AEROPLANE TO AEROPLANO

     Father Bergoglio and the Argentine Iron Guard      by Massimo Introvigne      (translated and edited by L. Pavese)      In the past few days, the international media have been entertaining us on the relations between the Jesuit Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis I, and an Argentine political organization called the Iron Guard. A few articles were quite accurate; others created considerable confusion, leaving one with the impression that the Holy Father belonged to a dangerous “fascist” association, or to a “communist” one, depending on the inclination of the writers. The true story is curious enough to deserve to be clearly told.           The political life of 20th century Argentina up to our present day has been vastly dominated by that typically Argentine phenomenon called “Justicialísmo” (the Movement for Justice), or Peronism, from the name of its founder, General Juan Domingo Perón (1895-1974). General Perón was president of Argentina from 1946

Falling from Great Heights By Roberto Vacca Translated and re-elaborated (a bit) by Leonardo Pavese Lieutenant Giovanni Badalini of the Italian Royal Air Force completed 180 bombing missions over Malta. He was awarded one gold medal and two silver medals for military valor. On July 13, 1943, his S.M. 79 tri-motor bomber was shot down by a British fighter and dove to the ground. Badalini was ejected from the aircraft and fell at a speed greater than 310 mph. His parachute opened almost immediately and decelerated his fall so abruptly it caused him serious internal injuries. Normally, airmen who are ejected at high speed wait for the air resistance to slow them down to about 120 mph before opening their parachutes. After spending about 15 hours in the sea, Badalini was rescued by a British ship. After the Armistice , he went back to fly for the Italian Royal Force, this time against the Nazis; but before that he had to carry out a liaison mission wit

L'invincibile ignoranza di Thomas Sowell (Traduzione di L. Pavese). Ma è proprio inevitabile che ogni evento tragico, in cui qualcuno spara contro un gruppo di persone, faccia emergere la totale ignoranza di coloro che propongono il “controllo” delle armi da fuoco? L’errore chiave delle cosiddette norme di controllo delle armi è che certe leggi in realtà non le controllano affatto, ma non fanno altro che disarmare i cittadini rispettosi della legge, mentre coloro i quali sono più inclini alla violenza trovano tutte le armi che vogliono a loro disposizione. Se i fanatici della restrizione delle armi da fuoco avessero solo un po’ di rispetto per il dato di fatto lo avrebbero scoperto un bel po’ di tempo fa, perché nel corso degli anni sono stati fatti numerosi studi, i quali non lasciano più nessun dubbio sul fatto che le leggi intese alla limitazione delle armi da fuoco siano non solo futili ma anche controproducenti. Le località, e i periodi, in cui le norme sul

     The New 20th Century Martyrs of the Russian Church, killed by Communists, in the Icon of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.      In 1917, the Russian Orthodox Church numbered about 210,000 members of the clergy (100,000 monks and more than 110,000 diocesan priests). More than 130,000 of them were shot in the period between 1917 and 1941, during the violent persecutions through which the communist regime tried to wipe out the Christian faith in the Soviet Union.      As many as 250 of the bishops present in Russia in 1917 were shot. The other ones survived in prisons or concentration camps, or in any case under severely restrictive conditions. In 1941 there were only four free bishops.      The persecution hit Catholics as well. In 1917 there lived in Russia about two million Catholics who could count on about one thousand priests, 600 churches and as many chapels, two seminaries and one theological university faculty. In 1940 there remained only two priests and two chur