Centro Culturale Lepanto (CCL) - Lepanto Cultural Center 1982-2008
A Catholic - inspired organization that has been publicly campaigning in defense of Church and Christian Civilization for 25 years
2008
January 22 – A delegation of CCL (Lepanto Cultural Center) has participated in activities taking place in Washington every year in the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 pronouncement with which the US Supreme Court legalized abortion. This year’s slogan was: "No compromise, no exception". CCL has also paraded in the national March for Life, bringing the solidarity of Italy for the common fight in defense of life and against abortion with a three-colour banner featuring the message "ITALY PRO-LIFE".
January 20 – A number of CCL supporters attended the Angelus of the Pope, thus heeding the call by cardinal Ruini to join a prayer meeting in solidarity with His Holiness Benedictus XVI, who had just been barred from giving a speech in the papal-founded university of Rome “La Sapienza”. The largest Rome daily, Il Messaggero, commented, “One cannot but not notice the standard of Centro Lepanto, where a crusader knight stands out”. The paper interviewed CCL president Fabio Bernabei, who decried “the campaign seeking to intimidate Catholics, in the delusion that they will renounce witnessing to their faith in public life.”
January 16 - CCL runs a half-page paid advertisement in the national edition of the daily “Il Tempo”, entitled “Can the Pope be master of Sapienza?” (also a pun, la Sapienza being the name of the University and meaning also ‘Wisdom’). The Lepanto Cultural Center manifesto is a detailed exposé of the vision of heirs to the '68 revolution, who contested the presence of H.H. Benedict XVI at the inauguration of the Academic Year of Rome’s University La Sapienza.
January 10 – CCL arranges an international Workshop in the Chamber of Deputies entitled “Kosovo: an inevitable independence?” together with “The Rockford Institute” and “Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studies”. Many scholars and experts, as well as representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church, have participated in the proceedings.
2007
December – CCL reopens and revamps its website www.lepanto.org with new graphics and richer contents.
October – Rome: Church of Jesus and Mary. During a solemn mass celebrated by Msgr Reverend Gilles Wach, Superior of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, CCL commemorates the victory at the battle of Lepanto in 1571 by hoisting its standard on the side of the altar.
September – In a media release Lepanto recalls the importance of the 100th anniversary of the encyclical letter Pascendi by Saint Pius X, with which he condemned modernism. We were the only ones to do so, amid a silence that has sought to stifle the celebration of a document still topical with regard to the evils it denounced.
CCL hails H.H. Benedict XVI “Motu Proprio” which liberalized the old traditional Latin Mass, participating in a solemn thanksgiving mass, which was sponsored by the friends of "Una Voce - Italy" in the Basilica of Loreto and celebrated by His Eminence Cardinal Dario Castrillòn Hoyos.
July - A CCL delegation participates with its unfurled standard in the nightly procession to the Marian sanctuary of Divino Amore (Divine Love), in reparation for that day’s Gay Pride parade in Rome.
May - With friends and members from around Italy, CCL participates in the “Family Day” rally upholding the traditional family in San Giovanni square, with a great banner in support of the true family against the legalization of cohabitation. The participation of Lepanto has been mentioned by a number of media, with its members being also interviewed by the far left Marxist daily “Il Manifesto”.
April - CCL participates in the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Our Lady’s apparitions in the sanctuary of Tre Fontane in Rome. On this occasion, we have disseminated an appeal which relates that Marian message to the present time and precisely to the persecution against the Church and in particular the Holy Father. Our initiative was reported on the first pages of “Il Messaggero” and “Libero”, and also by Radio Maria and in the American press, like the catholic weekly “The Wanderer”.
2003-2004-2005-2006
2006
Roberto De Mattei resigns from President and founding member of CCL. The Assembly of the founding members acknowledges his resignations and nominates Fabio Bernabei President.
2005
In the run up to the conclave an open letter on the crisis of the Church is addressed by CCL to the elector cardinals via a newspaper ad.
2003
With a conference in Rome CCL launches a photographic booklet focused on the Christian roots of Europe.
2002
Prof. Roberto De Mattei becomes cultural advisor to deputy Prime Minister and then minister of Foreign Affairs Gianfranco Fini, thereafter holding a number of political-institutional offices.
CCL holds a conference on the clash of civilizations titled “Winds of War - Hopes of Peace” in a Vatican-owned stately mansion in the heart of Rome, Palazzo della Cancelleria.
