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BOLOGNA, Italy (LifeSiteNews) — The President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, has been accused of attempting to cover up a Mass celebrated to honor and bless two homosexual men who obtained a civil union in Italy earlier this month.
On June 11, Fr. Gabriele Davalli, a priest of the Bologna archdiocese, celebrated a “Mass of Thanksgiving” for a same-sex couple, Pietro Morotti and Giacomo Spagnoli, who had just obtained a civil union license the same day. According to the Daily Compass, the Mass intentionally included “all the typical paraphernalia of weddings.”
“Once in the church a second ceremony, a Mass, began for Pietro and Giacomo, their parents, relatives, and friends, after the ‘yes’ that had just been pronounced in front of the official audience,” the report stated. “A Mass in which the two – declared homosexuals – were also celebrated by the Church. There was all the typical paraphernalia of weddings: the flowers, the formal suits, the songs, the photographer and the two ‘newlyweds’, protagonists of the celebration, in the front row.”
The Daily Compass says that “in order not to make it look like an open violation of the laws of the Church”, rather than host a a formal blessing ceremony “the priests invented the idea of a Mass of Thanksgiving.”
The Archdiocese of Bologna, under Cardinal Zuppi, has since issued a statement on the event in which they denied what was apparently clear to those present, namely, that it was a special Mass for the homosexual couple, equivalent to an ecclesiastical blessing.
READ: Cdl. Müller: Father James Martin’s LGBT propaganda is ‘heresy’
Bishop Robert McElroy (right) is to be made a cardinal in August, despite his inaction on allegations against notorious ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
We all have a responsibility to speak up when serious wrongs are being brought to our attention, but McElroy didn't.
SIGN this petition to demand Pope Francis not reward a bishop who failed to report allegations against McCarrick
The Bishop of San Diego was told about serious sexual wrongdoing by McCarrick in 2016 when psychotherapist Richard Sipe, who had interviewed numerous victims of McCarrick, sent him a detailed letter, but McElroy sat on that information and is now being made a cardinal.
Appointing him to the College of Cardinals is not only an insult to those who suffered clerical sex-abuse, but also to those who are intent on ridding the Church of such evil.
This decision to make McElroy a cardinal must be reversed, and the only way to make that happen is with pressure from the laity.
SIGN and SHARE this petition to stop the appointment of Bishop McElroy to the College of Cardinals
Sipe told McElory that numerous seminarians and priests reported sexual advances and activity by McCarrick in a letter that also detailed extensive abuse by other clerics.
"I have interviewed twelve seminarians and priests who attest to propositions, harassment, or sex with McCarrick," the psychotherapist told McElroy in the 2016 letter, adding: "None so far has found the ability to speak openly at the risk of reputation and retaliation."
McElroy, who claims there was no corroborating evidence, could have brought the allegations to the pope, or even to the Papal Nuncio, but instead ended the correspondence with Sipe, himself a clerical sex-abuse victim.
It would take another year for the truth about McCarrick to slowly emerge in public.
SIGN the petition to stop Bishop McElroy being elevated to the College of Cardinals
Turning a blind eye to serious allegations of sexual wrongdoing is reprehensible in any context, but particularly when a bishop, a shepherd of souls, does so.
He also supports giving Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians, contrary to the Church's teaching, while he has concelebrated LGBT Masses as bishop and claimed Fr. James Martin's attempt to normalize the LGBT ideology is "fully consonant with Catholic teaching".
The sad truth is that McElroy is not fit to continue as a bishop, let alone become a cardinal.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition to stop the rot that continues to tarnish Christ's Church.
We must do what we can to clean up this mess now.
More Information:
Bishop McElroy was warned about McCarrick - LifeSiteNews
Pope announces 21 new cardinals, including McElroy - LifeSiteNews
Photo: Theodore McCarrick and Bishop Robert McElroy (Lisa Bourne/LifeSiteNews & Diocese of San Diego/YouTube)
The statement read, “In reference to the Mass celebrated last June 11 in the parish of S. Lorenzo di Budrio, in the Diocese of Bologna, with the presence of a same-sex couple, so as not to give rise to misleading interpretations, it is clarified that there was no blessing of the couple.”
The pastor of the parish of S. Lorenzo, however, understood the Mass differently. According to Breibart News, the pastor, Father Antonio Bai, said, “It was a blessing of two men just civilly united… A blessing is not denied to anyone, right?”
La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana (The Daily Compass) has accused Cardinal Zuppi of lying about the nature of the Mass that was celebrated, saying “It was an ad hoc mass for the two of them.” In support of the claim, they provided the contents of the WhatsApp invitation of Pietro to his friends for the event:
On Saturday 11 June 2022, barring unforeseen circumstances, Giacomo and I will be civilly united at Budrio Town Hall. Immediately afterwards, in the church opposite, we will celebrate a mass of thanksgiving/entrustment for our life together
The archdiocese claimed that the Mass was celebrated instead for the group “In cammino”, and that the group had been there for 30 years.
“It was a Mass of Thanksgiving for the ‘In cammino’ group, present in the diocese for thirty years, which aims to accompany and support in the Christian life even people with homosexual tendencies.”
However, it is clear that both the priests and the same-sex couple understood the Mass to be more than something offered generically for “In cammino.” The diocese also passed over in silence the fact that the group was not allowed by Zuppi’s predecessors to operate openly, only becoming a diocesan ministry when Cardinal Zuppi came to Bologna.
Davalli, the celebrant, told La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana that Cardinal Zuppi was aware of the June 11 ceremony. He had “informed him myself.”
READ: New Phoenix bishop celebrated LGBT Mass featuring homosexual drag queen activist
Zuppi’s support of the LGBTQ lifestyles and agenda was noted when in 2018 he wrote a preface to Father James Martin’s book Building a Bridge. According to the National Catholic Register, the book was “criticized for its failure to stress the importance of celibacy and chastity, and to acknowledge same-sex attracted Catholics trying to live in obedience to Church teaching.”
Again in 2020, Zuppi wrote another preface to a similar book titled The Church and Homosexuality, edited by Luciano Moia, a book advocating a “new attitude of pastoral responsibility” concerning homosexuality.
LifeSiteNews has contacted the Archdiocese of Bologna for comment, but is yet to receive a response.