Roman Catholics: Rebellion in the Backyard

Florence, the city where Girolamo Savonarola preached in defiance of a Renaissance Pope, Alexander VI, has another rebel priest on its hands. In fact, the name of Don Enzo Mazzi, 41, has already become known all over Italy as a symbol of the clerical protest that has broken out even in Roman Catholicism’s own backyard.

Father Mazzi was for 14 years pastor of the church of Santa Maria Delle Grazie in the drab, working-class Florentine suburb of Isolotto. On the theory that conventional methods would have no impact on his parishioners, most of whom regularly vote Communist or Socialist, Mazzi shucked his cassock and collar for the jacket and high-necked sweater of the Italian workman.

He performed Masses, marriages and funeral services without accepting the customary stipends, and converted his rectory into an orphanage. Although Mazzi’s ecclesiastical superiors were cool to his worker-priest style, they could hardly complain. Membership in his parish increased from 100 to 2,500, and in 1957 he was able to finance the construction of a new and larger church.

Insulting Attitude. Father Mazzi’s troubles began last September, when a group of left-wing Catholic laymen in nearby Parma briefly occupied the city’s cathedral to protest what they called “episcopal authoritarianism.” Mazzi, along with three other priests and 150 Florentine laymen, sent the rebels a letter of support. Florence’s archbishop, Ermenegildo Cardinal Florit, then wrote Mazzi, reproving him for “an insulting attitude to the authority of the church.” Florit ordered the priest to retract his letter or resign. Mazzi refused, and 108 priests of the city petitioned the cardinal to re-examine his condemnation.

Last month Mazzi compounded his defiance by privately publishing a children’s catechism that he had been using for religious instruction in Isolotto. The catechism stressed the working-class origins of Jesus. Cardinal Florit forbade other Florence priests to use the catechism and complained that it portrayed Christ only as an “agitator” and would contribute to “social tension.” Once again he asked Mazzi to resign.

Threat to Unity. When Mazzi refused, the cardinal unceremoniously fired him, on the ground that his presence in Isolotto was a threat to “ecclesiastical unity.” Shortly thereafter more than 1,500 of Mazzi’s parishioners trekked through pouring rain for a protest demonstration outside the cathedral, where the cardinal was saying Mass—in Latin. Later, 40 Roman residents, to demonstrate support for Mazzi, held a sit-in in St. Peter’s Square below Pope Paul’s apartment.

Last week the cardinal explained that he had removed Mazzi not as punishment but for “a period of reflection” —possibly hinting at a more conciliatory position. As for Don Mazzi, he insisted that if he is not reinstated, he will seek a job in Isolotto as an electrician’s apprentice. “To obey the hierarchy is to ignore the deepest needs of the poor,” he said. “But to satisfy these needs is to encounter the opposition of the hierarchy. So we have to become either Pharisees or rebels. And we don’t want to become either.”