Papal idolisation of paedophile priest started by Francis continues
On October 11, Pope Leo gave an address to pilgrims from the Dioceses of Tuscany. It concluded:
Unfortunately, Don Lorenzo Milani can only be described as an utterly despicable character as can be seen from an article from 2018 translated below. Francis was, from his comments, clearly aware of this but still preferred him to the Holy Cure d'Ars as a model for priests. An extraordinary revelation also below.
"Pope Benedict XVI sought to make Saint John Mary Vianney (1786–1859) the patron saint of priests during the "Year of the Priest" (2019/2010), but his attempt failed due to fierce opposition from progressive church circles, including Cardinal Claudio Hummes, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy."
One can only hope that Pope Leo's comments were made out of ignorance.
Self-portrait
Don Milani, child sexual abuse and Pope Francis
On June 20, 2017, Pope Francis left the Vatican to visit the foundation of Don Lorenzo Milani in Barbiana and pray at the grave of the priest, who died in 1967. He described him as a role model for priests. On December 23, a "disciple" of Don Milani, who wanted to realize his project "even better and bigger," was arrested. He must serve a 14-year prison sentence for the systematic sexual abuse of those under his care.
Tuscany, discovered by the influential and respected '68 generation in the German-speaking world since the times of Peter Glotz, Joschka Fischer, Claudia Roth, and Gerhard Schröder, is one of Italy's deep red regions. Since the end of the war, the Communist Party and, since 1991, its successor parties (currently called the Democratic Party, PD) have ruled there without interruption.
This reference is important for understanding the milieu in which the following events unfolded.
Barbiana is the center of the followers of Don Lorenzo Milani (1923–1967). The son of an upper-middle-class family in Florence, he grew up in an agnostic and anti-clerical environment. His Jewish mother, Alice Weiss, was a member of liberal, assimilated Judaism. His parents had only been married in a civil ceremony. The father was effectively absent, while the mother became the dominant role model. His baptism is associated with the racial laws from which his son was to be protected.
Lorenzo, who was interested in the fine arts, came into contact with the then notoriously homosexual artistic milieu of Florence.
While attending the art academy in Milan, which was clearly more Catholic, his conversion occurred during World War II. He entered the seminary and was ordained a priest in 1947. This step led him to leave his upper-class surroundings behind, which, however, would open many doors for him. He exchanged his background for sympathy for Marxism, which was dominant in post-war Tuscany.
The anti-authoritarian educational model
Starting in 1954, the former bohemian developed an educational reform model in a small mountain village with which he intended to provide access to education for children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. Essentially, it was a full-day school for working-class children.
His background secured him numerous donations for the project from the Florentine upper middle class, while his "socially committed Catholicism" also secured him the sympathy of the Italian Communist Party. This was hardly surprising given his ideology. In 1965, he wrote in the Communist Party magazine:
"I demand the right to say that even the poor may and should fight the rich."
Letter to a Teacher
His didactic model was based on the teacher "as friend" and became a precursor to the anti-authoritarianism that would characterize the '68 movement. Having died at the age of 44, Don Milani was already dead when the student protests erupted. The impact of his model was profound in left-wing circles. His writings, especially the book "Letter to a Teacher," became bestsellers among the '68 generation. At least in Italy, Don Milani, a priest, was instrumental in the revolutionizing of schools by the '68 generation, as the late legal philosopher Mario Palmaro wrote in 2013.
Milani's book, "Letter from a Teacher," ends with a dream of the new, democratic teachers who tell their students that they actually want nothing from them, neither to teach them anything nor to test their knowledge. People should be and remain as they are! Everyone should retain the ideas they already have or want to have. What is required is a school that adds nothing, does not build upon, does not challenge, and does not promote. It is a school of equality that makes itself equal to equals and therefore practices egalitarianism, which inevitably has to take place at the lowest level of "equality." This disadvantages everyone, but especially the weakest, who are not supported or encouraged, but rather are made equally weak by all others. All at the very bottom, but all equal for that.
Don Milani's early death has made him, even more than during his lifetime, a pivotal figure between the political left and progressive church circles, as he was elevated to a pillar of the church. The progressive school.
Don Milani's early death made him an even greater figure than during his lifetime, becoming a pivotal figure between the political left and progressive church circles, as he was elevated to a pillar saint. In May 2017, the progressive Bologna School arranged for the publication of his collected works, which were presented by Pope Francis himself in a short film for the Milan Book Fair. In it, he praised Don Milani effusively.
