The Presumed Catholicity of the Bourbons

The Presumed Catholicity of the Bourbons is Equivalent to the "Catholicity" of the Mafia and the Camorra

(Extracted from the article The Risorgimento Was Not Against Catholicism or the Catholic Church)

What must one think of the Catholicity which was claimed by the Bourbon regime? Mutatis mutandis, it is comparable to those forms of religiosity that can be found in the Italian Mafia. Abstractly and theoretically, the Mafia and the Camorra habitually claim they are Catholics, have their children baptized, observe various religious precepts such as going to church, but only in a completely formal way. This outward adhesion does not prevent them from murdering, injuring, raping, torturing, stealing, cheating, and dealing drugs. In fact, by kissing crucifixes, taking part in processions, going on pilgrimages to shrines, communicating, and bestowing offerings with blood money, the Mafia is doing nothing but engaging in self-serving propaganda, trying to pass itself off as respectable people, merely "men of honor".

The work of the Bourbon monarchy was not dissimilar: they clung to an alliance made with the Mafia, armed prisoners and bandits, violated oaths, stole from the people and perpetrated massacres, yet at the same time professed adherence to the Catholic faith.

Catholicism was not the cause for which the Sanfedisti, Ferdinand IV of Naples and Maria Carolina fought for, but only the false pretext. In other words, the Christian religion was reduced to instrumentum regni (instrument of monarchy) and used to support and prop up the throne of the Bourbons and the very restricted caste which surrounded them. The Bourbon monarchy sacrilegiously exploited the Catholic religion, in a manner comparable to that of the Camorra, who in prisons used to strip the detainees of their possessions under the pretext of "making a contribution to the oil of the Madonna" (in other words, maintaining a light in front of an image of the Virgin).

Cardinal Ruffo, in order to better exploit the religious beliefs of the people, went so far as to pretend to be the pope in Calabria, a false declaration which is formally equivalent to a schism, and which caused him to anathematize the Archbishop of Naples Cardinal Zurlo. The episode can be considered emblematic: those who are proposed as "champions" of the Faith in fact supported a liar who committed a sacrilegious act (pretending to be the pope without being so) in order to achieve their own political objectives.

An ancient theological maxim reads: diabolus simia Dei, the devil is the ape of God, meaning the devil can not do anything except clumsily imitate and pervert God's work. A Sanfedist stamp depicted a cross surrounded by scenes of Republicans being hung and burned by those who sang praises during the massacre of their enemies, not those of Christ the King, but only the "king of the beggars". The ancient symbol of the cross, dating back to the most ancient ages of humanity and full of so many meanings such as the reconciliation between heaven and earth, the union of opposites, the deliverance from evil, the redeeming sacrifice, was in this way reduced to a low journalistic ploy in the propaganda of the Sanfedisti in order to justify the massacres committed by those who cruelly slew venerable clergy, raped nuns, and ate the flesh of their victims. It is diabolical to use Catholicism and the sacraments for evil purposes, and thus, in a similar way, using the image of the cross can only be considered diabolically counterfeit. Similarly, from a Catholic point of view, whenever religion is exploited for purely secular and worldly objectives it is considered diabolical, because that which is sacred becomes perverted in the etymological sense of the term, and thus is diverted and distorted from its providentially preordained end and profanely transformed into its opposite: not God, but Mammon, the material power.

From a Catholic point of view, which one of these men has truly served God: the learned, compassionate and merciful Archbishop Giovanni Andrea Serrao, who at his death forgave his executioners? Or the Sanfedist thief Gaetano Mammone, a murderer and drinker of human blood? Despite the intense cries of ad maiorem Ferdinandi gloriam, can you not sense the unmistakable smell of sulfur?