And what heretic are you? This is how the concept of heresy has changed over time

Who is the heretic of today? "If a head of state pretended to speak to Vladimir Putin 'to understand his reasons', he would be considered a heretic." But the root of the word "heresy", which is "choice", has taken on a different meaning over time; today we use the term to define something outside the usual canons or someone who takes positions in contrast with the "mass". However, in every age, in every geographical area and also in every social theme there have been heretics.

Roberto Roveda (who with Michele Pellegrini wrote "The great heretics who changed history" - Newton Compton, 384 pages, € 12.90, also eBook explains this to L'Unione Sarda historical periods has examined the different meanings that the term heresy has assumed up to the present day.

Roveda, 51 years old from Milan, collaborator of L'Unione Sarda, is also a consultant and author of school texts for the most important Italian publishing houses: he writes books for middle and high schools, and for scientific newspapers and magazines. Double degree, modern literature and historical sciences, his preparation allows him to examine the topics addressed in many aspects. He has a single "gripe": "I have not yet found reliable sources on the heretics in Sardinia".

How has the concept of heresy changed over time?

“Starting from the root of the word, which means 'choice', at a certain point this word takes on a negative meaning. The heretic becomes the one who has a different opinion from that of the dominant institution at the time. Attention: not only religious, we are talking about every institution that has dogmas and doctrines. Therefore, whoever does not agree with these becomes a heretic, in short, commits a mistake. Today, if we look at current events, totalitarian regimes such as fascism or Russian communism have had to deal with those who have put themselves outside the party's doctrine ”.

Who is the modern day heretic?

“Paradoxically, the one who is compliant, given that the possibility of choice is one of the tenets of society. It could be the one who, on the contrary, in short, follows a doctrine by thread and by sign: whenever there is a very strong current of thought or fashion, whoever expresses a different opinion can become a heretic. Yet we are not talking about those who live in totalitarian states, today we can also be persecuted on social networks with avalanches of insults, or through fake news ".

A few examples?

“Hans Kung, for his often critical positions towards the doctrine of the Catholic Church, or even Vito Mancuso, to quote an Italian, has some side of heresy, or Gino Strada”.

So it's not just a religious concept.

“Absolutely not, he can become political, intellectual, many authors or writers linked to the world of culture have been considered heretics as they have escaped from progressive left thinking. We can quote Elio Vittorini, indicated as a heretic for the conflicts with the Communist Party. But there are also many cases related to the right. In short, in Italy above all there is a mélange of conformism, and those who leave the chorus are in fashion, see Vittorio Feltri, Massimo Fini or Alessandro Orsini ”.

Is it true that Freemasonry was considered heresy?

“Yes, because he was going to deny the values of faith in a period of great conflict with Catholicism. It had placed itself in an alternative position to faith, and even now relations are extremely tense. How many anticlerical politicians are often linked to Freemasonry in a coterie of ideals that intersect in Italy ... And then Masonic bishops or Catholic Masons really don't exist? We are sure?".

Staying on the religious theme, baptism: for the modern Church it removes original sin, but before it was believed that it was a purification from sins and then a rite for adults.

"At the base of this change there is in particular a practical reason, infant baptism is an objective achieved with the Tridentine reforms, the Catholic Church we live in is the one that was born with the Council of Trent, and everything is part of a normalization and legalization of the religious system. The rite of infant baptism stems from the fact that children died in torrents in the Middle Ages, out of 6 only one reached the age of 6, so everything had to be done so that the other 5 did not die without purification ".

But not only...

“There was also a reason for building the path of the Christian: once it was the adult who approached the faith, then the Church needed to 'train' the faithful with baptism and catechism. To understand: if today we asked anyone 'how would you like to die?', Most people would say 'in your sleep'. In the Middle Ages, however, the answer would have been 'in my bed, after having confessed and after extreme unction' ”.

In his book he says that the most famous heretics of the Middle Ages were the Cathars. Who were they?

“The great losers of the battle that took place at the beginning of the 13th century between the Church of Rome and this 'alternative' church. Based on what we gather from the few documents and the testimonies of the victors, the Cathars were not exactly heretics in Catholicism but something alternative. At a certain point in the Italian and French bourgeois cities a kind of new faith was born, a good-evil dualism, a simpler church that responded to the needs of a practical society that wanted less coercion from the clergy. And it was very successful, it was a response to a need of that time ".

Speaking of heretics, one cannot but think of Galileo Galilei, a case in which religion dealt with science. Does it still happen?

“The questions on stem cells, on the end of life, on medically assisted procreation are all areas in which the Church expresses her opinion, sometimes even clear-cut. For example about when life ends or begins. But the Church and science give different answers, however the first hour no longer has many possibilities to affect society, which has become secular ”.

Does one give way to the other?

"In certain areas, yes. The Pope expresses an opinion, it is no longer a question of coercion. It also happens in Italy, which has the Pope at home but sends arms to Ukraine, legalizes abortion, young people have sex before marriage In short, for the believer, what the Church says is important but in the context of one's own conscience. The laws that we all respect are other, and they are those of the State ".

Is there a figure whose story deserves to be told?

"Many, from the beguines who are symbols of bigots, in the Middle Ages were independent women who gathered to pray without any male control, the heretics in the orders of the minor friars, such as the spirituals who are a current, or William the Bohemian, a heretic Milanese considered the reincarnation of the Holy Spirit: he had begun to have more and more followers and this had aroused the bishop's concerns. At the posthumous trial she was in fact condemned as a heretic, her bones were dug up, the ashes scattered, and even her faithful had a bad end ".

No heretics in Sardinia?

“It was a quiet place, perhaps because it was out of the way, perhaps because the control of the judges and the Spanish crowns was clear. A deficiency that I noticed while researching the book, but I'd like to investigate further ”.

The accabadora - the woman who in Sardinia is said to bring death to the terminally ill - would be a heretic or a witch?

“Accabadora is a case of witchcraft, of the persistence of traditional customs, including pagan ones, seen by the Church as demonic and therefore heretical manifestations. But in the context of the lower clergy and the villages there was a great mix ”.

In Sardinia there are several rites - 'eye medicine' for example - practiced by people who say they are religious. How is the sacred aspect reconciled with the profane one?

“These rites spread when the courts of the inquisition were there, the risk was of ending up in front of them, then it depended on the historical period, with phases of more or less intense repression. Today we consider them a mixture of pagan magic that the same religion has in many aspects. See the blood of San Gennaro, Lourdes, Fatima. For the Catholic these events are not an element of faith, he is not forced to believe them. Or the apparitions, the stigmata, how do we catalog them? Do we consider Padre Pio a Catholic or not? Catholicism has 2 thousand years of history, it is a great container ".

The two most current issues are Covid and the war in Ukraine: can elements of heresy be identified?

"In the abstract sense, there are people who do not believe in the presence of Covid, but we cannot speak of heresy as there is no real vaccination obligation from which people can exempt themselves by becoming heretics. On the international front at the moment I don't see heretics in power. Mario Draghi would be, for example, if he went to Kiev to say 'make peace otherwise I immolate myself under the Russian bombs'. Here, it would be a choice against the tide. Even the Pope makes a clear choice against the war, but it is not a heresy. It is different if a head of state pretended to speak to Vladimir Putin 'to understand his reasons', in this case yes, he would be considered a heretic ”.