At the same time, the novel "Bruciare tutto" (Burn Everything) by the left-wing writer Walter Siti was published. The self-proclaimed homosexual identified his novel's main character, a homosexual priest who does not act on his inclinations, with Don Milani. Siti justified this by citing letters from Don Milani that he had discovered. Through them, he recognized the priest as his "soul mate," for whom he wanted to express his "appreciation and deep admiration" with his novel.
In the letters, Don Milani wrote, among other things:
"I know: If I risk my soul, it is certainly not because I have loved too little, but because I love too much (that is, by taking them to bed with me)!"
"Who could love children to the bone without ending up sticking it up their asses, if not a teacher who, along with them, loves God and fears hell?"
His followers ignore such passages. The media's sympathy endures and protects them from uncomfortable questions. These concern not only his pedophilic tendencies, but also his vulgar, sometimes obscene language, his belligerentness against private property, and his anarchism toward ecclesiastical and state authorities.
In 1952, Don Milani described what comes out of Catholic Action as "s**t," which Pope Pius XII condemned. as "s**t," and also that of Alcide De Gasperi, then leader of the Christian Democratic Party and Italian Prime Minister, as "s**t."
According to historian Sylvia Ronchey, who defended Don Milani in an article in the daily newspaper La Repubblica, his "barely concealed homosexual tendencies" were already known in the late 1930s. Ronchey, the daughter of a high-ranking Freemason and sister-in-law of Lucetta Scaraffia, the editor-in-chief of the women's supplement of the Osservatore Romano, has excellent connections both within the lodge and within the Church and is accordingly well-informed. Thus, the question remains as to how Milani was able to be ordained a priest, especially since the way homosexuality was dealt with before the Second Vatican Council was different not only in theory but also in practice than it was afterward.
Arrest in the Forteto
On December 23rd, 76-year-old Rodolfo Fiesoli was arrested. He is the founder and "prophet" of "Il Forteto" (the Little Fortress), an institution that can be described as the Italian version of the infamous Odenwald School. Rodolfo Fiesoli is the Italian Gerold Becker. The parallels are striking: the same political milieu, experimental education, sexual perversion, rejection of family and Christian morality, and the perversions of the leadership figures. In both cases, left-wing circles applauded the "alternative model" and turned a blind eye to the entanglement of "sexual freedom" and perversion.
In both the Odenwald School and the Forteto, a system of abuse reigned as a constitutive element of the entire institution. In Germany, as in Italy, these connections have long been willingly suppressed in the media. There would have been no shortage of evidence, though.
Il Forteto, the name "fortress" is to be taken literally in all its cruelty. In it, children were systematically abused for decades, it was, like the Odenwaldschule, a left-wing model. This guaranteed media impunity. In the Forteto, bourgeois society and its moral and sexual behavior, as well as the traditional family, were ultimately "overcome." Anti-authoritarian education, sexual "freedom," "new relationships" between the sexes, and gender theory ante litteram formed the basis of a "state cult," as the two Tuscan journalists Francesco Pini and Duccio Tronci called their 2015 book about the "little fortress" and the mass sexual child abuse that took place there.
For almost 40 years, physically and mentally disabled and difficult-to-educate children were entrusted to the Forteto by the red-controlled state institutions in Tuscany. The "educational model" was deemed "forward-looking" and therefore worthy of support by the "experts" of state and local governments. And taxpayers had to finance the "camp commune."
Sex offenders with perverse power fantasies
In fact, the "little fortress" was a camp where sex offenders lived out their perverse power fantasies.
Rodolfo Fiesoli called himself "the Prophet." Since its founding in 1977, he was supported by Luigi Goffredi, the "ideologist" of the Forteto. The progressive intelligentsia, whether secular or Catholic, hung on their every word. Fiesoli had announced to them, and repeatedly repeated, that he was implementing Don Milani's educational model at the Forteto, only "better and bigger."
Fiesoli now faces a 14-year prison sentence for his "implementation." For this reason, he was arrested the day before Christmas Eve and placed in a prison cell.
He was a member of the board of the Don Lorenzo Milani Foundation. This formed the institutional link between the two Barbiana and Forteto projects. The crucial difference, as far as is known so far, was that Don Milani was apparently held back by his priesthood and his fear of God. Perhaps he even became a priest to protect himself and his children from his inclinations.
