The Mercy Memo: “Like it, swallow it – or get out…”

Radio Maria, a conservative radio station, used to be the most popular Catholic Catholic radio in Italy — and quite understandably, since it provided an oasis of orthodoxy in a sea of post-conciliar platitudes.
 
Not anymore: less than 24 hours following the death of Mario Palmaro, whom he had fired last year for an article critical of the current pope (not pronounced on the Radio, but printed in an altogether different medium, the daily Il Foglio), the radio president, Fr. Livio Fanzaga, made the new directives clear: “Like it, swallow it – or get out.”
 
The Mercy of Radio Maria
 
by Marco Bongi
 
“Recently it was necessary for me to do ‘a cleanup’ with the programme-hosts at Radio Maria. I had to make someone get down from their cathedra and sit them at a school-desk…because it must be very clear: like it, swallow it – or get out…”
 
It is about 9am on Thursday, March 13, 2014. Not even 24 hours have passed since Professor Mario Palmaro’s funeral. With these words, so full of mercy, Father Livio Fanzaga comments on the news of the day, especially about the first anniversary of Pope Francis’ election.
 
He carries on commenting with a logic all of his own; about the pastoral ineffectiveness of condemnations; about the need to present the beauty of the Christian life without manifesting sharp judgments; about the importance of the pastoral reflection which the Bishops are engaged in concerning matters of the family.
 
The contrast between the two parts of his talk (which has been already obvious anyway in all occasions [now] with the new direction [of the Radio]) today appears to be particularly strident. A punch in the stomach takes away my serenity for the rest of the day.