2001
During a conference in Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome to celebrate the 430th anniversary of the Christian victory in Lepanto (1571), CCL launches an appeal in defense of the Christian identity of Europe. Many aristocrat descendants from the fighters in that battle were in attendance.
As part of an awareness campaign on the dangers posed by the anti-globalist international movement, CCL disseminates a photographic documentation along with an essay entitled “The aggression to the institutions and citizens private property”, that reveals also the concealed aspects of the horrific riots in Genoa during the G8 summit.
After the tragic events of September 11th, it promotes a series of conferences to sound the alarm on the dangers of Muslim terrorism, supported by the pacifism of the western Left.
2000
CCL promotes the only significant demonstration to protest the World Gay Pride, due in Rome in connection with the Jubilee of 2000. The demonstration is concluded by a torchlit procession and a pilgrimage in protest and reparation to the sanctuary of the Madonna of Divino Amore (Our Lady of Divine Love). The event had world-wide repercussions, being extensively covered also by the global Catholic network EWTN.
It participates in the counter-summit of the defenders of national identities in Nice (France), as against the contemporary summit of the European Council. It launches a campaign on the dangers of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights which the European Parliament had just approved.
CCL officially participates with its standards in the solemn Mass in Saint Peter’s square for 1500 bishops to welcome the statue of the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady arrived directly from Fatima. It organizes an International Conference in Rome with cardinals and bishops on the true significance of the “third secret” of Fatima, which had just been revealed.
1999
The official mouthpiece of CCL, the journal “Lepanto”, is sold at a symbolic price to Associazione Fiducia presided over by De Mattei.
With the public message “Italy is against D’Alema”, CCL calls upon Hon. Silvio Berlusconi through a mass mailing initiative, viz. the spreading of hundreds of thousand of postcards, to resort to “a firm, opened and uncompromising opposition against D’Alema in the name of the natural and Christian Order of our Nation so seriously threatened”.
With a campaign based on a letter-study to all the members of Parliament CCL exposes D’Alema-led government’s attempt to outlaw any public criticism of initiatives contrary to moral principles. The campaign is opened by a conference near the Chamber of Deputies, with the participation of a number of parliamentarians of different political persuasion. It circulates a message against the proposed candidacy of the radical libertarian Emma Bonino to the Presidency of the Republic. To this purpose, CCL establishes civic committees around Italy.
It arranges an international conference in defense of a free school system and catholic education.
In connection with the 82th anniversary of Fatima apparitions, it runs the manifesto “Fatima, between war and peace in Kosovo: Tragedy or Hope?” as a paid ad in “Il Giornale”. CCL promotes also an international conference in Rome on the War in Europe in light of Fatima message, for the public opinion to be made aware of the topical importance of the Marian message on the eve of the Third millennium. The manifesto and the conference are widely covered by the national (“Il Giornale”, “Il Tempo”, “Borghese” and “Il Secolo d’Italia”) and international media.
1998
With a large banner reading “Anti-prohibitionism is crime”, CCL joins the great national demonstration convened in Rome by the main Communities of rehabilitation from drug addiction, against proposals of drug legalization.
As part of a protest campaign against the blasphemous film “Totò who lived twice”, it
disseminates over 10.000 leaflets in Rome alone. Subsequently it co-ordinates a series of reparatory initiatives, culminating in a great public rally in Rome to celebrate “The Glories of Mary”, with the participation of many senior representatives of the clergy.
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx, the CCL launches a campaign, with numerous positive reactions, calling for the immediate removal of any public plaque honouring Marx, Lenin and Togliatti.
It arranges a great pilgrimage to Turin for its members and supporters from around Italy to venerate the Holy Shroud, exceptionally on display for the Jubilee.
Together with over a million people, a CCL large delegation takes part in an anti-communist national demonstration with its standards and a huge banner reading “Catholic Italy is anti-communist”. On the occasion thousands of copies of a special issue of its quarterly “Lepanto” were distributed with the main title “A tragic hour for the Nation”. The presence of the “ultra-Catholics of the Lepanto Cultural Center” is pointed out in a number of Italian and foreign media.
1997
CCL celebrates the 80th anniversary of Fatima apparitions calling for the Holy See to reveal the “third secret” and convening an important international symposium in Rome together with Association “Luci sull’Est”.