Lack of Inhibition
This protective barrier and this inhibition were lacking in Fiesoli's case. "He tolerated no one above him. Above him was only God," said a priest who testified as a witness in the trial. It is likely that the "prophet," in his sexual megalomania, considered himself God. Don Milani had sympathies for Marxism, while Fiesoli was a committed communist. The testimony of trade unionist Edoardo Martinelli reveals that Fiesoli was convinced that Don Milani had also abused his pupils. Martinelli had been one such pupil and was then one of the founders of the Forteto, which he had already turned his back on in 1978.
Until 2014/2015, the "prophet's" "little fortress" was celebrated. All those of rank and name on the left, including several left-wing Italian prime ministers and ministers, had made pilgrimages there, not to mention the leading representatives of Tuscany.
In 2008, the two sociologists Giuseppe Fornari and Nicola Casanova published the study "The Virtuoso Contradiction. The Problem of Education: Don Milani and Il Forteto," published by Il Mulino, Italy's most renowned left-wing academic publisher. In it, they explored and praised the connections between Don Milani and Fiesoli.
Another link is Gian Paolo Meucci (1919–1986), the then president of the Tuscan Juvenile Court and a leading figure in Florentine left-wing Catholicism. Not only was he in constant professional contact with Fiesoli – the juvenile court played a central role in the allocation of difficult-to-educate children – but he had previously been "a close friend of Don Milani," according to Vatican expert Sandro Magister. In 1985, Fiesoli had already been convicted by a court of "sexual indecency with violence" and the seduction of minors. Thanks to influential advocates, including Judge Meucci, the verdict remained unchallenged. This is not to suggest that a pedophile ring was being covered up, but rather that the left effectively protected itself through a network of silence and collusion. Party membership or ideological leanings became a seal of approval. As recently as 2013, the future Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi denied having campaigned with Fiesoli. Renzi was then mayor of Florence and is now chairman of the left-wing Democratic Party (PD), which governs Italy. Having Fiesoli at his side was supposed to guarantee educational competence. The "prophet" explained how Italy's school and education system should be "reformed" by the left. After his conviction, attempts were made to erase these traces. A video can still be found on YouTube, however.
In June 2015, the Forteto and its image collapsed when a court sentenced Fiesoli to more than 17 years in prison. Goffredi received eight years. The verdict is more than 1,000 pages long. It describes in detail the "camp commune" and the crimes committed there through statements from victims and witnesses. This verdict has now been upheld by the Supreme Court with a slightly reduced sentence and is thus legally binding.
Heterosexuality prohibited
Strict gender segregation prevailed in the Forteto. Heterosexuality was forbidden. Homosexuality was encouraged and even enforced. Breaking with one's family of origin, which was usually already the case anyway, became the norm. Those who disobeyed were humiliated in "public" trials. There was no religion in the "little fortress," but instead a personality cult centered around the "prophet," who systematically sexually abused the young people under his command, only the male ones.
The verdict, according to Sandro Magister, also includes the testimony of a priest from the Archdiocese of Bologna. It runs to six pages. Don Stefano Benuzzi, now 47 years old, was teaching religion at a school and celebrating Holy Mass in a parish on the outskirts of the city at the time of the trial. He had met the "prophet" in 2001 at a memorial march for Don Milani in Barbiana. From then on, contact between the two intensified, as the young priest was "fascinated" by Fiesoli.
Don Benuzzi founded his own small community modeled on Don Milani and the "Prophet." He claimed to want to emulate "Il Forteto." At the same time, he entered into a romantic relationship with a woman, about which he inadvertently disclosed his "revered" master. During a visit to the "little fortress," the master made him a public laughingstock.
Afterward, when he and Fiesoli were alone, Fiesoli kissed him. During the interrogation, Benuzzi attempted to "save" the situation by explaining that it was all a matter of "incredible purity," the "expression of a person who honestly and transparently wanted to dedicate himself entirely to relationships with others." He continued: "In the Forteto, the Greek model of deep friendship was cultivated, for in relationships between man and man, between woman and woman, a height of harmony can be reached that is higher than heterosexual relationships."
