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The attack of de Mattei on Msgr. Viganò: Look Who's Talking
"Do not judge, so that you may not be judged" (Matthew 7: 1-5): when the pot is calling the kettle black
Once again, with great consternation, Centro Culturale Lepanto (CCL - Lepanto Cultural Centre) is compelled to intervene in the recent debate following the specious attack by de Mattei on Monsignor Viganò, accused among other things of having resorted to an external collaborator for the drafting of his most recent documents, which the combative prelate so brilliantly rebutted.
Rather than going into all the details of the sad story, for which all our solidarity goes to the illustrious and courageous prelate, we wish to preliminarily and forcefully reiterate that, as also on the occasion of other previous "flaws" of de Mattei, contrary to what many might have been led to believe at first glance, CCL has nothing to do with the Lepanto Foundation (FL). For the umpteenth time, we repeat that de Mattei resigned as president of the CCL in 2006, slamming the door and never providing a minimally plausible explanation of his decision, which was truly a bolt from the blue.
Now many say they are amazed and saddened to have discovered a de Mattei increasingly different from the one they had known until recently, or thought they knew, while instead we are not that surprised, because his resignation already marked the beginning of an itinerary that was increasingly diverging from a true service to the good cause. His latest stances are nothing but the natural outcome of this itineray and in some ways even inevitable when one leaves the right path.
That the action of the CCL was this right path is confirmed by de Mattei himself with a recent "unauthorized" story entitled "Catholics without compromise - the Lepanto Cultural Center (1982 - 2006)", printed by his publishing house "Fiducia" in 2019, in which the great effectiveness of this action is rightly magnified.
But what is most striking in these two first broadsides against Monsignor Viganò on 21 and 23 June 2021 is the lack of arguments, both doctrinal and of other nature, because as far as I know if you resort to an external assistant or even a ghost witer, either overtly or covertly, is neither a moral crime nor a criminal offence.
But why this attack? As has been noted by some commentators, had Msgr. Viganò limited himself to deal with internal church affairs, such as the tragic and well-known scandals, evidently this would not bother the powers that be so much. But when he began to expand his interventions beyond the religious horizon, to talk about vaccines, great reset, new world order, health dictatorship, etc. evidently someone has begun to worry seriously and therefore has deemed fit to try to discredit him by undermining his credibility. And coincidentally, those pharmaceutical companies that have actually received a formidable assist from de Mattei's "crusade" in favor of the morality of vaccines produced from aborted babies, are precisely those closely linked to the globalist financial elites.
It is evident that if you cannot blast the theses of your enemy, then there is no other option than the personal attack, as was the case with the second intervention against Msgr. Viganò. Not only is the name of this alleged ghost writer revealed, but even his moral integrity is questioned, insinuating between the lines that he may be a character if not with homosexual tendencies, at least with sympathies towards the gay environment, including the involvement in organizing same-sex marriages. All without presenting any evidence, by an accuser like de Mattei who disputes conspiracy theories precisely because according to him there is no evidence (and what about self-confessed conspirators?) So, the sense of the attack on Msgr. Viganò could be summarized along the lines of an Italian proverb: "Dimmi con chi vai e ti dirò chi sei" (tell me who you are going with and I'll tell you who you are).
Now we do not know if and to what extent all this is true, because since his resignation in 2006 to our eyes de Mattei no longer enjoys any trust and credibility. Therefore we do not believe a word also of what he writes in his third script of 30 June 2021"Truth is the only charity allowed to history" in the evident and pathetic attempt to continue his attack on Msgr. Viganò, on the pretext that the prelate had not yet responded to his "request for clarification" after a week. Incidentally, we have been waiting for more than a year for de Mattei to respond to our corrections regarding his "unauthorized" history of the Lepanto Cultural Center mentioned above.
Reading the reason given to justify the attack, one could even burst into laughter, had the issue not been so painful and serious.
"I am afraid, however, that some of his more fanatical followers could push him toward the abyss", says de Mattei, "and this is what drove me to speak out in the two articles on Corrispondenza Romana of June 21 and 23 2021".
We are really moved by such concern, as if the Msgr. Viganò were unfit to plead, could be easily manipulated and therefore were unable to look after himself.
It is then all the more more laughable that de Mattei takes it out on those who among the defenders of Msgr. Viganò "have raised the doubt that I may have some hidden interest in this controversy. Today the relativist mentality is so widespread that it is impossible to conceive that there can be anyone who fights purely out of love for the truth. Those who believe that every action must be explained by base sentiments and dark interests are evidently accustomed to acting in this way and fail to understand the disinterest of souls raised higher than their own".
