(LifeSiteNews) — An Italian layman has reported a Catholic bishop to police for the latter’s apparently disrespectful remarks about Catholicism and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Lawyer Francesco Minutillo has formally filed a report to the Italian Public Prosecutor’s Office to advise that Bishop Livio Corazza may have committed the crime of insulting the Catholic religion under Articles 403 and 404 of the Penal Code. Specifically, the bishop may have insulted the local Catholic devotion to the Madonna del Fuoco (“Our Lady of the Fire”), his diocese’s patroness. In his report, Minutillo referenced statements Minutillo made during the solemn Pontifical Mass on February 4 in the Madonna’s honor.
In Italian legal language, a report (“esposto”) is not a formal legal action but merely a statement for the competent authorities about situations that could represent potential crimes. If the authorities verify the criminal nature, then formal charges, investigations, and trials would follow.
During the homily, Bishop Corazza of Forlì-Bertinoro reportedly equated Catholicism to Islam, following Pope Francis’s statement in the Abu Dhabi Declaration on Human Fraternity. The bishop’s novel doctrine was diametrically opposed to the interpretation of the Abu Dhabi statement made a few months ago by another Italian bishop, Monsignor Antonio Suetta, Bishop of Sanremo-Ventimiglia.
According to Bishop Corazza, the Abu Dhabi Declaration was “as happy and providential” as the devotion to Our Lady of the Fire. He added, “May Our Lady help us extinguish the flames of division. Only in this way will we be able to look at her image without shame.” And further: “Let us unite, believers and non-believers, for the sole reason of being thinkers, to renew the pact of our mutual humanity, in the name of Mary of Nazareth.”
The devotion to Our Lady of the Fire centers on a portrait of the Madonna and Child that escaped destruction during a conflagration in 1428 and has been displayed since then in Forlì’s Santa Croce cathedral.