June 15, 1978

SIGN OF A FEAST

I am Monsignor Pranzini; write.

Do you remember, Father Octavio, the day on which, in the cathedral of Mirandola, March 12, 1932, I ordained you priest? On that night 12 centimeters of snow fell, and I, your bishop, told you that this snowfall was not something casual, but that it consisted in a sign, the sign of a feast, a sign that divine Providence wanted to give me, to confirm an intuition I had about you, to verify for me that your ordination was something special for the life of the Church. I told you openly that this snowfall was a good omen, but you did not understand me; you did not believe in my words. That snowfall did not mean anything to you, but to me it meant much; it told me that your priesthood was marked out in an uncommon manner, and I had a confirmation from heaven. And now you also have it. You now know the characteristics of your sacerdotal mission: to put the central problem of pastoral practice of the universal Church upon the table. This is a substantial problem; it is the central problem, without which the other problems of the Church do not have a reason for existing. How can it be explained that the Church, true, one, holy, catholic and apostolic, has been obscured to the point of forgetting its very reason for existing in the world, in spite of the fact that it has had holy men for its visible heads during the last hundred years, such as the Pontiffs that have succeeded upon the throne of Peter?

The Church: a mystery in which the human and the divine meet each other and unite

Father Octavio, you know that the Church is a mystery in which the human and the divine meet each other and unite; they join together and are fused. The human part, although admirably united to the divine part, always remains human, and therefore is subject to the evils that are derived from a nature wounded and weakened by the first sin. History repeats itself; although, in addition to repeating itself, history is one vast unity: human nature, from the moment of its mortal wound, is always under the implacable persecution of its mortal enemy and if it does not defend itself, if it is not defended, it is inexorably swept away. Poor human nature!

In addition, you well know that the Church is a “body”, a true body; a social body, but real, and whose supreme vertex is the divine Redeemer, Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, and together with him is his Vicar upon earth. Now then, the divine and human head governs and moves the entire body by means of its members, exactly as happens in the human body, from whose head are issued all the orders that move the other members. Thus it is in the Church: from its head and from its vertex come the impulses that put into motion the different members, but while in the human body the members eyes, mouth, legs, arms, etc. are not free or intelligent, and therefore permit themselves to be freely moved by the head, in the social body that is the Church, the members are free and intelligent, and they form part of that wounded and infected body, and therefore, they are easily influenced by its fierce enemy: the dark powers of evil always lying in ambush, which force its freedom, and they can do so more easily when the subject, the target of their wicked action, has permitted the seeds of evil, inoculated at the moment of the first fall, to develop within him.

In other words, Father Octavio, since the minds of those at the vertex of the Church, are infected and contaminated, this infection and contamination is powerfully extended to the entire Church.

There is no positive result without suffering

It was told you, and do not forget it, that the spiritual darkness that envelops the Church is originated by pride.

Now hear me: He who obtains the government of a local church (diocese), by means of political maneuvers, that spring from ambition, is an intruder that does not work moved by humility or by love, but just the opposite; he acts moved by ambition and by egotism, just like a mercenary. Behold why today many are not fathers, but bureaucrats and functionaries, who have nothing to envy of the bureaucrats and functionaries of a society without God, and therefore, without love.

Father Octavio, this is terrible, but this is the way it is.

Do you now understand why we have suggested, with so much insistence, proposing once more for the study of the Church, the fundamental problem of its very reason for existing, in the center of the world and of the nations: The battle without truce between Light and Darkness, between God and Satan, between good and evil? Do not be surprised, therefore, at the succession of these messages, all impregnated with the same calls, about the greatest problem of pastoral practice.

You are working for the new Church, and it should be a motive of joy for you, that this work is very closely linked to the Cross. There would be no positive result of your mission without suffering, about which you now know much, and soon you will know more.

May God Almighty, One and Three, the eternal Word of God personally present in his Church, in union with the most holy Mother, bless you, now and always.

Monsignor Giovanni Pranzini