My diabetic grandfather is more transgressive when you shoot a spoonful of Nutella ”: Don Fabrizio Gatta, former Rai journalist and now parish priest in Sanremo, softens the tone with his usual sympathy when he comments on the performance of Achille Lauro. «I agree with what Bishop Suetta said – he adds, but then again with irony he continues:« He washed his hair singing Rolls Royce, right? Perhaps, if he had presented himself on stage dressed and without making antics we would talk about the fact that he has been repeating the same song for three years. This is conformism ». Even if he then underlines the role of artistic director of Amadeus, adding that “he could mediate, advise and make people think”.
Achille Lauro is used to making people argue. This time the theme is his self-baptism at the Ariston, practically worldwide thanks to the internet, right at the beginning of the festival, since it was the first scheduled for the first evening. To comment in a very dry tone is the bishop of the diocese of Ventimiglia-Sanremo, Monsignor Antonio Suetta: “He mocked and profaned the sacred signs of the Catholic faith by evoking the gesture of Baptism in a silly and desecrating context”.
The title, “Domenica”, did not like the pastor. Least of all the artist’s gestures, “not only offensive to religion, but above all to the dignity of man”. Suetta stresses that “the public service cannot and must not allow such situations” and hopes that “someone will intervene at an institutional level”.
But the Rai leaders do not actually agree with him and defend the performance: the director of Rai 1 Stefano Coletta explains that “on our part there is no desire to convey ideologies or transgressions” and reports that in reality “Achille Lauro has declared that his gesture is a message to his mother “and that” it was going in the direction of a rebirth: perhaps his language lends itself to interpretations which, however, I do not think are the right ones “.
On the other hand, another Fr, Carmelo La Magra, a former parish priest of Lampedusa, committed to migrants, minimizes: «I do not see any blasphemous message in what he did. Perhaps it is the sign that our culture is so pervaded by the Christian faith that we are unable not to decline the messages we want to give except through the signs of faith “.
Bishop Suetta is not new to conservative views (he has spoken out in the past against the so-called “gender ideology” and more recently against abortion), but this time many are supporting him, even in the city. Last year it was the crown of thorns, which always evoked Jesus, that made people discuss. This year the “baptism”. Precisely because of his proposing and re-proposing these gestures, there are those who prefer to gloss over, not give importance. Like L’Osservatore Romano: «Nothing new. There has been no more transgressive message in history than that of the Gospel ». «I too am very much a believer – concludes Amadeus – but as a Catholic I was not at all disturbed. I don’t think he wanted to be disrespectful. An artist must act freely ».