"A Eucharistic Butchery!" -- Don Ricotta Dismissed in Palermo by Bergoglian Archbishop

Don Leonardo Ricotta, the deposed pastor of Sant'Agata di Villabate (Archdiocese of Palermo)

Edit: you might remember him calling upon us to reject the Virus Mass.

(Rome) Constantly new arbitrary and even sacrilegious measures by bishops, which are enacted to curb the spread of Coronavirus, are incomprehensible and cause absurd reactions to the point of horror missae and dramatic interventions such as the removal of a pastor in the Archdiocese of Palermo shows.

Many priests are outraged, some refuse to do so without publicly announcing it, but at the risk of being denounced by the faithful. This also happens because the irresponsible extent of the scaremongering, as it was carried out by politicians, government advisers and the media, can trigger irrational reactions among anxious people and can cloud common sense in some. Since May 18th, public worship has been allowed in Italy again, if only under strict conditions enacted by the Italian government and the Italian Bishops' Conference on May 7th. Yesterday, May 24th, the first Sunday services were held after twelve weeks. The requirements imposed on the priests include wearing a face mask and disposable gloves when giving communion.

A priest who expressed his outrage loudly and clearly has now become the victim of punitive measures by his bishop, a bonified Bergoglian. The serious incident occurred in the Archdiocese of Palermo in Sicily.

Germany is three times more affected by Corona than Sicily

While some areas of northern Italy were severely affected by the corona virus, the situation in southern Italy and on the islands remained surprisingly relaxed. In Sicily, with its five and a half million inhabitants, 20 percent fewer people were tested corona-positive than in tiny Luxembourg, which has only a tenth of its inhabitants.

The numbers are to be questioned overall. The completely unusual and constantly widespread total number of corona positives at some point is ultimately irrelevant, since 90 percent of those affected show no or at least no noteworthy symptoms, but above all there is no risk from those who have recovered. So what would count are the fatalities, but they are even more dubious, as new cases of vertiginous counting confirm. A number of credible indications suggest that since the first corona death in Europe, that was the Italian Adriano Trevisan, who died on February 21, as many corona deaths as possible should be "produced", mostly afterwards by a corresponding note on the death certificate and through the reports to the central corona detection points. Why doctors, including pathologists, are involved is one of the many open corona questions. It is reasonable to assume that these are economic interests, whether direct or indirect.

It should also be mentioned that almost three months after his death it turned out that Adriano Trevisan is not a corona-dead person at all, but has succumbed to serious preexisting illnesses. The Padua public prosecutor's office had forced the autopsy. Trevisan, who became the fan of unprecedented fear-mongering across Europe, now symbolizes the doubtfulness of the way the Corona dead have been counted and, overall, the government's Corona measure. This also includes the fact that although he was reported to be the first Corona dead across Europe, the correction of this false report based on the autopsy results is being kept secret.

Why, despite the small number of cases, Sicily has more than twice as many corona deaths as Luxembourg, namely 268, is one of the numerous corona puzzles that seem less to do with the corona virus and more to do with forces that work under the Corona pretext to take you for a ride. All in all (the paradox in the paradox?) There were 9.2 percent fewer deaths in the province of Palermo, which is specifically concerned, according to the Italian statistics office and the National Health Institute ISS in the first third of 2020 (January 1 to April 30) than last year - despite Covid-19.

The situation in Sicily is always relaxed, after all, the lowest level of Corona warnings in Italy applies to the island. To establish a relationship: According to WHO figures, the Federal Republic of Germany and Austria were three times more affected by the Corona virus than the Mediterranean island.

Don Leonardo Ricotta celebrates Mass ad orientem. In his sermon of May 18th, he explained the priest's finger position as soon as they touch the body of Christ.

The pastor's indignation over latex gloves

However, the Italian Bishops' Conference prescribed uniform provisions for the whole of Italy, the same for acute areas as for hardly affected areas. The priest Leonardo Ricotta, pastor of Sant'Agata in Villabate in the Archdiocese of Palermo, was dismissed on May 21. The city of 20,000 inhabitants is nine kilometers from the Archbishop's Palace. The reason: The pastor refused to handle the body of Christ with disposable gloves and said so out loud.