In the wake of its activity “For an Italy based on traditional and familiar values”, CCL jointly with Associazione Famiglia Domani organizes a conference in a hotel across the Chamber of Deputies with the participation of several MPs of different political parties.
CCL joins the initiatives to celebrate the 2nd Centenary of the Italian anti-Jacobin “uprisings”.
It revamps its international activities with conferences in Belgium and Switzerland.
It convenes a press conference in the European Parliament in Brussels in order to denounce the ideological use of EU institutions by the radical drug liberalizers of the Anti Prohibitionist Radical Coordination, CORA.
1996
It strives for the nation’s public life to be re-moralized, by launching a public message, “For Italy of traditional and family values”, and organizing important conferences in Rome and Milan on this topic.
It prints and circulates the dossier ‘Church and homosexuality: the reasons of an immutable condemnation’, showing that homosexuality has been constantly, unquestionably and irrevocably condemned by the Church in its documents, from the first fathers to date. The French and German translations are printed by two prestigious catholic publishers (Téqui and Christiana Verlag), with an introduction by the late Cardinal Alfons Stickler.
Its appeal-manifesto: ‘Prodi: the Italian Kerensky?’, run on an entire page of "Il Giornale" of May 14th, marks the beginning of a wide-ranging public campaign on the dangers of the Prodi-led catholic-Communist government. The manifesto is re-launched during a conference in the prestigious Augustinianum auditorium adjacent to Saint Peter square.
Presentations of Roberto De Mattei’s book “The crusader of XX century”, the first biography of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, are brought about around the nation.
It publishes articles on the dangers posed by an imminent bill on transplants, decrying the legal enforcement of the pseudo-scientific criterion of "brain death".
"No to tax persecution. Private property is a natural right": with this enormous 2 meters high and 10 meters long banner CCL participates in a November 9th demonstration in Rome, joining over a million people who took the streets in protest against government’s policies. The "note of seriousness and combativeness" is emphasized by the media, with the daily "L’Unità" describing the public appearance of Lepanto as "terrifying".
1995
The CCL leads the protest campaign against the EU parliament resolution for full legalization of the “homosexual family” and its adoption “rights”. Together with Associazione Famiglia Domani, it establishes nationwide Committees for the collection of signatures and a Committee of international support, to which over 100 personalities of the political and cultural milieus grant their adhesion.
Over 150.000 signatures, collected in a very short time, were delivered to the Italian Prime Minister and the President of the European Parliament urging them to defend the family from the attack waged by the relativist motley forces.
Upon the inauguration of the mosque in Rome, CCL organizes a prayer campaign calling for Rome to preserve its character of Holy City and remain the center of universal Catholicism. CCL makes worldwide headlines when also the then speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Irene Pivetti, joins the first prayer meeting convened in the nearby church of St. Aloysius Gonzaga.
It publishes a series of articles against the manipulation of saint Francis of Assisi into an icon of pacifism.
To honour the figure of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, a high-ranking CCL delegation participates in his funerals in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in the solemn Mass for his soul a month after his death and in the following public conference held in Rome in November 11th near the Vatican.
1994
An international protest campaign, against the EU parliament’s resolution asking for member states to legalize the "homosexual" family, is set in motion by CCL. A three language (English, French and Italian) appeal-petition entitled “Europe in Strasburg, represented or betrayed?” is delivered to all the European MPs. The text is partially re-printed in two Italian dailies, "Il Tempo" and "Il Giornale d’Italia", in the run up to the European elections, and then sent all the European bishops in French and English.
Through its publishing arm “Edizioni Fiducia”, CCL produces a study entitled “The Center that brought us to the Left”, focused on the ambiguities of centrism and the historic responsibilities of the DC (Christian Democrat) Party in the process of de-Christianization of society. Over ten thousand copies are disseminated just prior of crucial general elections.
1993
The greatest mosque in Europe is inaugurated amid a CCL-driven protest campaign, also against the mooted proposal of a concordat between Muslim communities and the Italian State. The campaign is opened by a conference in the Chamber of Deputies’ Cenacolo Hall under the title “The mosque in Rome: why? Problems of Muslim immigration to Italy”. CCL publishes an appeal to the Bishops and the Church hierarchy as a paid ad in "Il Giornale", distributing to 30.000 pilgrims in Rome a four page bilingual (English-Italian) manifesto during Holy Week. Also this campaign will have world-wide repercussions.
