Italy: Roberto de Mattei removed from Radio Maria

Source: FSSPX News

On February 13, 2014 Professor Roberto de Mattei (on the picture) published an article on the website Correspondance europeenne called, “2013 – 2014: Motus in fine velocior” (motion accelerates when the end is near), of which an English translation is available in our Documents section. Because of this article he was removed from Radio Maria where he had worked for several years preparing the weekly Radici cristiane [Christian roots].

Thus Roberto de Mattei in turn received the same treatment as another two Catholic intellectuals, Alessandro Gnocchi and Mario Palmaro, ousted from Radio Maria on October 11, 2013, two days after publishing an article together in Il Foglio (see DICI no. 284, 08/11/13).

In response to Radio Maria’s chief, Father Livio Fanzaga, who reproached him for this article and for his increasingly critical position with regard to the Sovereign Pontiff, Professor de Mattei recalled Catholic teaching on papal infallibility, which only applies under specific circumstances and does not exclude the possibility of error outside of these circumstances, in the domains of ecclesiastical politics, strategic choice, pastoral activity or ordinary magisterium. It is not a sin, he affirmed, but a Catholic’s duty in conscience to point out these errors, with all the respect and love due to the Sovereign Pontiff. The saints did the same. He who notes of the shortcomings of the hierarchy in all reverence does not sin; on the contrary, he sins who keeps silence. As far as Roberto de Mattei is concerned, he states that he wishes to continue to exercise his Christian liberty in defence of the Faith that he received at baptism and that remains his most cherished possession; he will never cease to tell the truth, with the help of the Holy Ghost, and this ever more loudly, so great is the silence of the one who should be the voice of the truth.

Roberto de Mattei is Professor of Modern History and of the History of Christianity at the European University of Rome, where he is head of the department of Historical Sciences. He is also head of the Lepanto Foundation whose goal is to defend the principles and institutions of Christian civilization though their many works, publications and public actions. From 2003 to 2011, he was vice-president of the National Research Council and Member of the Board of Guarantees of the Italian Academy at Columbia University in New York. From 2002 to 2006 he worked as a consultant for the Italian government ministry of foreign affairs.

He will give a lecture in Paris on March 11, 2014, at 8 pm, on the topic of “The influence of Vatican II on the current pontificate; pastoral activity from John XXIII to Francis” in the crypt of the Chapelle Notre-Dame de Consolation, 23 rue Goujon, 75008 Paris. After the lecture he will sign copies of his book, Vatican II: an Unwritten Story (available in English from Loreto Publications). In this thoroughly documented work, Prof. de Mattei has taken an original standpoint with regard to the works of the Council, that of the conservative minority, making it a truly revolutionary addition to contemporary historiography. Free entry, donations accepted to cover costs. For further information please call 06-28-73-77-79.

(Source: Correspondance europeenne – DICI no.291 dated February 28, 2014)