The archbishopric's press office published a statement on this, which does not disclose the facts and begins with a defense of its own actions. Rumors are false that the priest has been dismissed by the archbishop. Don Ricotta himself has given up his office. The Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum by Pope Benedict XVI. causes the priest to celebrate Holy Mass in the traditional Rite, which he has been doing on three working days since then. He also celebrated the parish service ad orientem in the Novus Ordo.

At best, what the matter is about can be guessed from the archiepiscopal statement. The point of contention is presented as follows:

"The practice of distributing hand Communion is in conformity with the norms issued by the ecclesiastical Magisterium, to which every Catholic Christian owes religious obedience and that of the intellect."

Reference is made to the instruction of Redemptionis Sacramentum of the Roman Congregation of Worship in 2004. Paragraph 92 states accordingly: If a believer in a country in which the Bishops' Conference has allowed hand communion with confirmation of the Holy See wishes it, he should give him Communion be distributed like this. The instruction is the preliminary conclusion of a long process by which the misuse of the distribution of Communion by Rome, which was supported by Dutch and then German bishops, was subsequently recognized. The Italian Bishops' Conference issued a dispensation for hand Communion in 1989. In the Catholic countries, oral Communion is still widespread today. The bishops' Corona measures are the most radical global intervention against Communion on the tongue and for hand Communion since Pope Paul VI. 1969 buckled before German blackmail and gave the bishops' conferences the opportunity to allow hand Communion as an exception.

Don Leonardo Ricotta, with holy anger, took a stand against the decree to pick up and offer the body of Christ with disposable gloves. He criticized such a practice as "Eucharistic butchery".

Ideal dispensing of Communion donation according to TV2000, television station of the Italian Bishops' Conference: priests and believers with face masks, latex gloves and hand communion

Topsy-Turvy World in Reversed Roles

The well-known liturgist Don Nicola Bux also criticized the instructions of the bishops as "paradoxical", because if it were to be liturgical, it would have to be exactly the opposite. In the traditional rite, as it was celebrated until 1965/1970, the bishops wear gloves because their anointed hands should be clean so that they can touch the Eucharistic Lord with their bare hands. They are discarded from the offertory, to the ambo and the communio. With the Novus Ordo the gloves were discarded as obsolete, but now the bishops want to reintroduce them in a somewhat weird way, but upside down. Don Bux has assigned touching the body of Christ with disposable gloves as if He were a leper, and the episcopal compulsion that compelled this behavior on all priests to the area of the sacrileges.

Don Ricotta is not the only priest in Sicily to be appalled. However, he said it clearly and announced that he would only celebrate Holy Mass in the traditional rite that would not tolerate such a compulsory prescription. The archdiocese reacted and disclosed the archbishop's understanding of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass:

“The Eucharist exclusively with the Roman Rite as an extraordinary form according to the Missale Romanum by John XXIII. from 1962, which was introduced by the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, established in 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI. would exclude that portion of God's people from participating in the Mass, in as much as the promulgated form of Paul VI's Missal currently used, who might be allowed active participation. This would seriously affect the rights and freedom of a large number of believers. ”

In conclusion, it is as succinct as it is contradictory:

“Personal beliefs, presented by individuals as authentic teaching, cannot be forced on believers. It is up to the bishop in the diocese to 'establish standards for the liturgy to which everyone is bound', 'to preserve the unity of the Church as a whole' and 'to promote the common order of the whole Church' (Congregation for Worship , Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, No. 176–177).“

Coercion can obviously be applied, but only in one direction, away from tradition.

Statement by the archiocesan press office

The letter from a lawyer

Roberto De Petro, a lawyer from Palermo and a traditional Catholic, wrote Archbishop Corrado Lorefice on May 20th. Lorefice, the "most progressive" candidate that Pope Francis could find for the Diocese of the Primate of Sicily, was appointed in the fall of 2015. In it he describes the traditional Rite as "safest in Corona times". Above all, he draws attention to the "invalidity" and "illogicality" of the joint protocol between the government and the episcopal conference of May 7th on the re-admission of public worship. De Petro documents in a knowledgeable and detailed manner that the protocol and the associated legislative decree (No. 33/2020) are unconstitutional. This already results from the lack of an "exceptional emergency", which the constitution requires for such a type of provision. This plight does not exist in Sicily and has never existed during the entire Corona period.

