# Giacomo Biffi

Giacomo Biffi (13 June 1928–11 July 2015) was an Italian Cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Bologna.

## Quotes

* Every Christian community is legitimated the moment it feels the weight, responsibility and apostolic impulse which throb and pulse in the heart of the one Bride of the Lord; every Christian community - within its possibilities - must strive to respond to this ineluctable prompting. This is particularly true with regard to the command to evangelise, in the most intense acceptation of the term.
** March 2006 Holy Father’s missionary prayer intention: “For Catholics in the world: may they grow in mission awareness and offer support and collaboration to missionary work Comment by Cardinale Giacomo Biffi, emeritus Archbishop of Bologna Italy (24 February 2006)
* It is prophesied that the Antichrist will present himself to the whole of humanity like a pacifist, animalist, ecologist, vegetarian, ecumenist, biblical exegete, philanthropist, as a person who has faith in the progress of science and in universal forgiveness.
** Cardinal Giacomo Biffi on Vladimir Solovyov's apocalyptic A Short Tale of the Antichrist,Ammonimento sull'Anticristo del cardinale Giacomo Biffi (in Italian); L’Anticristo, una persona perbene. La lezione (inascoltata) del grande Solov’ëv spiegata da Biffi (in Italian, 10 August 2015)
* [Solov'ëv was] Passionate defender of man and allergic to all philanthropy; tireless apostle of peace and opponent of pacifism; proponent of unity among Christians and critic of all irenicism; in love with nature and far removed from today's ecological infatuations: in a word, friend of truth and enemy of ideology. It is precisely guides like him that we sorely need today.
** As quoted in Soloviev e la religione antropocentrica dei no global sotto la lente di Biffi, Magna Carta.it (March 2, 2007)
* The believer knows that chastity is not the ridiculous mania of complex people, but it is the ability to lord it over our bodies with the help of grace so that we can meekly enter, each according to his or her condition, into God's loving plan.
** As quoted in Filippo Rizzi, La Meraviglia dell'evento cristiano, Biffi e lo stupore della fede, Avvenire.it (February 14, 2024)
* Christmas is not only the telling of what has been; it is perception of what is. It is not only perception of a circumscribed and datable episode; it is savoring of a perennial and universally effective actuality; it is exultation over a richness that is given to us. The annotation that Christmas is after all a birthday would be enough to convince us of this. Now birthdays are for living men. For the dead-even if they are great and very famous-at most, centenarians are remembered. So to celebrate Christmas every year is to express the certainty that Jesus of Nazareth-that child born two thousand years ago in a stable-is a living person: he is really, truly, physically alive; he is still the principle of salvation for us; he is still the center of our every existence and of the whole of history.
** Giacomo Biffi, La meraviglia dell'evento cristiano, pp. 269-270; as quoted inIl settimanale di Padre Pio, anno V, n. 51, p. 19.
* Christianity has an admirable example of the natural union between faith and freedom in Dante Alighieri. Precisely his undoubted adherence to Catholic truth allows and illuminates his perfect autonomy of judgement, free from any fear or human conditioning. Dante is not afraid to criticize the work of the popes and their operational choices, to the point of placing several of them in the depths of hell. But in him "the reverence of the supreme keys" never diminishes and never diminishes in the slightest (Inf. XIX, 101). When it comes to expressing reservations or criticisms that he considers due, there are no discounts neither for lay people, nor for ecclesiastics, nor for monarchs, nor for ordinary citizens... all of whom are required, without exception, to abide by the law evangelical.
** As quoted in Antonio Socci, Il (vero) Dante che non sentite da Benigni, Lo Straniero (March 10, 2015)
* The concept seemed ambiguous to me, and the emphasis with which "pastorality" was attributed to the current Council was somewhat suspect: was it not meant to implicitly say that the previous Councils did not intend to be "pastoral" or had not been pastoral enough? Had it not had pastoral relevance to make it clear that Jesus of Nazareth was God and consubstantial with the Father, as defined at Nicaea? Had it not had pastoral relevance to clarify the realism of the Eucharistic presence and the sacrificial nature of the Mass, as had been done at Trent?. There was a danger of no longer remembering that the first and irreplaceable mercy for lost humanity is, according to the clear teaching of Revelation, the mercy of truth, a mercy that cannot be exercised without the explicit, firm, constant condemnation of every misrepresentation and every alteration of the deposit of faith, which must be preserved. St Thomas Aquinas noted this in the 'Summa contra Gentiles' (I, 2): the task of theology is to "manifest the truth professed by the Catholic faith, eliminating errors contrary to it".
** Il concetto mi pareva ambiguo, e un po’ sospetta l’enfasi con cui la “pastoralità” era attribuita al Concilio in atto: non si voleva forse dire implicitamente che i precedenti concili non intendevano essere “pastorali” o non lo erano stati abbastanza? Non aveva avuto rilevanza pastorale il mettere in chiaro che Gesù di Nazaret era Dio e consostanziale al padre, come si era definito a Nicea? Non aveva avuto rilevanza pastorale precisare il realismo della presenza eucaristica e la natura sacrificale della messa, come era avvenuto a Trento?». E prosegue: «C’era il pericolo di non ricordare più che la prima e insostituibile “misericordia” per l’umanità smarrita è, secondo l’insegnamento chiaro della Rivelazione, la “misericordia della verità”, misericordia che non può essere esercitata senza la condanna esplicita, ferma, costante di ogni travisamento e di ogni alterazione del “deposito” della fede, che va custodito». Lo notava san Tommaso nella "Summa contra Gentiles" (I, 2): il compito della teologia è quello di «manifestare la verità professata dalla fede cattolica, eliminando gli errori ad essa contrari».
*** Giacomo Biffi, as quoted in Inos Biffi, Riletture conciliari, L'Osservatore Romano, 15 April 2011 (in Italian).