“Islam: what it thinks, what it wants” by Stefano Nitoglia is published through CCL Edizioni Fiducia.
CCL launches the French version of its official mouthpiece, “Lepanto”.
CCL campaigns in Rome against the left-wing candidate in the mayoral election, Francesco Rutelli, whose platform provides for the old-style communism to be replaced by an ecological and libertarian neo-communism. On this occasion it circulates 50.000 copies of a short essay, “Rome: from eternal City to metropolis of chaos?”, which is taken up by various newspapers, including "Il Tempo" and "Il Messaggero".
Under the sponsorship of the late Princess Elvina Pallavicini, it convenes an international Conference on the role of traditional nobility and analogous elites, showing that their presence is a pre-requisite for the cultural and moral revival of society. For the number and the calibre of the participants, the media speak of "The States General of the Italian aristocracy". On the occasion it presented the book “Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pio XII” (to the Patriciate and the Roman Nobility) by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira.
1992
With lobbying initiatives in the Chamber of Deputies and a series of public conferences CCL, together with Associazione Famiglia Domani, campaigns against the attempted introduction by stealth of the so-called sex education at school.
It launches the German version of its journal, “Lepanto Bote”.
A lonely voice in Italy, CCL sounds the alarm on the Treaty of Maastricht with an international awareness campaign, exposing it as contrary to the Christian roots of Europe and the common sentiments of its citizens; it delivers a critical study (in the four major languages of the European Community) on the same topic to the European parliamentarians and a relevant letter to the Italian MPs.
CCL campaigns on the dangers of the world-wide ecologist revolution, promoted by the summit of Rio de Janeiro, that plans to introduce tribalism in the West and launch a "new polytheism".
It joins the celebration for the 500th anniversary of the discovery and evangelization of the Americas.
1991
Several presentations of the book “1900-2000, due sogni si succedono, la costruzione, la distruzione” (1900-2000, a dream after the other, the construction, the destruction) are organized around Italy.
A CCL press release decrying the sexual revolution propaganda drives by youth leftist formations in front of state schools is reported on by several newspapers, including “Il Tempo” and “L’Unità”.
As part of a campaign against “the decomposition of Italy as nation State”, CCL publishes a manifesto, “To undo Italy, in order to undo Italians?”, as a paid ad in “Corriere della Sera” and “Il Giornale”.
1990
CCL launches a protest campaign against the Italian tour of the porn blasphemous singer Luisa Veronica Ciccone, self-nicknamed Madonna, calling upon the Italian bishops conference CEI to take a clear stand on the issue. Pamphleteering and reparation ceremonies are organized by CCL in several cities, whose repercussions in the Italian and international media will ultimately lead to the flop of her tour.
The dangers posed by the European Union project are exposed by an awareness campaign, which CCL launches on the occasion of the Rome intergovernmental Conference on the unification of the continental economies.
A special issue of “Lepanto” is devoted to the apostolic Letter of saint Pio X “Notre charge apostolique” (1910) against the catholic political progressivism.
A new book is out, “1900-2000, due sogni si succedono, la costruzione, la distruzione”. A result of in-depth research by a CCL study commission, it denounces the dangers of the anarchical and postmodern revolution promoted by the new international left, contrasting them with the principles and the ideals which premised the greatness of European Civilization.
1989
On the occasion of Gorbaciov’s visit to Rome, with a big conference CCL sounds the alarm on the traps of his perestrojka and its attempted "world-wide historical compromise" between communism and the West.
Through its pro-family arm, Association Famiglia Domani, it campaigns against a Soviet-style legislation aimed at introducing a mandatory sex “education” in all primary and secondary schools, both public and private. As a result of an intense lobbying in Parliament, this attempt is thwarted.
It joins the counter-celebrations for the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution in Italy and France, decrying its fundamentally anti-christian essence.
1988
With the conference “20 years after 1968, where is the Italian family heading to?”, CCL decries both the process of moral decay and the legislative strategy against the family. On this occasion a newly established organization, Associazione Famiglia Domani (AFD) is presented to the public.
CCL launches a campaign against the blasphemous film ‘The last temptation of Christ’ with the message “Before a public blasphemy, when silence means consent” in two dailies, "Il Tempo" and "Avvenire". It disseminates 10.000 leaflets during its screening at the world-renowned Venice International Film Festival and took to the streets together with AFD, calling on Catholic faithful to mobilise in defence of their faith.
