Suicide of Young Italian Priest: Renewed Attention on Care for the Caregivers

 

By Kasmir Nema, RVA News | July 15, 2025

Father Matteo was found dead in his parish residence in Cannobio, Italy, on July 5, 2025. (Photo: Facebook: Padre Pio Events Scotland)

The suicide of 35-year-old Italian priest Father Matteo Balzano has left a grieving parish and a shaken Church, renewing discussion on the unseen emotional weight many priests carry in silence.

Father Matteo was found dead in his parish residence in Cannobio, in the Piedmont region of northern Italy, on July 5, after failing to appear for Sunday Mass. A beloved shepherd to his community, his death has moved not only local parishioners but clergy across Italy and beyond.

“Only the Lord knows the mysteries of the human soul,” wrote Father Franco Giudice, episcopal vicar for clergy in the Diocese of Novara, as cited in Catholic News Agency. “We entrust Don Matteo to the mercy of God and embrace his family and community in sorrow.”

Before his passing, Father Matteo had made a chilling remark to a parishioner: “No one knows the hell one has inside to commit such an extreme act.”His funeral Mass was held on July 8 at St. Victor Church, followed by burial in his hometown of Grignasco, a small town in the Province of Novara.

His death is a tragic testament to how often priests suffer quietly, weighed down by emotional exhaustion, loneliness, and unrealistic expectations. Priests need accompaniment and support.

Peruvian priest and social activist Father Omar Buenaventura shared a heartfelt response: “We priests are not made of stone. We cry, we fall, and sometimes the weight is too 

More. https://www.rvasia.org/asian-news/suicide-young-italian-priest-renewed-attention-care-caregivers

Porta Santa di San Pietro: Jubilee of Hope

 

Jamie Bogle: “The Shame of Britain”

Ladies and gentlemen,

This podcast simply must be spread far and wide.

You think things were bad in Ireland and, to a much lesser extent, in Scotland, when children were abused by Catholic clergy (and others)?

Try this for size!

This account exposes the most disgusting stories I have ever heard and possibly the most disgusting of crimes ever recorded in the entire history of Britain since the pagan ancient Britons, painted in woad, came out of the forests and hills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBkX-M0SRPc&t=152s

And yet it has not only been tolerated by this current disgusting Labour government but positively covered up by the government.

Calling it "disgusting" simply does not even begin to describe the appalling horror of it.

It is so appalling as to make even a KGB or Gestapo thug blush.

And it is happening in Britain in 2025 and has been for decades.

And our corrupt state system has covered it all up...

Words fail one...

And where is the Catholic Church - traditionally so chummy with the governing Labour Party! - in coming to the defence of these defenceless children?

Nowhere.

Hiding.

Gutless.

Cowardly.

Corrupt.

Disgusting.

Could this be what they meant by "the fruits of Vatican II"?

I leave you all to judge...

(Source: Email from author.)

War on the ancient rite, it was not the bishops who started it

Stefano Chiappalone

The will of the episcopate, invoked by Francis to "do away" with the Latin Mass, appears quite different according to the documents examined in  The Liturgy Is Not a Spectacle . No one wanted a war, explains co-author Msgr. Bux; on the contrary, the Church needs liturgical peace.

It was not the world episcopate that asked to "cage" the Mass in the ancient rite, as Pope Francis instead claimed, declaring that the motu proprio Traditionis Custodeswas the response to a specific request from the bishops consulted on the matter. A scoop by journalist Diane Montagnainstead shows, with documents in hand, a very different reality on that consultation: no one asked for the total abolition of Benedict XVI's Summorum Pontificum   (which had opened those doors then abruptly closed by Francis), nor even the total disappearance of the ancient liturgy (the explicit objective of Traditionis Custodes ). Also shedding light on the documentation are Msgr. Nicola Bux and Saverio Gaeta, co-authors of the volume  The liturgy is not a spectacle. The questionnaire to the bishops on the ancient rite, a weapon of destruction of the Mass…

More: https://lanuovabq-it.translate.goog/it/guerra-al-rito-antico-non-furono-i-vescovi-a-scatenarla?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US

Pranzo al palazzo Veneziano

 

A Dream Mass or the Vetus Ordo in the Novus Ordo

Richard Barile

The Mass as it might have been, preserving the rites, prayers, and gestures of the Old Ordo in the Novus Ordo. A dream that concerns priests above all, but also the people.

“ I have a dream / I have a dream”: this is what Martin Luther King saidAugust 28, 1963, and from then on, important and prophetic figures within the Church also began to dream, such as Cardinal Martini, who in his 1996 address to Saint Ambrose exclaimed: "At the end of the millennium, let us dream!" Recently, "liturgical dreams" have emerged: reinventing new canons as in the 1970s and 1980s, revising the language of prayers and prefaces in an existential way, avoiding addressing God as "Majesty" since we are children, postulating "a true laboratory (...) that will initiate a liturgical reform, without fear" (E. Bianchi in VP 2025/01, p. 51). All progressive dreams and therefore welcome.