The protocol mentioned was also null and void because the government had no jurisdiction over Catholic issues and the representatives of the bishops' conference had no jurisdiction, neither over the bishops nor over the priests, nor about the faithful.

“Every bishop is sovereign in his dioceswe, but he cannot change what is specified in the Missal sections that have legal force for the whole Church. The headings of the Missale do not provide for the use of gloves when celebrating the Eucharist."

The lawyer also addresses the question of liturgical gloves, called Chirothecae, as they are used in the traditional rite:

“In the traditional rite, the bishop removes the chirotecae before he approaches the altar for the sacrifice, which means that he can only touch the consecrated host with his bare hands. (…) Indeed, after the change, the priest holds the fingertips of the thumb and forefinger together until the end of communion before cleaning them in the chalice.”

This was to prevent even a crumb from being lost from the Lord's body. But this is exactly what can't  be done with gloves, which is why they are removed in the traditional rite.

Therefore "the use of latex gloves is an aberration". The material is miserable and contradicts all liturgical provisions of the church. Above all, the gloves are simply thrown away afterwards. Corrupting the understanding of the Eucharist, whether intended or not, is devastating.

In a third point, the lawyer opposes the factual ban on oral Communion by forcing manual Communion. In contrast to hand Communion, oral Communion is the " much safer" form of receiving Communion. This has been confirmed by doctors specifically interviewed by the Portland diocese in the United States.

Finally, De Petro contradicts the references to Redemptionis Sacramentum and states that the provisions of the Bishops' Conference contradict and violate this instruction. In various parishes of the Archdiocese of Palermo, Communion kneeling and on the tongue was previously denied to believers. Archbishop Lorefice, although informed of this, did not respond to it.

De Petro calls on the archbishop to stop using the “humiliating” protocol and to promote the celebration of the traditional rite as a measure against the Coronavirus.

The archbishop's press office's statement the next day on Don Ricotta's case shows that Archbishop Lorefice is not considering implementing any of it.

"Padre Pio called this butchery"

Don Ricotta said on May 18:

“When my bishop tells me that I have to be a pastor somewhere that I don't like, I go and obey. But if he forces me to act against belief or step on the Consecrated Host, I cannot obey. Obedience applies to the lawful, not the unlawful, that is the great teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas. What you're doing here is an act of Eucharistic butchery. Father Pio called this butchery. "

Vaticanist Marco Tosatti commented on the Don Ricotta case:

"And lo and behold, Don Ricotta was dismissed without notice, and in the merciful Lorefice of Palermo, we wonder how much credibility can be given to the declaration of the diocese ..." when it says that the priest has voluntarily renounced his parish.

The Archdiocese of Palermo was previously the scene of a violent conflict between a diocesan priest and the archbishop. Don Alessandro Minutella , pastor of a suburban parish in the Sicilian capital, criticized Pope Francis' line. He was then given an ultimatum. When he did not respond in the desired form, he was suspended and effectively excommunicated. Don Ricotta is also a priest who speaks his mind even when it concerns the Pope - albeit more moderately than Don Minutella. You don't make friends with them in Bergoglian ordinaries, not even in a moderate tone. Whoever celebrates in the traditional Rite and is connected to tradition has to dress twice as warmly.

The Don Ricotta case shows how great and varied the damage that is currently being done, not by the corona virus, but by the corona measures.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Cooperatores Veritatis / Archdiocese of Palermo / TV2000 (screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Archbishop Issues Decree Forbidding Eucharistic Monsters and Sacrilegious Hand Communions

Bishop issues decree prohibiting hand communion.  Consultation with the Bishops' Conference is not necessary.

 By: Created by Gero P. Weishaupt on February 4, 2020 at 3:19 p.m.
 chalice

The body of Christ should no longer be given to the hand.  This was determined by the archbishop of Kampala, Cyprian Lwanga, the capital of Uganda, according to the internet portal katolisch.de in a "Decree on the proper celebration of the Eucharist".  The prescribed oral communion should prevent abuse with the Holy Host.  "In addition, the distribution should only be done by priests in proper official garb.  Cohabiting but unmarried couples are excluded from the Eucharist,” it says.

