The week before last, Pope Francis nominated a
new archbishop in Italy, following what has now become a tradition of
replacing courageous pastors of the Church with delegates of his
so-called "pastoral revolution."
His Excellency Abp. Luigi Negri
resigned as archbishop of Ferrara-Comacchio when completing 75 years of
age, after four years in the archdiocese, one of the last appointments
of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
His substitute is the general director of Fondazione Migrantes (an
organization established by the Italian Episcopal Conference to handle
the pastoral care and evangelization of migrants), Abp. Giancarlo
Perego, described by Catholic newspaper La Corrispondenza Romana as "the pasdaran of the silent invasion."
Archbishop Perego is a notorious advocate of practically
unrestricted immigration. For years he's been publicly condemning how
European governments deal with the recurring deaths in smuggling boats
on Mediterranean migratory routes.
In April 2015, when the tragic deaths
were not a result of hazardous conditions but an occasion of
martyrdom for 12 Christians thrown in the sea by Muslim fellow
travelers, Perego minimized the charges of "multiple homicide aggravated
by religious hatred" pressed by the survivors, declaring that "we
shouldn't focus on religious hatred."
In an interview with La Repubblica, he excused the murders as "a dramatic situation that resulted, above all, from desperation," a comment he reiterated on
Vatican Radio when discussing the affair, focusing his criticism
ofnNorthern Italy for not taking as many immigrants as it could.
More recently the newly appointed archbishop expressed his objections to
the new government's security policy concerning immigration: "There's
no need for security measures," he proclaimed. "These are measures that
don't respond to the real demands of a territory that does not ask for
more security, but for more options of integration."
A recent survey by the Demos Institute shows that 40 percent of Italians think the increase of immigrants puts their security at risk. Episodes of rape are a daily occurrence, and it's not hard to find areas of Italy where people complain that they no longer feel safe in land swarmed by North African and Middle Eastern immigrants.
The mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, has declared that the Eternal City simply cannot accept anymore refugees. In 2016 Italy's expenses —
from rescue and identification of immigrants to sheltering and language
lessons — were more than 3.3 billion euros. This year the estimate is
that those expenses will increase by 60 percent. For someone praised as a "pastor from the streets," a "priest who doesn't exclude anyone," Abp. Perego is largely out of touch with his flock.
Catholic
and secular media outfits have claimed that the nomination of Perrego
sends a clear message of rupture with the manner in which Negri guided
the archdiocese of Ferrara. Cristiano Bendin, journalist for the local
Ferrara section of newspaper Il Resto del Carlino, wrote an editorial titled
"A Very Clear Message," where he stated that this "was an expected and
predictable sign of discontinuity that aligns Ferrara's archdiocese with
the positions of Pope Francis."
"Archbishop Negri was never loved by the city's Left," he
continued, "and has always been targeted in ferocious attacks (many
times personal ones) for being a righteous, coherent, courageous and
brave defender of the Tradition of the Church. He resisted the easy
temptations of approval, gave back a voice to Catholics and developed an
important cultural work, other than also rectifying the finances of the
diocese, and his legacy will be remembered."
A former student and lifelong friend of Bp. Luigi
Giussani (founder of the lay Catholic movement Communion and
Liberation), Negri received an archdiocese in an area riddled with at least seven satanic sects. From the eventual appearance of altars with sacrificed animals to the ever-growing number of fortunetellers and séances, occultists have shown such a preference for
Ferrara that volunteers from the Italian Knights Templar would at times
patrol consecrated places to ensure no profanation or theft of sacred
objects.
Last January Negri once again had to celebrate a Mass of Reparation followed by a procession because consecrated Hosts had been stolen from
one of the archdiocese's parishes and desecrated. When asked why anyone
would be interested in stealing them, he replied that he was definitely
thinking "of the worst possibilities," and that he had lost his peace
entirely over the matter.
In November 2015, Negri was involved in a controversy created by progressive newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, which
turned to someone who had allegedly overheard a private conversation
between Negri and a friend on a train, where he was expressing his
personal opinions regarding the Pope's behavior. There are no records of
the conversation, and no one ever came forward to confirm the
newspaper's claims — whose headline implied that Negri wished for the
pope's death — something His Excellency never actually said.
On this occasion, Negri was overheard criticizing the
Pope's choices for the archdioceses of Bologna and Palermo. Bologna saw
the retirement of Cdl. Carlo Caffarra in 2015, one of the four cardinals
who presented the dubia to the Holy Father, and the pastor chosen by
Pope Francis for the Bologna See was Bp. Matteo Zuppi, who, like Perego,
is also an enthusiast of immigration and receptive to the idea of constructing mosques in Italy and celebrating Islamic festivities in schools.
Bishop Corrado Lorefice, the appointee for Palermo,
follows the same line, a typical "priest from the streets," the
"priest-bishop," a "pastor for the poor and the forgotten," a successor
of the Apostles who thought of a pertinent reason to ride a bike inside Palermo's Cathedral. One could argue that criticizing these bishops is a duty of charity.
Archbishop Negri's reaction to the press slander was firstly directed to
his people: "Dear faithful, do not worry: If I have anything to say to
the Pope, I'll say it in the ways and manners that have been granted to
me as a successor of the Apostles, with loyalty to the Pontiff, and
respect to Holy Doctrine."
Negri has always been known for his tough character, and
he's never been afraid of making enemies. He has publicly denounced
Freemasonry, confronted the LGBT lobby, painted the
Arabic letter "nun" (the brand of shame sprayed by ISIS on Christian
properties in Mosul) on the archdiocese's door, and condemned the
excessive solicitude for migrants when Italians in poverty were being
neglected.
And going against the carefully crafted narrative that
traditional Catholic bishops are all "racist bigots," when the citizens
of Goro and Gorino built a barricade to block the entrance of 12 female immigrants, one of whom was pregnant, Negri offered the archdiocese's help to
the women, as he has to everyone rightfully entitled to refugee status,
and sent to the care of several Church properties in Ferrara.
According to Vaticanista Sandro Magister, Perego was the candidate of
Abp. Nunzio Galantino (secretary-general of the Italian Episcopal
Conference and the Pope's point of reference in the Conference) and
Giovanni Nicolini, former director of the bolognese Caritas and founder of Famiglie della Visitazione ("Families
of Visitation"), a community inspired by Fr. Giuseppe Dossetti.
Dossetti is one of the main figures behind the progressive theological
school of thought on the Second Vatican Council known as the Bologna
School, to which Nicolini himself is connected.