Homily of H.E. Mons. Claudio Gatti of June 20, 2006

1st Reading: 1 Kings 21:17-29; Psalm 50; Gospel Mt 5:43-48

If someone, before 1971, had wished me to become a bishop, in those years I would have believed it because, humanly speaking, I had several opportunities to undertake an ecclesiastical career that sooner or later would have reached the episcopate as a logical conclusion. In the following years, from 1971 to 1998, on the contrary, I considered the idea of ​​becoming a bishop crazy because from a human point of view there were no conditions.

When on July 26, 1998, Jesus announced that I would become a bishop, I could not tell Him that he was mad or that he was delirious. I believed it blindly, as I always have; I had only the doubt as to who would nominate me and how I would be nominated. I almost borrow the words from John Paul I when he said that the morning he went to vote in the conclave he would never have imagined that he would be appointed Pope; so I too would never have allowed myself to think that God himself would have ordained me bishop, because all this did not fit into my mental categories.

On April 25, 1999 we were outside Rome, at Nadia’s home, who is present here and she can testify to it. There was a sudden appearance of the Mother of the Eucharist who, turning to me, announced: "God told me that at the end of the war, if men do not change, He will directly and personally ordain you Bishop".

We come to June 20, 1999. God's works take place without the sound of fanfare, without praises, hymns or songs; it all occurs in a silent way. Jesus was born in silence, died in silence, rose in silence and instituted the Eucharist in silence, with few people: this is God’s way. His style did not fail even in this intervention of his that he defined unique after the ordination of the apostles and unrepeatable in the whole Church history. Only on that day I understood what was said and in this I was a good prophet. In fact, I was certain that an ordination performed from above, instead of guaranteeing serenity and joy because it was a gift from God to his Church, it would have aroused all that opposition that still persists seven years later.

You too have had the opportunity and the possibility to become aware of this by meeting the priests. I remember that I and sometimes even Marisa, asked Our Lady many times the reason for this ordination, what it was used for if not to put me in a difficult situation of collision with the bishops and priests. And the answer is this: when the Lord entrusts a mission, he also gives all the necessary help so that it can be carried out to the end.

And, in this case, the grace of the episcopate seemed indispensable to his divine will and omniscience. The priesthood is the second step of the sacred order; in fact first there is the diaconate, then the presbyterate and then the episcopate. With the grace alone that flows from the priestly ministry, not in all its fullness, I would not have had that strength necessary to carry out the mission.

God prepares his work in silence and shares it only with those he wants and when he wants. In fact, not even I, who was directly interested, became aware of this episcopal reality until a year earlier. Certainly this too was part of one of the secrets that Marisa had to jealously guard. I can affirm that this episcopate would not have existed had it not been for her immolation and her state of victim.

Today, for this reason, I have the opportunity to thank her a lot even if all this is making her feel uncomfortable, it is right and proper to express our thanks to her openly. This episcopate and her immolation and suffering are closely united.

Today Our Lady stated that I am the main cause, not the fault, of Marisa's sufferings. She willingly suffers because she knows that her immolation is for the benefit of my episcopate and something else that will happen later. So it is an episcopate closely linked to her role as a victim.

Now I can reveal, and I have already told someone, what is the reason why I had suggested June 29 as the day of departure of our sister Marisa for Heaven; Jesus took me by surprise when last Sunday he openly revealed this desire of mine. I'll explain the reason for this choice. July 15th next is my birthday and coincides with the thirty-fifth anniversary of my first meeting with Marisa. June 20th is Marisa's birthday, so I asked the Lord that my episcopal ordination to take place precisely on this date as it concerns both of us personally, a sign of our spiritual union. And you know that Jesus himself arranged for the feast of my episcopal ordination to be celebrated on June 29th; so I would have liked that every year in the day when I would have celebrated the episcopate, I would have also celebrated her just reward, her just reward in Heaven.

But as it always happens I don't know if God will accept all this. What I know, and it was the first assertion that Our Lady said today, is that Marisa will still have to suffer a lot; therefore, her role as a victim will have to continue even if she is exhausted and tired. She is ready to accept, heroically, this additional immolation and suffering for the Bishop ordained by God, and he, in turn, will have to work to revive the Church.

I wish to celebrate this H. Mass exclusively for Marisa. It is a way to say thank you, to show my gratitude; and it is also a way to ask the Lord that this is the date for her departure, together with the Mother of the Eucharist, grandmother Iolanda and all our other friends who are in Heaven.

Then, as I said during the apparition, if this does not happen, we are ready to do God's will. This Holy Mass is a more precious gift than what I gave her yesterday, a Mass accompanied by the prayers of all participants. I invite all of you to listen to and participate with this intention in this Eucharistic celebration. Certainly each of you here has a different reason to thank our sister, reasons of spiritual, physical and material nature. And here, then, the most we can give are prayers, so we will offer them to her.

This is what I had to say, this is what I entrust to your prayers and to your heart. Seven years of episcopate have passed, and only God knows how many will follow. One thing is certain, I have been told that I will never retire but I will be a Bishop until the end, this is God's will. Also, I will ordain many other bishops and I think it would be wonderful to start a new series of ordinations in the Church. so that, even if valid, that chain of episcopal ordinations where there are several rotten links, full of rust that must be absolutely replaced, is interrupted. This can only happen with the help of God and the assistance of his grace. Well, that's it.

Think how good the Lord is. Today I asked Our Lady: "Since you have crushed the head of the snake so many times, why don't you crush also the head of that snake Ruini?" Yes, I asked for this and the answer couldn't be different. This is not God's style, the devil is one thing, men another. All this torment will end with the death of Ruini and Benedict.

I hope that before struggles and clashes occur within the Church other things will happen, also because the Lord attached great importance to your mission, he said it was very important and positive. Let's not stop on the cases that may have been negative and it is normal because there are priests who are freemasons, pedophiles, homosexuals, heterosexuals, sacrilegious, excommunicated and so on. Then a mechanism will have to be set in motion by God giving us very positive results.

Praised be Jesus Christ.