The unjust suspension a divinis against Claudio Gatti

1. The unjust "suspension a divinis" against the future bishop ordained by God, Claudio Gatti, which occurred in 1998. To help the reader better understand the development of events, it is appropriate to take a small step back and provide a brief summary. Cardinal Vicar Camillo Ruini, on December 8, 1994, had forbidden the then-priest Claudio Gatti from celebrating Holy Mass at the thaumaturgic site on Via delle Benedettine, under the pretext of wanting to examine the activities of the “Commitment and Testimony Movement” and study the apparitions of the Mother of the Eucharist. To this end, he established a commission that was supposed to interrogate witnesses, carry out all necessary verifications, and analyze the numerous hosts that had bled at the thaumaturgic site (to date, a total of 185 Eucharistic miracles have occurred). None of this was done. If Claudio Gatti himself, then still a simple priest, had not encouraged some community members to go to the Vicariate, these ecclesiastics would not have met any community members. If the future Bishop ordained by God had not spontaneously presented himself at the Vicariate, the Church authorities would have known very little. The commission’s task was to verify, but after three and a half years, nothing was done, as the priest’s condemnation had already been decided. 1

2. They were only waiting for a pretext, which they never found in Claudio Gatti’s exemplary conduct, as he always exercised his priestly ministry in full accordance with the Church’s precepts and directives. It was precisely God, who knows the intentions of men, who brought His enemies to light, ordering the priest Claudio Gatti to celebrate Holy Mass and indicating the date of March 8, 1998, the thirty-fifth anniversary of his priestly ordination. "I, Jesus, want Holy Mass here. I, Jesus, want the Eucharist consecrated by My priest here." [Letter from God, February 22, 1998] In those days, Claudio Gatti, torn between obedience to God and love for the Church, began to ask himself several questions that deeply troubled him. His suffering increased as the date of March 8 approached. For years, Claudio Gatti could not find answers to these questions. “Why does God place me in open conflict with ecclesiastical authority?” the priest wondered. “Why must I find myself in a situation of open rebellion, precisely I who have always preached obedience and docility? Why must I be considered someone who breaks the unity of the Church?” Only recently has an answer come to the now-Bishop Claudio Gatti, but we will address that later. 2

3. However, faced with God’s order, Claudio Gatti bowed his head and said, “I am ready for immolation,” so certain was he that, for this obedience to God, men would find a pretext to condemn him. On February 27, 1998, Claudio Gatti sent a letter to Cardinal Ruini, requesting, in the name of the Lord, permission to celebrate Holy Mass on March 8. The celebration was requested “for one time only” and solely for the occasion of his priestly anniversary. Claudio Gatti attached to the letter the message from Jesus dated February 22, in which the Lord ordered him to celebrate the Mass on March 8. On March 5, the Vicegerent, Monsignor Cesare Nosiglia, called Claudio Gatti by phone, informing him of Cardinal Ruini’s outright rejection of the request to celebrate that single Holy Mass. “The Cardinal has received your letter,” Nosiglia explained over the phone, “he does not grant you the faculty to celebrate Holy Mass on March 8 and asks for your obedience to his directives.” Claudio Gatti responded firmly: “I cannot obey you because I would disobey God,” and added, “Faced with an order from God, I am willing even to lose my life to respect it.” The following day, March 6, the Vicariate’s chancellor, Father Giuseppe Tonello, arrived unannounced at Via delle Benedettine, demanding to see Claudio Gatti immediately. Tonello read him Ruini’s 3

4. decree, in which the cardinal threatened suspension a divinis if the priest celebrated the Mass on March 8. After the decree was read, Claudio Gatti folded it and placed it on his desk, saying, “Now let this decree rest, because you know well that by appealing it, I request a new decree.” Indeed, according to the Code of Canon Law, in the ten days between the communication of the first decree and the communication of the second, the given order is suspended. It was March 6, and Claudio Gatti had clearly expressed his intention to appeal the decree. Therefore, the Holy Mass celebrated by Claudio Gatti on March 8 was outside the prohibition of the decree, because for ten days, from March 6 to March 16, 1998, the decree was suspended. Thus, an action committed during the suspension of the decree was punished. A priest was suspended a divinis solely for doing what every priest should do daily with love: celebrating the Eucharist, the most important and pleasing act of worship to God. Claudio Gatti then perfected the appeal of the decree within the prescribed ten-day period. Indeed, the appeal, in which he requested the revocation of the decree, was sent on March 14 to Cardinal Ruini. 4

5. The high prelates also clung to the fact that the priest’s letter was undated, forgetting that the postmark, which bore the date of March 14, attested to it. On March 8, 1998, obeying God, the priest Claudio Gatti celebrated one of the most painful Holy Masses of his life and also wept during the consecration. The priest did not fear the consequences of his action, but he knew it would be used to attack the apparitions, the Eucharistic miracles, and deny their supernatural origin. On March 21, a messenger from the Vicariate left an envelope at Via delle Benedettine containing a summons for Claudio Gatti to appear at the Vicariate at 1:00 p.m. on April 1. On March 27, the Vicegerent, Monsignor Nosiglia, called Claudio Gatti again to confirm the summons. On April 1, 1998, Claudio Gatti appeared at the Vicariate and brought with him the Eucharist that had bled on March 22, 1998, placing it over his heart to find the courage to face “the ravenous wolves dressed as lambs.” 5

6. He was received and led to a room where Monsignor Nosiglia, Father Tonello, and the judicial vicar, Father B. Martinello, were present. He was read the letter from Cardinal Ruini, who was not present at the meeting, containing the notification of the suspension a divinis penalty; a letter to which Claudio Gatti would respond point by point. Claudio Gatti confided to us that Nosiglia was very tense, while he was very calm. Immediately afterward, the minutes were drawn up; Our Lady was beside Claudio Gatti and helped him; the priest corrected the minutes, had them write what he wanted, practically dictating them himself. 6

7. Claudio Gatti then became concerned about the spiritual state of Bishop Nosiglia and asked to speak with him alone, knowing well what the bishop would face by offending God. At that moment, Father Tonello and Father B. Martinello left the room and did not notice that in the anteroom there was a community member who had accompanied our priest Claudio Gatti. This person clearly heard B. Martinello say to Tonello, “Father Gatti has very clear ideas.” When Claudio Gatti was alone with Bishop Nosiglia, he said, “What are you doing? Before God, the Church, and history, you have taken on grave responsibilities; your actions will be disavowed, and your decisions will be declared invalid and illegitimate.” In an attempt to help and save Nosiglia, Claudio Gatti advised him, “If you want to save your soul, leave Rome, ask for a diocese, flee from Rome.” Our priest Claudio Gatti, trained in the school of Our Lady, added, “For us, it is an honor to suffer now for the Eucharist; soon the triumph of the Eucharist will come, and it will be our triumph, but what fate will you have?” Claudio Gatti then took the Eucharist that had bled on March 22, 1998, knelt in deep adoration, hoping that his brother would have a movement of spirit, a moral impulse, a moment of clarity. 7

8. The hope was also that the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist would shake his conscience and lead him to admit he was wrong. At that moment, Nosiglia could choose to stand with God or against Him. Claudio Gatti understood that he was struggling and prayed that he might prevail, but fear of Cardinal Ruini was stronger. With a stern look and using strong words, Nosiglia said, “What have you brought me? For us, that is a piece of bread, throw it away!” Claudio Gatti confided to us that only later did he understand that Nosiglia’s stern look was not directed at him but at the one who had put him in that bad situation: Ruini. Moments later, the other two priests returned, read the minutes, Claudio Gatti signed them, and as he bid farewell to Nosiglia, he said, “Pray for me, not because I have erred, but so that I may have the strength to serenely accept the evil and cruel things you have done.” Nosiglia replied, “Pray for me too.” Claudio Gatti, raising his eyes to heaven, added, “I hope and wish that we may meet, both of us together, on the other side.” Claudio Gatti then left the Vicariate and headed to St. John’s Square, where Marisa, almost all the young people, and numerous adults from the community were waiting for him. They had been informed of his 8

9. arrival. They had been in adoration in the Lateran Basilica throughout the duration of the meeting. Our Lady was both with those who were praying and with Claudio Gatti, who was fighting to defend Jesus in the Eucharist and the truth. Several community members, seeing the priest serene and smiling, thought he had not been condemned, that the meeting had gone well. Marisa, however, who through bilocation with the Mother of the Eucharist had been with the priest the entire time, knew how the events had unfolded and exclaimed, “No, the meeting did not go well, they have crucified him!” Claudio Gatti, that same night, found himself consoling his spiritual children who had followed him from St. John’s Square to Via delle Benedettine: “Dry your tears, let the smile return to your faces, open your hearts to hope,” were the moving words of Claudio Gatti to his youngest children, “because this is a day of victory and triumph. Jesus has honored you by allowing you to suffer something for Him, and He has asked Marisa and me to immolate ourselves for Him. Today I feel more a priest, more like Christ, because I too am a victim and can say with Jesus that I am a priest and a victim. The early Christians were asked not to worship Jesus, and for their refusal, they were persecuted, scourged, and killed. 9

10. They shed their blood in a bloody way; we shed ours in an unbloody way, loving the Eucharist, for which we are ready to give our lives. Now let us sing ‘Come, Mary,’ let us invite the Mother of the Eucharist to come among us, and as a sign of victory and joy, I wish you to welcome Our Lady by waving your handkerchiefs as if they were flags and banners.” The young people immediately began waving their handkerchiefs in anticipation of the apparition. The Mother of the Eucharist praised Claudio Gatti’s behavior and courage: “Your priest has fought the battle, he has performed an act of great heroism that no priest on Earth would have done.” Our Lady then added, “I understand, my dear beloved priest, your great suffering, but also your great heroism. You can say, ‘I bear the palm of martyrdom,’ you have done all you could do, little priest before men, but great in the eyes of God, you have loved, you love, you know how to love… your priest has suffered martyrdom.” The Mother of the Eucharist, filling the hearts of those present with joy, then affirmed, “You, my dear beloved priest, are great, very great, which is why God the Father has sent me to tell you: We declare you a saint!” “This decree is not valid, there is no sincerity in it, nor are all the other decrees true.” “You have done everything possible, you have even 10

11. tried to save the Vicegerent,” the heavenly Mother continued, “now it is up to him to decide which side to take,” and then another maternal caress directed always to Claudio Gatti: “Be strong, bear the palm of martyrdom, and let your sanctity be seen and known.” Then Jesus came, who said, “God the Father has declared you a saint, God the Father has called us one by one and told us: go to that thaumaturgic place because today God has sanctified Claudio Gatti, then it will be Marisella’s turn.” (As happened later on May 2, 1999) In the following days, our priest wrote to Ruini, refuting his letter of condemnation point by point. Claudio Gatti knew that, from a legal perspective, the Vicar General’s letter had no value. He consulted a canon lawyer, an expert in canon law, who said: “Look, in the Vatican, there is an unwritten law that says superiors are always right; don’t expect anything good for yourself. No Roman Congregation will ever question the authority of the bishop.” However, encouraged by Our Lady, Claudio Gatti, also to leave a testimony, wrote a letter appealing to the Congregation for the Clergy, whose prefect was Cardinal Darío Castrillón. The Congregation, on appeal, examined the documents and procedures to see if there were defects, procedural flaws, or if everything was in order, and sided with the superior. Cardinal 11

12. Castrillón, warned by Ruini, relied on false testimony and indicated an incorrect date. The false testimony was that of Father Claudio Cazzola, then pastor of the parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who testified that Claudio Gatti had celebrated Holy Mass on March 8, 1997. In reality, Claudio Gatti celebrated the Mass on March 8, 1998, not the previous year, and furthermore, Claudio Cazzola was not present at that Eucharistic celebration. The Congregation for the Clergy used false testimony and indicated an incorrect date. Claudio Gatti wrote to the Congregation for the Clergy highlighting these falsehoods, but no one ever responded to him, despite the evident unjust and illegitimate condemnation. We have already spoken of the heart-wrenching questions Claudio Gatti asked himself in those days, at the moment when Jesus asked one thing of him and the ecclesiastical authority demanded the exact opposite. In the years that followed, the Lord made the current Bishop of the Eucharist, Claudio Gatti, understand the reasons why He led the priest to the condition of having to confront ecclesiastical authority harshly. This condemnation, followed later by reduction to the lay state, both suffered unjustly, have precise meanings. The first seeks to unmask 12

13. these people, so that one day it will be clear to all that they acted in bad faith and will be condemned, and all their acts will be declared null and invalid. It will then be understood that they were wolves in sheep’s clothing, mercenaries and not shepherds, condemned by their own actions. One of the tasks of the great mission entrusted by God to Bishop Claudio Gatti and the seer Marisa Rossi will be precisely to unmask the enemies of the Eucharist. Furthermore, the suspension a divinis and the reduction to the lay state have restored to Bishop Claudio Gatti that full and total freedom that, as a priest incardinated in the Diocese of Rome and dependent on it, he previously did not have. This very freedom has allowed the Bishop of the Eucharist to write numerous letters and address them to the entire Catholic hierarchy. In these letters, he defends the truth, the 185 Eucharistic miracles that occurred at the thaumaturgic site, the numerous Trinitarian Theophanies, and the apparitions of the Mother of the Eucharist. Moreover, he has been able to denounce the injustices and “abuses of power,” as Jesus defined them, by high-ranking ecclesiastics against him. The Church authorities, by reducing him to the lay state, could no longer say anything, could no longer command anything, and could no longer demand obedience from the Bishop. 13

14. Their evil, unjust, and malicious actions have turned against them, and the truth, which is explosive in itself, is emerging and coming to light like a spring flooding the surrounding ground. We have been able to freely, without seeking authorization from ecclesiastical authority, print the letters of God, publish them in the newsletter, and on our community’s website. It has been possible to spread the teachings, help, and encouragement of Jesus in the Eucharist and Our Lady, precious pearls that some ecclesiastical authorities would have wanted to censor, as they censored Pope John Paul II when, during a Wednesday audience, he said, “Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, protect you all.” These ecclesiastics have realized that their behavior and unjust condemnations are own goals or boomerangs that are turning against them. They have understood that they have erred, though, due to their pride and arrogance, they will never admit it. The Bishop of the Eucharist has received confirmation of all these thoughts from God, in one of the frequent morning dialogues between him, the seer Marisa Rossi, and God the Father. “God has given me the answer and told me that they are desperate for what they have done, because everything is turning against them, but they can no longer stop anything.” 14

15. They could only do so if they called Bishop Claudio Gatti and acknowledged that his episcopal ordination is of divine origin. God also added, addressing the Bishop, “Do not delude yourself, because they are still strong, they are a powerful wall that opposes and threatens you.” St. Paul, in the First Letter to the Corinthians, wrote, “If the powers of this world had known God’s plans, they would not have crucified the Savior” (1 Cor 2:8). If the powerful men of the Church had thought that by condemning the Bishop of the Eucharist they would favor him and harm themselves, they would not have done what they did. This does not mean that these condemnations have not caused immense suffering in the heart of Bishop Claudio Gatti. In this too, the Bishop ordained by God is similar to the Christ of Gethsemane, whom he deeply loves and feels particularly close to, as he shares in His suffering and repeats in his heart the cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” He also makes his own the other words of the Redeemer: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, but your will be done, not mine.” 15