Italy: St. Benedict Basilica destroyed by the earthquake
The St. Benedict basilica (San Benedetto) in the city of Norcia, in the center of Italy was completely destroyed by a violent earthquake (magnitude 6.5 on the Richter scale) on October 30, 2016. According to Huffington Post on October 30, 2016, part of the walls collapsed, and the bell-tower, though still standing, looks ready to collapse.
The ruins of St. Benedict Basilica.
Built in the 13th century on the ruins of the home in which St. Benedict of Nursia, founder of the Benedictines, was born in 480, the building had been expanded over the centuries. The façade, the side door and the base of the bell tower are from the 14th century, as are the vault and the structure of certain windows. In 1966, the church was raised to the rank of a minor basilica by Pope Paul VI, before undergoing important reconstruction in the 2000’s. There were, however, no victims: the sisters of the basilica were able to evacuate with the help of the firemen.
There is also serious damage in several little villages in the center of the country; Arquata del Tronto, build on the side of a mountain, completely collapsed. The religious news website Aleteia reported on October 30, 2016, that the earthquake damaged the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, in Rome: collapsed moldings, cracks… and pointed out that “this earthquake that awoke and left many inhabitants on the street was the strongest to have been felt in the Eternal City for decades.”
As the magazine Correspondance romaine pointed out on November 5, 2016, “ever since August 24, Italy has been hit by a series of seismic tremors that have done anything but diminish over the last two months. According to seismologists, there have been thousands, varying in intensity and magnitude.” For Fr. Giovanni Cavalcoli, O.P., in particular, this is “the result of a divine punishment” after the country legalized the civil union of homosexuals in July 2016. According to the Italian Dominican theologian who spoke – moderately – in a show on Radio Maria on October 30, 2016, it is “certainly a very strong reminder from Providence, not (…) in the sense of a punishment, but in the sense of a call to consciences to return to the principles of the natural law.”
His statements that were entirely translated by the website Benoît & Moi after being published and republished by the Italian press, received a firm condemnation from the Holy See. According to the Roman press agency I.Media on November 6, 2016, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, substitute for General Affairs at the Secretariat of State, claimed that Fr. Cavalcoli’s declarations “are not in keeping with the Gospel” and are “offensive to believers and scandalous for those who do not believe.” The theologian was suspended from his radio show.
In Roberto de Mattei’s opinion in Correspondance romaine, “if indeed there is scandal, it is provoked by the position of the Vatican prelate who reveals his ignorance of Catholic theology and the teaching of the popes.” And he recalled that the law on civil union for persons of the same sex “destroys not houses but the institution of the family, causing a moral and social devastation that is no less serious than the material devastation caused by the earthquake.”
(sources: apic/benoit-et-moi/huffingtonpost/afp/correspondence européenne – DICI no.344 Nov. 11, 2016)
