Do these people even believe in the Real Presence, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord in the Sacred Species of the Eucharist?!
From LifeSiteNews
By Gaetano Masciullo
This irreverent destruction of the sacred species might also have implicated Archbishop Lorenzo Ghizzoni in a very serious canonical crime.
Angry parishioners want to know why their archbishop allowed a sacred Host they believe was found visibly bleeding to be destroyed. (Photos of species below.)
Some Catholic parishioners of St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Ravenna are fighting to continue a November 2024 case against their archbishop, Lorenzo Ghizzoni, for contempt and the destruction of the religious artifact.
Earlier this month the Public Prosecutor recommended to the Preliminary Investigations Judge that the matter be dismissed. Lawyer Francesco Minutillo filed the parishioners’ opposition to this request on Tuesday, March 18, 2025.
As an example of the archbishop’s carelessness, Minutillo noted a lack of proof that the local health authority to whom Ghizzoni entrusted samples of the Host ever received them.
“There is no documentation proving the […] delivery of these items to [Professor Vittorio] Sambri or the health authority,” he said. “Sambri himself declared that he only received a jar containing dry material.”
Archbishop Ghizzoni and Dr. Sambri are both mentioned in the parishioners’ complaint. Called an “esposto” in Italian, it is a formal written statement submitted to authorities to report facts that may constitute a crime.
It also came to light this month that remnants of the Host had been disposed of as “biological waste.”
The irreverent destruction of the sacred species might also have implicated the archbishop in a very serious canonical crime. According to Canon 1328:
§1 One who throws away the consecrated species or, for a sacrilegious purpose, takes them away or keeps them, incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; a cleric, moreover, may be punished with some other penalty, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state.
§2 A person guilty of consecrating for a sacrilegious purpose one element only or both elements within the Eucharistic celebration or outside it is to be punished according to the gravity of the offence, not excluding by dismissal from the clerical state.
In a press release, Minutillo denounced irregularities in the civil investigation, highlighting both that the injured parties had not been able to present their case and the failure to notify the persons concerned, in violation of due process rules.
He also pointed out that the analyses on the Host carried out by the Ravenna health authority did not include specific tests for detecting human blood but instead focused solely on microbiological investigations related to bacteria.
The opposition to the request for dismissal also includes allegations of a confidentiality agreement between the Archbishop and Sambri. According to Minutillo, “this agreement took place outside of any official procedure and without administrative traceability, resulting in a handling of the Host that lacked transparency and was removed from any form of public oversight.”
The Host in question was first noted on January 28, 2023, in the parish church of “Santa Maria Assunta” in Savarna, after the sacristan, Manuela Segurini, found it at the end of a Mass celebrated by the parish priest, Father Nicolò Giosuè. To dispose of it reverently, Fr. Giosuè placed the Host in water to dissolve.
However, when the next morning the sacristan checked the Host, she saw that the water had turned red. Segurini informed the parish priest, who inspected the phenomenon and then contacted a well-known Catholic doctor, an expert on the Shroud of Turin, Pierluigi Baima Bollone.
At first Bollone thought that the redness could be due to bacteria and suggested that Giosuè wait several months to observe the developments. The priest did so and noted both that the Host remained intact and that the color of the water did not change. Following professional advance, he then entrusted the Host to pathologist Dr. Cristina Antonini.
Antonini and a team of doctors conducted an analysis on the substance found in the water. Meanwhile, the sacristan had carried out an experiment by placing an unconsecrated communion wafer in water; it dissolved quickly without any red residues developing. On May 26, 2023, Antonini signed a medical report certifying the presence of red and white blood cells. However, it was not possible to determine the blood type or ascertain with certainty if the blood was human, as further tests would have been necessary.
Fr. Giosuè informed Archbishop Lorenzo Ghizzoni, the ordinary of Ravenna-Cervia, of the results of Antonini’s analyses. On June 27, 2023, all the materials in the case, including the Host and the medical report, were entrusted to the Vicar General of the archdiocese. From that point onward, Giosuè did not know what became of them, and the archdiocese made no official statements in response to inquiries from the faithful.
Italian journalist Simone Ortolani told LifeSiteNews that sources among the local clergy reported that Dr. Antonini was not asked to continue her investigations as she was considered “too Catholic.” Instead, there is evidence that the Archbishop of Ravenna had consulted the local health authority (Ausl) in the matter.
In October 2023, Professor Vittorio Sambri, a public health manager in Romagna, told Archbishop Ghizzoni over social media that the analyses did not reveal the presence of biological material or blood. This communication took place via a WhatsApp message, without the issuance of an official report. The message, seen by LifeSiteNews, stated as follows:
Good morning, Your Excellency.
I am using this somewhat unorthodox method of communication so as not to disturb you. The microscopic and molecular investigations conducted on the Host that “fell” to the ground last January have confirmed that there is NO presence of blood or any other biological material of likely human origin.
Should you wish to delve deeper into the matter, I am, of course, at your disposal.
This was such a contrast to the first report that, on December 8, 2023, three priests from Ravenna, including Fr. Giosuè, send a letter to Ghizzoni requesting a third examination. This third examination was never done.
In the summer of 2024, the Ravenna Curia, following pressure from the faithful, issued a statement asserting that they had “found no elements of a supernatural nature” in the case and claimed that the recovered Host was not consecrated.
It was then that some of the faithful turned to lawyer Francesco Minutillo, who is known for his involvement in the case against the blasphemous exhibition in Carpi. Minutillo filed a public report with the Italian judicial authority, alleging offenses by Ghizzoni and Sambri for the desecration and destruction of an object intended for worship.
Pictured: Archbishop Lorenzo Ghizzoni of Ravenna
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are subject to deletion if they are not germane. I have no problem with a bit of colourful language, but blasphemy or depraved profanity will not be allowed. Attacks on the Catholic Faith will not be tolerated. Comments will be deleted that are republican (Yanks! Note the lower case 'r'!), attacks on the legitimacy of Pope Francis as the Vicar of Christ (I know he's a material heretic and a Protector of Perverts, and I definitely want him gone yesterday! However, he is Pope, and I pray for him every day.), the legitimacy of the House of Windsor or of the claims of the Elder Line of the House of France, or attacks on the legitimacy of any of the currently ruling Houses of Europe.