And would he then be among those higher souls who fight for pure love of truth? This can be believed only by those who do not really know him, but certainly not by us who have experienced this knowledge on our skin at the time of his resignation from the CCL in 2006. In this regard suffice to remind his attempt to pass himself off as the victim of who knows what conspiracy, while instead he did everything himself, because no one forced him to resign. On the contrary, he was repeatedly asked to backtrack on his decision.
But then he surpasses himself in the conclusion of this third intervention: "This is why I will continue to fight in defense of the truth in a fair and disinterested manner, without shirking personal disputes", except perhaps those concerning the aforementioned "unauthorized" story.
Perhaps the distinguished professor no longer remembers the devotion of the 15 Saturdays of the Holy Rosary of Father Vincenzo Novaro op, where at the end of the meditation of the first joyful mystery it is stated: "Humiliate yourself internally at the sight of your miseries. Never talk about yourself, neither for good nor for evil". More plainly it could be equivalent to the old popular adage "Chi si loda si sbroda" ,lit. "Who praises himself is spilling soup on himself (all over his dress)" after "brodo" , soup in English". Its sense could be rendered by "pride goes before a fall" or "self flattery will get you nowhere".
All the more pathetic, if possible, is the entering the fray of a site, "The Chronicles of Pope Francis", with a piece dated July 4 entitled "The conspiratorial poison, spread by others, prompts us into siding with Professor R. de Mattei". This unsigned piece in a site that is likewise anonymous, where you cannot find any names of those in charge, is a paean to de Mattei based on a disconcerting and cheeky reversal of the facts that makes him pass as the victim of this "conspiratorial poison". But this "conspiratorial poison" was not first spread by de Mattei himself, with his absurd attack on Msgr. Viganò? Indeed, perhaps even earlier, with his (de Mattei's) crusade in favor of the morality of the current "vaccines" even if derived from voluntary abortions.
Back to what de Mattei attributes to the alleged ghost writer, then never as in this case can we apply the words of Our Lord "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged (Matthew 7: 1-5)". And Our Lord goes on: "For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?".
So why shouldn't de Mattei be judged with the same measure with which he is judging others?
As a matter of fact, he admitted that he was among the organizers of the international conference "Identity Crisis: Can European Civilization Survive?" which took place at the European University of Rome in March 2008, where there were various American neo-con speakers. In particular Bruce Bawer, a well-known American gay leading activist who also thanks to his books and other writings had established himself as one of the protagonists of the movement for the civil rights of homosexuals, was not only among the speakers, but also the moderator of a round table on "Internal threats to European survival: Multiculturalism and the impact of cultural and moral relativism upon European identity". Incidentally, at that time Bawer was living his homosexual "marriage" in Oslo where, shortly thereafter, same-sex marriage would be legalized on 11 June 2008.
All this is documented in an article of mine in the oldest American Catholic weekly The Wanderer (April 3, 2008) entitled "Neocons land in Rome as the Pope laments rising chaos in Iraq"), in which I emphasized the inappropriateness, to say the least, of giving the floor to such controversial speakers in such a prestigious Roman forum. In his response to my article de Mattei tried to justify the event as "an academic conference characterized by a plurality of points of view and the possibility of debate between speakers, within the framework of shared ideas etc.", but at the end he could not deny the facts, admitting that he was one of the organizers.
Eventually Bruce Bawer, showing more coherence than the latter, did not show up, but his name printed on the brochures and on the University website is there to show that his presence had been perfectly planned; incidentally, nothing was said in his profile about his homosexual militancy.
Couldn’t one rightly ask de Mattei the same questions he asked Msgr. Viganò? For example, was de Mattei aware of Bruce Bawer's homosexuality and his "marriage"? And if so, was he not afraid of exposing the institution to the risk of a serious scandal, at least for those times, given the very close association between the European University and the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum University?
Inevitably, the harmful consequences of certain flaws end up overflowing even beyond their own sphere, in this case reverberating on associations and individuals in the entourage of de Mattei's FL. This is shown, for example, by the recent static demonstration on the occasion of the March for Life in Rome last May, hailed as an "uncompromising" defense of life, but during which no mention was made of the issue of abortion-tainted vaccines. Here too, as we noted in one of our posts, https://www.centroculturalelepanto.com/articolo.asp?IdCat=1&IdArt=51 , although not part of the organizing committee, de Mattei still has a considerable weight in the whole matter and therefore the omission mentioned above cannot come as a surprise.
In this regard, it is also worth noting the name of the person in charge of the procedures for registration at the above international conference, as shown in the printed brochures: Virginia Coda Nunziante, the current president-spokesperson of the March for Life referred to above.
So in the light of what has been said previously, one cannot but agree with Msgr. Schneider when he asks for the creation of a new pro-life movement, whose essential pre-requisite, of course, should be a renewed leadership with impeccable and irreprehensible credentials.
16 July 2021, feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the Brown Scapular
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