175. To Reveal “A Higher Truth”

“Avvenire” which in English means “Future” is the name of the newspaper that voices the views and news of the Cei, which refers to the Italian Catholic Church and those who govern her namely the bishops but which include the cardinals being ordained bishops before becoming such. There is also another newspaper which voices the opinions of the Vatican, the “L’Osservatore Romano” and we know the main resident there is, of course, the Pope. The Editors, which the Italians call “Directors” are both lay persons and therefore subject to weaknesses like the rest of mankind.

But today a miracle happened and for the first time in these last few gruesome days be it for us, the faithful, and they the Bishops, a trickle of common sense has filtered through the whole Cei affair.

But first to recap.  The editor of Avvenire, Prof. Boffo took it upon himself to join the chorus and pontificate against the presumed illicit morals of the Italian Premier, Silvio Berlusconi, who seemed to have excited the imagination of not only those who tread the aisle of Cei but the editor of the daily “La Reppublica” throughout this hot summer of fire. This anti-Berlusconi daily was gleefully resonated by one French paper, an occasional US- but the main chorus of malignity was sung by the British press, in particular of those papers whose owners are in competition with Berlusconi in occupying that part of the sky above us that transmits “SKY”.

When all this butchering of the Prime Minister of their country was going on, here in Italy, nobody whispered a word that this was thoroughly uncivilized behaviour. No one said it was plain and simple slander, let alone suggest to gag some of these papers. As far as the press was concerned you can just walk into someone’s garden, or stand over the hedge with lenses powerful enough to see the craters on the moon and click away happily while the occupant walks around the place with or without a bevy of young maidens. And what does it matter if someone wants to do a bit of streaking or whatever it was that caused such a hue and cry of disgust from those highly moral human beings that have no blemish at all on their souls??? Does one go into the backyard of Buckingham Palace with lenses that will penetrate through the windows of the royal bathrooms and click away at Ma’am while sitting on the loo? Or Downing St for that matter. Apart from the fact that Berlusconi is free to walk around his own house with whom he wants and how he wants, there is nothing to suggest that he was doing anything that he should be ashamed of- so why insist he was being “disgusting?” 


Personally, I do not agree with a morally libertine conduct, but even if the Premier was indeed so, that's his business.  No wonder he has now got the chopper out and chopped some heads off- I would do exactly the same thing- and so would you!

However, no sooner Vittorio Feltri from “Il Giornale” owned by Paulo Berlusconi goes and puts his nose into the corridors of the Cei coming up with information that you and I have a right to know about- then the publishing of such becomes an instant crime and vulgarity- well and truly disgusting. It never occurred to such that there is no smoke without fire and if that is the case, we, as faithful, as citizens of Italy have a right to know what is going on behind those who claim to guide and rule us morally and spiritually. 

Granted, the document produced by Vittorio Feltri was manipulated. There remains, however, one fact which the Judge of Terni from whose office the original document of the trial commuted into a plea bargaining agreement, released to journalists today- is that such facts exist, are real and not invented or imagined like those produced by the smear campaigners against Berlusconi.

And from the corridors of the Cei there is one prelate, which I shan’t mention, whom, it seems has allowed the Holy Spirit trickle through and expressed the fact that he for one would not object if the said editor in question chooses to resign.

One thing that seemed to have been grossly overlooked is the victim or possible victims. As stated in the document released for view by the judge, and by the way, this is the only document the judge is releasing, the rest of the paper work that surrounds this case, he is keeping under lock and key apparently, the names of the other people involved have been crossed out. But some papers have been making enquiries as to whom the lady involved was. It seems the lady in question was in her early twenties at the time when this took place in 2001 and from a prestigious family. She was someone close to the curia and had a fiancé much older than herself. The newspaper also states that the lady’s fiancé attended the “Comunità Incontro” a community founded by Fr. Gelmini who is at present under investigation for sexual abuse. However, no one at the centre verified that this was the case. Nevertheless what is interesting about this community, founded to fight drug abuse, is that the editor of Avvenire employed a young man from this community as an assistant in his work on the paper. Furthermore, the editor claims that it was this young man who had made those harassment calls using the editor’s mobile phone without his knowledge.

If what Prof. Boffo says is true where, what is the motive this young man had to harass a woman whom had never crossed his path. Or, since the woman was “close” to the curia, someone from the Curia asked Prof. Boffo to do them a favour and break up the relationship between this possible close relative of theirs and what they esteemed an unsuitable match. Which may be unlikely as it would have been easier to have harassed the hell out of the man instead. Or Prof. Boffo made these calls himself for reasons he, nor the Judge of Terni is going to reveal.


However, returning to the victims. There are few worse tortures than having someone throw abuse down your phone when you least expect it. The blood freezes and you wonder what the hell might this maniac do next? Break into the house, rape me, put a knife next to my throat? And of course when the phone rings one’s heart skips goodness knows how many beats, the blood is drained from the face and there’s a sickening feeling in the stomach. And this, for someone, went on from January to August in 2001.

It is reported by some papers that the young lady dropped the charges after a substantial sum was paid for damages. And by the way, how convenient that the editor’s assistant whom up to now the said editor claimed had made the calls, died from overdose. And that is not the only corpse either. A 38 years old male accused of “aiding and abetting” in the investigation against Fr. Gelmini committed suicide two days ago. I am not in the least suggesting that this has anything to do with the case above, just saying, in my opinion it is best to come out in the open, as our society today is different and would appreciate such approach more than an ill attempt to sweep everything under the carpet, which as we can see, never pays.

As I mentioned earlier the penal decree was released by the Judge of Terni (140 kilometres north of Rome) and states that Dino Boffo has been charged with the crime against act/law 660 because having made several calls from his own telephone during which he insulted (the woman) also alluding to her sexual relationship with her partner etc... A bargain plea agreement was made and a fine of 516 Euros paid.

And now for the good news. Prof. Boffo found the common sense to go to Rome and present his letter of resignation to the head of the Cei and which was promptly refused. I admire him for doing this, for no longer wanting to try to fool the whole of Italy that such things never occurred. I admire him for having the common sense to say “hey look folks, I’m human, I’ve made mistakes like the rest of you.” We of course don’t care a dry fig if he goes to bed with the queen of Sheba, because like I’ve said,

society has changed, considers hypocrisy, deception and bullying worse crimes than what you do in bed.

Related articles:

Decree (Italian)

174. Head Under the Chopper