The Sacraments and Salvation w/ Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. & Fr. Romanus Cessario, O.P.

[@FrJohnBrownSJ]

Fr. Romanus Cessario, O. P. taught me moral theology in Boston. Great to see him here!

[@Laj-t9k]

This was an excellent lecture. Thank you to Fr. Pine and Fr. Cessario.

[@jimmyjames417]

YES. He's the priest who wrote about the Mortara case?

[@MeisterBeefington]

I think so, an article that apparently so enraged David Bentley Hart he no longer writes for First Things. I haven't read it it myself, I'll get around to it one day. Gotta admit, justifying kidnapping seems like a tough barrow to push morally.

[@paulborn6423]

I know some background of the article’s writing. Strong rumors had it that Spielberg was getting ready to make a movie about the case. Ignatius Press published in English Fr. Mortara’s personal writings (autobiography, diary? i forget), which was a great accomplishment since I believe that it had never been translated from the 19th century Catalan. Mortara had served as a priest in Catalonia Spain for some reason. He writes in the book how grateful he was to his spiritual father Pope Pius IX, and how grateful he was to be a Christian and priest. Fr. Cessario, expressing his thoughts on the situation in defense of Blessed Pope Pius IX (beatified by JPII over and against objections raised about the Mortara case, for what it’s worth) was asked to write that article for FT. He did so, and was completely thrown under the bus, regardless of the merit of the argument, by FT afterwards who acted like they hadn’t been the ones to publish it, if memory serves.