“The media hype registered in recent days highlights a climate of confusion and disorientation that mortifies the role, the face and the success that, legitimately, the Catacombs have long been able to conquer, on a national and international level”. Don Antonio Loffredo, parish priest of the Sanita' district, speaks for the first time since the scandal of the catacombs of San Gennaro broke out, managed by the cooperative La Paranza, founded by the youth of the district, in Naples, at his instigation. And he does so, breaking the silence that everyone has maintained until now, by making public a letter, dated February 2016, from Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, who presides over the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology. He explains that he is doing so “in homage to Cardinal Ravasi”, the content of which “repeatedly underlines the uninterrupted dialogue with the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, the latter’s recognition of the new working method that saw our territory responsible for financing the frescoes and the Pontifical Commission in the role of High Surveillance and “superintendence”. Above all in the letter, "Cardinal Ravasi clearly shows his appreciation for the work of the La Paranza cooperative, to the point of stating that, in support of the same work, he did not want and would never have wanted to collect 50% of the proceeds from the entrance tickets". The passage in the letter that Father Loffredo refers to is related to the management of visits to the Catacomb, "entrusted to the cooperative La Paranza, which carries out this activity with extreme commitment and great passion". An appreciation, we read in the text, "fully demonstrated by the fact that this Commission has never claimed half of the proceeds from entrance tickets, understanding the critical nature of the social situation in the neighborhood." A decision that, as explained a little further on, "has forced us to resort to substances coming from the entrance and the Roman catacombs and from the rest of Italy to cover the costs of the conservation interventions and those reserved for the study, conducted with great spirit, by the students of the University of Naples and Molise, coordinated by Professor Carlo Ebanista, inspector of the Catacombs of Campania and member of our Commission". Don Antonio speaks of "no small amount of misinformation on the actions and agreements reached in recent years which does not benefit the cause of the Catacombs of San Gennaro and San Gaudioso for which His Eminence Cardinal Ravasi has always had words of benevolence and appreciation". “I hope that everything will be resolved as soon as possible – continues Don Antonio – and, as our Cardinal Sepe hoped yesterday, that everything can be quickly clarified by finally bringing together around a table all the protagonists of our precious, appreciated and encouraging experience, albeit experimental in nature.
Article published on November 20, 2018 - 21:22
