Pier Vittorio Tondelli +1955-1991+
Before his conversion: “Tondelli was fascinated with the works of Jewish mysticism, the Imitation of Christ, and the mystics like St. Teresa of Avila. “I love to look through them, to find and read stories, and the idea of holiness,” he wrote.
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During his conversion: "In 1989, the Italian writer said, “Everyone that has been raised in the bosom of a religion has his own religiosity. I have always tried to seek out not so much a discussion about the Catholic faith, but rather to express my own religiosity—without a doubt in the bosom of Christianity—which seeks out or questions its own positions, especially in confrontation with other authors.”
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Speaking about chastity after his conversion, Tondelli called it “a mystic virtue for those who have chosen it and perhaps the most superhuman use of sexuality.”” - Catholic News Agency
Pier Vittorio Tondelli.
During his conversion: "In 1989, the Italian writer said, “Everyone that has been raised in the bosom of a religion has his own religiosity. I have always tried to seek out not so much a discussion about the Catholic faith, but rather to express my own religiosity—without a doubt in the bosom of Christianity—which seeks out or questions its own positions, especially in confrontation with other authors.”
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Speaking about chastity after his conversion, Tondelli called it “a mystic virtue for those who have chosen it and perhaps the most superhuman use of sexuality.”” - Catholic News Agency
Pier Vittorio Tondelli.
Who "chooses" chastity?
ReplyDeleteI was under the impression that it's either chastity or hell - I know I never felt like I had a real "choice."
Free will.
DeleteI read quote like the one above and they simply don't read as Catholic, but as individualism.
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Mercury,
Virtue is that which is most freely chosen. It seems like a contradiction that we are only free when we would only choose the good, but the contradiction goes away when we consider that the choosing of evil entails enslavement to a lower appetite.
You're right. and I err in that I almost always read "chastity" as hatred of sexuality - and indeed, some saints seem to have bordered on that.
DeleteBut in reality, it also includes the committed and fruitful love of husband and wife, and their exclusive use of that faculty - in today's world, monogamy in body and spirit really is heroic.
Of course, I always get down because it seems the saints believed that this was "chastity for the morally retarded," i.e. those who weren't "real Christians" enough to practice perfect continence - but this is MY erroneous and biased reading of the Saints, not the teaching of the Church. And thank God for that.
My thought is that his observation is a personal consideration taken out of context. Tondelli wasn't teaching doctrine - just commenting on his understanding of matters of conscience. His spirituality was indeed idiosyncratic while he was away from the Church.
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