Pope Francis seems  to be satisfied with the thesis of this "misunderstanding" at any rate. This past June 21st he paid Bishop Galantino and his mini-diocese in Calabria a visit. To see an homage, which was unanimously interpreted by observers as a signal to the Italian Bishops for Bishop Galatino as the new powerful man in Italy's Church (see separate report A question of priorities - Corpus Christi procession without Pope Francis ).

What Exactly Had  The Secretary-General Said on May 12?

Quotidiano Nazionale: In recent years, the Bishops' Conference established itself  (life, family, education) for the non-negotiable values. The Pope does not have this concept at heart. Do you not also? 

Bishop Galantino: When we think of the sanctity of life. In the past, we have focused exclusively on a no to abortion and euthanasia. This goes not, in between there comes to the existence, develops. I do not identify myself with the motionless faces of those who pray the rosary in front of  clinics, where abortions are carried out, but with those youth who reject this method and fight for better quality of life for the people of their rights to health and work.

In the new interview, Bishop Galatino spoke of the "influence of the media" and "instrumentalization by the media." In the original there is nothing of the sort, but a whole precise question to which the bishop replied which was just as clearly irritating.

Bishop Galantino has tried an old game, where the blame is always pushed to the journalists. An attempt that often succeeds in this particular case, however, as the bishop has neither denied up until today his former statement  nor demanded a rectification of the daily newspaper. A substantive correction of his position would offer more suitable for the  "man of the Pope" in the Italian Episcopal Conference. Above all, it would  provide the only correct answer to doubts and criticism. Therefore, Pro-Lifers believe that Bishop Galantino has exactly said  is in the interview: A distancing from  the right to life scene that is seen by some prelates as just a more than annoying millstone that impedes an arrangement with the Zeitgeist.

Sometimes the attempts to plug a hole are worse than the hole itself

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Corrispondenza Romana

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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