Or the deepest reason, if you want. I am referring here to the fact that Catholicism has turned its back on Love; that is, Catholicism has rejected Love.

            We must take into consideration that Love is the fundamental reality or the Keystone of Christianity: I give you a new commandment…(Jn 13:34). Let me mention here a crucial example: the theologies which in some editorial I have termed Theologies of Goodness reject the existence of Hell, or they reduce it to a merely real possibility (which is exactly the same thing) because they do not admit the reality of a Love which has been offered freely, totally, and eternally …could Perfect Love be offered in any other way? Consequently they do not admit the possibility that such Love may also be rejected freely, totally and forever –which is precisely what the existence of Hell means.

            But Perfect Love –which has been freely and totally offered, and which, therefore, also expects to be freely and totally accepted—is a radical reality, something which nowadays does not enjoy good press. Nevertheless, the Doctrine which preaches the Good News of Divine Love offered to man (Christianity) has been distorted (made to fade away) into merely human theories which are utterly unable to fill the human heart: If salt has lost its taste, it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men. The Doctrine of Totality, for which the human heart has been created (Saint Augustine’s You made us, O Lord, for you…) has decomposed and become the doctrine of multiple and unsatisfactory substitutes.

            But Christianity does not admit to compromises. When what is at stake is the following of Jesus Christ and the things of this world could be obstacles standing in the way, the disciple has to even be willing to despise or hate that which he loves the most: If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple (Lk 14:26). Although it is evident that these words cannot be taken at face value –it is a matter not of hates but of a correct hierarchical order within Love, or, better yet, of putting true Love in its proper place—, it is also true that those words must be seriously taken for what they exactly mean, without diminishing their categorical firmness. The radical expressions used by Jesus Christ have no other purpose but to state most clearly the extreme seriousness of a doctrine which cannot even risk to be taken lightly. It is in this sense that we can say that, in spite of their hardness, the Master’s words fully keep their literal meaning. The danger of understanding them too literally, although real, is not nearly as common as the danger of reading or hearing them in a superficial way; for it is not a matter of merely removing the obstacles which put a stop to Love, but of carrying out a profound, radical, and merciless eradication of anything which could stand in the way of corresponding to the Love of Jesus Christ with complete totality.

            And the categorical character of these expressions which have been used to reaffirm the radical nature of a fundamental Doctrine has further implications. Everything which in one way or another is contrary to or a hindrance to true Love must be decisively and unhesitatingly uprooted. Even if it is something very close to one’s own life, or even a part of it: If your right eye scandalize you, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is expedient for you that one of your members should perish, rather than your whole body be cast into hell. And if your right hand scandalize you, cut it off, and cast it from you; for it is expedient for you that one of your members should perish, rather than that your whole body go into hell (Mt 5: 29—30).

            Can anybody tell me what all this has to do with the Catholicism of the Gatherings and Youth Days, or of those huge ecclesiastical Concentrations which are show business rather than anything with real content? or with the Catholicism of the Conceding (Interconfessional) Dialogue? or with the Catholicism of a Jesus Christ who is considered a Myth fabricated by the primitive community? or perhaps with the Catholicism of the goodness of all religions and of the respect for each one’s own truth? or with the Catholicism of the oblivion of the meaning of sin, of hell considered as a mere possibility, of individual and free morality, of the oblivion of the Sacraments? or perhaps with the Catholicism which has turned the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass into a festive and happy Meal of  Fellowship and Solidarity…? And these are just small examples.