It is more difficult, however, in the Church to dream of a future that recovers a lost past . And yet, just as when faced with the proposal to eliminate the Orate fratres , Paul VI observed: "It would be a lost gem" (Annibale Bugnini, La riforma liturgica . CLV Edizioni liturgiche, Rome 1997, p. 376), in the same way I would like here to rediscover some "gems" of the Vetus Ordo Mass "lost" in the Novus Ordo Mass , but which could have been inserted without modifying the current structure, maintaining a stronger link with the previous rite. A dangerous path, because officially it is never said that the reform had limits and that it could/should be revised; indeed, «the liturgical reform is irreversible» (Pope Francis, Speech to the CAL 08.24.2017) and again – something to make Pravda envious – «it is better to avoid using the expression “reform of the reform”» (Communiqué from the Holy See Press Office: Some clarifications on the celebration of the Mass , 07.11.2016).

So here we will be reduced to dreaming of what today's Mass could have been with a more generous continuity with yesterday's Mass and limiting ourselves to very few texts/rites.

More: https://lanuovabq-it.translate.goog/it/una-messa-da-sogno-ovvero-il-vetus-ordo-nel-novus-ordo?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US

Three-hundred-year-old painting in the Uffizi damaged after visitor trips while trying to ‘make a meme’

The Uffizi Gallery in Florence is considering imposing restrictions on visitor behaviour after the incident, which follows a similar mishap earlier this month

The portrait, center, before it was damaged.

Photograph: Uffizi

Dee Jefferson

Tue 24 Jun 2025 18.42 CEST

A 300-year-old painting in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery has allegedly been damaged after a visitor tripped while posing for a photo with the artwork.

The Uffizi said the painting, a portrait of Tuscan prince Ferdinando de’ Medici painted by Anton Domenico Gabbiani in 1712, was damaged after a visitor fell backwards while attempting to “make a meme” in front of it by mimicking the prince’s pose.

Security camera footage circulated by Italian media over the weekend showed a visitor leaning back and falling into the painting, with a closeup revealing a tear in the canvas A 300-year-old painting in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery has allegedly been damaged after a visitor tripped while posing for a photo with the artwork.

More: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/jun/24/300-year-old-painting-in-the-uffizi-damaged-after-visitor-trips-while-trying-to-make-a-meme-ntwnfb

MP denied Communion after backing assisted suicide bill

Catholic Herald

June 29 

A priest has refused Holy Communion to Liberal Democrat MP Chris Coghlan over his vote in favour of the UK’s assisted suicide bill on 20 June. Coghlan, who represents Dorking and Horley in Surrey, was then named from the pulpit during Mass two days later, as the country moved a step closer to legalising state assisted death.

Coghlan called the priest’s actions “outrageous” and has lodged a complaint with Bishop Richard Moth, Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, over what he described as an attempt to coerce an elected lawmaker’s vote.

However, Bishop Moth has been a vocal opponent of the bill, asking Catholics in his diocese to write to their MPs to oppose it. In a pastoral letter, the bishop said: “Rather than offer ‘choice’ – as has been suggested – it will, instead, potentially impose significant pressure on people who are at a very vulnerable time in their lives, especially the elderly and those living with disabilities.”

Father Ian Vane, the pastor of St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Dorking, wrote to Coghlan before the vote to warn that a “yes” vote would be a “clear contravention” of Church teaching and even a “murderous act”, reports the Observer. Vane cautioned that such a decision would leave Coghlan “obstinately persevering” in sin and that giving him Communion would “cause scandal”.

The Sunday after the Commons vote, Vane followed through on his threat. He told parishioners during Mass that their MP would be refused Communion because of “the way he had voted”. The priest repeated the announcement at a later Mass with about 150 people present, though Coghlan was not present at either.

On X, Coghlan condemned the public rebuke as “utterly disrespectful” and said that “my private religion will continue to have zero direct relevance to my work as an MP”.

More: https://thecatholicherald.com/mp-denied-communion-after-backing-assisted-suicide-bill/

Sanctuary Profaned: Ideology Takes the Altar in San Diego

San Diego (USA) - Friday, June 20, 2025, a Eucharistic celebration was held in the cathedral of the Diocese of San Diego (United States of America), presided over by Bishop Michael Pham on the occasion of World Refugee Day. An event that, while seemingly intended as a political statement, turned into a grave liturgical abuse and a profanation of the sacred.


During the Holy Mass, which was also broadcast by the media, it became clearly evident that individuals were present in the sanctuary who were not only non-Catholic, but even women dressed in vestments resembling those of priests. One in particular wore a stole, clearly imitating the figure of a Catholic presbyter, suggesting participation in the celebratory role reserved for ordained ministers.

These events constitute a flagrant violation of liturgical norms and Church discipline. It is a scandal that contributes to the confusion of the faithful, weakens the sense of the sacred, and undermines the truth of the sacrament. Redemptionis Sacramentum, an instruction issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (2004), is unequivocal in this regard: “Only a validly ordained priest can pronounce the Eucharistic Prayer; it is not permitted for a deacon, seminarian, or lay person to do so under any circumstances” (Redemptionis Sacramentum, no. 52).

And again: “No other person, not even a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 22 §3).

The presence of women in the sanctuary, vested in liturgical garments and seemingly involved in concelebratory roles, is both a symbolic and practical act of grave significance, as it suggests the idea of a “sacerdotalization” of women — a concept that is neither supported by Catholic doctrine nor by sacramental discipline.

More: (Warning: Immodest advertising images.)https://www.silerenonpossum.com/en/sanctuary-profaned-ideology-takes-the-altar-in-san-diego/