 Contrary to other statements of the Internet portal, an agreement with the Bishops' Conference is not necessary.  Each bishop is his own and responsible top shepherd of his diocese and is not bound by any instructions from a bishops' conference.  A diocesan bishop would only be bound by a general decree adopted by the majority of the conference and reviewed by the Apostolic See (can. 455).  Even if agreements within a bishops' conference make sense for a uniform pastoral approach by the bishops, a bishop ultimately only has to follow God and his conscience in his pastoral service.  The next higher instance of a diocesan bishop is not the Episcopal Conference, but the Apostolic See.

 Photo: Kelch - Image source: C. Steindorf, kathnews

Edit: I could have said, bishop of the margins, but he’s much bigger than that.

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Bishop Laise, Defender of the Reverent Reception of Holy Communion Dies

Bishop Juan Rodolfo Laise with Cardinal Robert Sarah.

"We think we can say that the introduction of hand communion and its spread all over the world is the gravest disobedience to papal authority of recent times."

Msgr. Juan Rodolfo Laise wrote these words in the concluding remarks of his book

"Communion in the Hand. Documents and History "(Comunión En la Mano, Documento e Historia, 4th ed.).

 On Facebook, the Press Office of the Diocese of San Luis in Argentina announced that old Bishop Laise died at the age of 93 years at the sanctuary of San Giovanni Rotondo in Italy. There lived the retired bishop for 17 years. Yesterday afternoon he died in the infirmary of the Capuchin Friary.

Msgr. Laise was born on February 22, 1926 in Buenos Aires. As a young man he entered the Capuchin Order. In March 1949 he took the solemn religious vows and received priestly ordination in September of the same year. He then studied both civil and canon law. From 1954 he was a professor of canon law and morality at the Theological Faculty of Villa Elisa in Argentina. After becoming Provincial of the Capuchin Order, Pope Paul VI appointed him Bishop Coadjutor of the diocese of San Luis in 1971. In the same year he became diocesan bishop there. In 2001, Pope John Paul II accepted his resignation for reasons of age.

Msgr. Laise then retired to Italy in the Capuchin Monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo, where saintly Father Pio, also a Capuchin, spent most of his life, died in 1968 and is also buried.

As a great worshiper of the saint, the bishop moved near him. Since then he has worked there as a beloved confessor for pilgrims in Italian and Spanish. At the place of action for Father Pio was where he also wanted to die.

St. Padre Pio (1887-1968)

Bishop Laise is the author of numerous catechetical books and the social doctrine of the Church. He is considered one of the outstanding proponents of the Communion on the tongue, from which he also moved back to the traditional Roman Rite.

In 1997, he dedicated the book mentioned above to the rejected practice of hand-communion, which was translated into several languages ​​and made him known internationally. In his diocese, he was the first diocesan bishop to refuse the hand communion and took back the corresponding dispensation. The prohibition of the hand communion has been keep since then also its two successors upright.
 Every morning at 6 o'clock Bishop Laise celebrated Mass in the traditional Rrite in San Giovanni Rotondo. His confreres resisted a public celebration at the convent. In an interview in 2016 he said:

“Unfortunately, there is no openness to the traditional liturgy among the Capuchins of the Convention, who are generally at a certain age. In contrast, among the young priests who come to visit, there are some who are well-disposed. It would be good if there was a public celebration for the many pilgrims of the place of pilgrimage, and I am sure that the faithful would respond very positively. Time, however, does not seem to be ripe, as far as the superiors are concerned. As for me, pro bono pacis, I celebrate by trying to avoid any tension. "

"The example of the hand communion has made me think"

On the current situation among the priests, he said:

"It is necessary to distinguish between the generations. We experience a positive attitude among the young priests, an attitude that often arises when they get in touch with a priest, thanks to whom they are allowed to discover the traditional Mass. In this way they get access to a spiritual and theological treasure, which until then was unknown to them and which only needs to be explored and shared. The content of the traditional Mass is much richer, much more precise than the modern Mass. The Blessed Virgin, the Holy Archangel Michael, and the holy apostles Peter and Paul are present in all the formations of the extraordinary form, while in the ordinary form they have disappeared completely or almost completely. As long as I celebrated with the new Missal, I always chose the First Eucharistic Prayer, the Roman Canon.” 