The judges did not investigate the question of whether Don Benuzzi was blackmailed or even sexually assaulted by Fiesoli because of his relationship with a woman. They simply commented on the priest's statements: "This is a statement to which any comment seems superfluous."
Who didn't want to see
Today Don Benuzzi is the pastor of a mountain parish in the Apennines. "The glory days when his name appeared as a speaker and 'education expert' at international conferences are over," Magister said. He appeared at conferences organized by the "Forteto" circle. They apparently supported each other. The main organizer of such conferences was Luigi Goffredi, the "ideologist" of the "little fortress" and second in command behind Fiesoli. Among the speakers at one such conference in 2005, in addition to Don Benuzzi, was Massimo Toschi, the then Minister of International Cooperation and Peace of Tuscany. Toschi, wheelchair-bound, is a member of the foundation of the progressive Bologna School. He, too, refused to see what was really happening at the Forteto, which he so admired.
Another speaker at that conference, who was met with applause, was René Girard (1923–2015) of Stanford University. Fiesoli and Goffredi cited the world-renowned anthropologist as their great role model, alongside Don Milani. Don Benuzzi, too, was enthusiastic about Girard. According to the court ruling, Benuzzi had met Girard in Paris, where he was staying with some representatives of the Forteto: Fiesoli and Goffredi.
Using Don Benuzzi as an example, the judges in their verdict demonstrated the manipulative influence the "prophet" had on others. His "strong personality" provided support to others who were "weaker" and "more fearful."
Pope Francis's strange priestly model
On June 20, Pope Francis visited the Barbiana School and described Don Milani as a "model." Wearing hobnailed shoes, he entered the cause of Don Milani's memory, which was the subject of two books presented to the public a month earlier: "The Image of the Homopedophile" by Walter Siti and the hagiography of the Bologna School under Alberto Melloni. The school is very close to Pope Francis, and Melloni publicly appears as an interpreter of the Pope in his columns.
Francis seems to have been "mobilized" to save the "idol" of the 1968 generation, and he immediately found himself ready to do so. He traveled to Barbiana and delivered his interpretation of Don Milani:
"I would like us to remember him above all as a believer, in love with the Church, albeit wounded, and as a passionate educator."
Roma locuta, causa finita.
Don Milani was a "wounded" priest, but nevertheless a "passionate educator." Siti also wrote literally of a "wounded" priest because he was a pedophile.
Pope Benedict XVI sought to make Saint John Mary Vianney (1786–1859) the patron saint of priests during the "Year of the Priest" (2019/2010), but his attempt failed due to fierce opposition from progressive church circles, including Cardinal Claudio Hummes, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.
In 2017, Pope Francis named Don Lorenzo Milani, not the Curé of Ars, as an exemplary priest. This has not resulted in any consequences so far. However, Francis thereby secured the enthusiasm of left-wing circles both within and outside the Church.
"I love my children (...) more than the Church and the Pope."
Don Milani's letters have already been mentioned. They were published in the Collected Works published by the School of Bologna last year. Also included in the quoted letter to journalist Giorgio Pecorini in which Milani wrote:
"These two priests asked me whether my ultimate purpose in running a school was to introduce them [the students] to the Church or not, and what else could interest me in the world of running a school if not that. How could I explain to them, who were so pious and so pure, that I love my children, that I have lost my mind for them, that I don't live to make them grow, to make them flourish, to make them bloom, to make them bear fruit? How could I explain to them that I love my parishioners more than the Church and the Pope? I know: if I risk my soul, it is certainly not because I have loved too little, but because I love too much (that is, by taking them to bed with me!). [...] Who could love children to the bone without ending up sticking it up their asses, if not a teacher who, along with them, also loves God and fears hell?"
"Don Milani was already accused of homosexual practices during his lifetime," says Vaticanist Sandro Magister. However, the topic was only brought up again a few months ago with Walter Siti's novel, shortly before the visit of Pope Francis, which elevated Don Milani to the Bergoglian Olympus. The temporal coincidence of the two events, or rather the chronological sequence, is astonishing.
The beatification of Don Milani, sought by his followers, is nevertheless off the table for the time being due to Siti's novel – and despite the papal visit. The responsible Archbishop of Florence, Giuseppe Cardinal Betori, made a clear decision. When asked whether he would be willing to initiate beatification proceedings, he replied:
"Absolutely not, at least not as long as I am alive. I don't believe in Don Milani's sainthood."
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