CCL publishes a lengthy study on the Holy Shroud upholding its authenticity, in reactions to the efforts of those who would like to deny it.
It circulates among Italian MPs a study on the transplants of organs, denouncing the relevant bill as a preparation for euthanasia to be legalized.
During the official celebrations for the first centenary of saint John Bosco death in Turin, it distributes over 10.000 copies of a special number of its quarterly "Lepanto" devoted to revive the memory of this extraordinary saint.
1987
CCL publishes in the daily "Il Giornale" a paid ad entitled “Where is Italy heading to?”, exposing the growing moral and civil crisis of our Nation and therefore casting serious doubts on the future of Italian society.
The text is propagated in the run up to the general elections and occasioned by the debate following the 40th anniversary of the Republican Constitution.
The repercussions of and the adhesions to the appeal, subsequently taken up by other papers, give CCL initiative a national dimension.
Its quarterly “Lepanto” denounces the dangers posed by the resumption of catholic-communist "dialogue" on the occasion of an important conference in Budapest.
1986
CCL prints a booklet, to be disseminate in sanctuaries and shrines: “The secret of Fatima: tragedy and hope”, which analyzes the reasons underlying the contemporary spiritual crisis and sets out the conditions a Christian rebirth.
A photographic dossier of unpublished material, exposing the desecrations endured by churches in Assisi during an unprecedented ecumenical gathering for peace, is run as a special issue of "Corrispondenza Romana" with a world-wide echo.
It campaigns on the dangers of neo-communism and the offensive of a newborn Muslim-inspired terrorism.
It publishes a series of articles on the first implications of the New Concordat in the area of school tuition.
Under the sponsorship of the late Princess Elvina Pallavicini, CCL celebrates the 250th anniversary of the death of Prince Eugenio of Savoia. A number of personalities of the ecclesiastical, political and cultural domains are in attendance.
1985
It campaigns against the blasphemous film “Je vous salue Marie” (Hail Mary), the first of a long series of derogatory "art" works making a mockery of our faith and Christian values. CCL also launches a series of public reparations, disseminating its leaflet “Against a blasphemous outrage, prayer and penance”.
It prints and disseminates nationwide the book “Catholic Italy and the New Concordat”, cautioning on the danger for this accord to worsen the process of de-Christianization of Italy.
It launches a weekly publication, "Corrispondenza Romana", edited by Stefano Nitoglia, the first information newsletter from traditional-inspired circles.
1984
A CCL message to Italy’s catholic authorities exposes the dangerous consequences of the New Concordat, which is not "a simple review, but a real revolution in Church-State relations". The message, entitled “Should a catholic prefer a state heathen in religion?” appeared also in two dailies, "Il Tempo" and "Il Giornale".
The first Italian edition of the “Book of confidence” by Father Thomas de Saint-Laurent is translated and printed in CCL official quarterly “Lepanto”.
Thousand copies of a handy study are disseminated during protest demonstrations against a growing fiscal persecution.
1983
CCL arranges protest demonstrations against the red carpet treatment reserved to the Secretary of PCI (Italy’ Communist Party) Enrico Berlinguer by the friars of St. Francis Convent in Assisi. Here CCL distributes over 30.000 fliers entitled: “Berlinguer in Assisi: what understanding is possible?”, to denounce the support by progressive-liberal clergy to PCI. The initiative sends shock waves throughout the catholic milieu.
Quarterly "Lepanto" features an articulated reflection on the "Polish anomaly", namely the "cohabitation" between the catholic Church and the communist State in Poland.
On the occasion of October 22nd March for Peace, CCL issues a media statement to decry as “paradoxical” any form of “understanding between Catholics and Communists on peace, when peace is enduring a world-wide threat by the ideological imperialism of USSR, whose aim is the erasing of Christian Civilization". The media statement was taken up by several dailies, including "Corriere della Sera", "La Stampa" and “Il Tempo”.
CCL contributes to re-launch in Italy a Manifesto by the late catholic thinker Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira on the snares of self-managed Socialism, canvassed around Europe by the Socialist International and in particular by Mitterrand and Craxi, revealing its true, disguised nature of false alternative to communism.
1982
Centro Culturale Lepanto (Lepanto Cultural Center) is officially established in Rome and Roberto De Mattei is electeds as President. Among its first public initiatives, it starts producing its official quarterly, "Lepanto".