He endeavored to assist young priests and seminarians in their quest for holiness. Accordingly, he also kept in touch with the International Seminary of the Society of Saint Peter in Wigratzbad, which he visited personally in 2004.

In 1949 he was still ordained a priest in the traditional form:

"I celebrated itfor 20 years, including my time in Rome, when I studied at the Gregoriana. I also celebrated it during the Bugnini reform, when it betrayed the intention of the Council Fathers - and perhaps Paul VI's. Anyway, the example of the "Handkommunion" makes me pensive, the Paul VI. not wanted, as instructed by the Memoriale Domini, but which was forced by the German and French bishops. " 

Like a legacy he said then:

“I wish that all bishops become aware of the importance of oral communion as a reference to the Holy of Holies, then they will take the same position as the Bishop of Oruro! This is the only way to truly testify to the Lord's Eucharistic Presence through words and deeds. We regret that today it is not the same throughout the Church as Paul VI. in Memoriale Domini has defined that communion should always be received by mouth. Therefore, I am glad that the Bishop of Oruro, the words of Pope Paul VI. reaffirmed. "

In the fall of 2016, Bishop Laise was one of the first signatories to the Lenten Declaration on Church Doctrine on Marriage and the Family, which called on Pope Francis to reaffirm the truths of sacramental marriage.

"How should holy communion be received? Kneeling and in the mouth "

One year ago, exactly one year ago, the bishop and capuchin spoke publicly for the last time. In an interview, he criticized the actions of some German bishops who want to create facts in terms of inter-communion.

"I am strongly against it. How can we share this sacrament with someone who does not share the foundations of the doctrine? We are heading for a confusion. The entry of Luther's statue into the Vatican also surprised me negatively. The Protestants are heretics in every respect, which is why intercommunion is not possible. It is only when the Protestant shares the Catholic faith in an appropriate and accurate way. "

On Holy Communion he said on this occasion:

"When you go to Holy Communion, you have to be aware of what you receive. Instead, in many cases, superficiality prevails. This does not depend on modernity itself, but on the careless climate, which has little inclination for the sacred, and which is a consequence of modernity. This climate, it is regrettable to have to say this, is present not only in everyday life, but unfortunately also in the church. We churchmen are partly responsible. I do not want to bring charges, but from this point of view, the Pope would have to insist more, but it does not. "

When asked how Communion should be received, he admonished:

"Kneeling and in the mouth. The body of Christ whom we receive in the Sacrament is worthy of respect and honor. I repeat: We have also lost the value of sanctity in the forms, and that is a very grave misuse for which Paul VI. bears the guilt that opened the door to these behaviors. After the Second Vatican, the Church began to waver as far as the sacred is concerned."

He also affirmed that so-called remarried divorced people are "absolutely not" allowed to communion.

"Anyone who divorces and enters into a civil union is in a state of grave sin, beyond the grace of God, and can not receive the Sacrament unless he does penance and has a concrete and real resolution to change his life , In this question the Gospel, the Magisterium of the Church and the sacramental order are valid. Nobody has the authority to change it. We are only the administrators of the sacrament, but not the owners. It is therefore true that the concrete danger of relativism exists for the concrete implementation of Amoris laetitia. It would therefore be opportune to clarify how it was demanded with the Dubia.”

Bishop Juan Rodolfo Laise was buried on Tuesday afternoon. The Requiem was celebrated by Msgr. Franco Moscone, the new Archbishop of Manfredonia-Vieste-San Giovanni Rotondo. It took place in the 1959 consecrated pilgrimage church of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Our Lady, Help of Christians). Directly adjacent to it is the old 16th-century monastery church with the image of the Blessed Virgin, before which Fr. Pio celebrated Holy Mass offering in the traditional form of the Roman Rite until old age, and  it was also the favorite church of Bishop Laise.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Paix Liturgique
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG