Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
An Italian journalist looking for a “gotcha moment” is receiving reprimands from authorities in both the Church and the Italian media for pretending to be a penitent seeking absolution for sins such as cohabitation and being a lesbian mother, then publishing the priests’ responses.
CNA/EWTN News is reporting that Laura Alari, writing for the Italian newspaper Quotidiano Nazionale, and who refers to herself as a Catholic, wrote four articles based on the responses of local priests to whom she confessed various sins. On one occasion, she pretended to be a lesbian mother seeking baptism for her child; on another occasion, she was cohabitating with a same-sex partner.
According to Catholic Online she also sought absolution from a priest who was told that she was divorced and remarried outside the Church, but was receiving communion every week. The priest allegedly told her to change her parish so as “not to create a scandal.”
He then asked her to consider getting an annulment of her failed marriage. “I am telling you what the Church is asking, but at the end it is you who must make a choice,” the prelate reportedly said.
“It’s clear that from my position, I will never tell you that you can take the communion, as long as the church recognizes only one matrimony. But I will never tell you either that you cannot take it,” he reportedly added, meaning that it was up to her to decide if she would obey Church teaching or not.
Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, the Archbishop of Bologna, was outraged by the publication and issued a statement last week condemning the articles. “In bewilderment at the incident and with a soul wounded by a profound sorrow, I mean to reiterate that these articles objectively constitute a grave offense against the truth of Confession, a sacrament of the Christian faith,” he wrote.
By deliberately tricking the confessor and violating the sacredness of the sacrament, which as a first condition requires sincerity of contrition on the part of the penitent, Alari’s articles “show a grave lack of respect for believers, who have recourse to it as one of the most precious of goods because it opens up to them the gifts of the mercy of God; and for confessors, by exposing them to the doubt of a possible deceit, which can disrupt the freedom of judgment, which is founded upon a relationship of trust with the penitent, like that between a father and son.”
Alari’s detractors aren’t just coming from within the confines of the Church, however. The Italian Professional Order of Journalists also questioned her judgment.
Enzo Iacopino, president of the organization, told Avvenire that their ethical rules “do not allow journalists to hide their identity and to act in disguise, unless the life of the same journalist is in danger, or unless declaring the identity would render writing the article impossible … but discovering what the Church states regarding the divorced and remarried, and baptism, does not require a glimpse through the keyhole.”
Iacopino then added: “What did she find? Priests who are faithful to the Church’s Magisterium and who approach the faithful with humility, in order to find with each person the best and most human way to face their problems.”
Judging from the reaction to the articles, Laura Alari’s hunt for the perfect “gotcha moment” appears to have backfired badly.
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