Fathers and children of the Church

Abstract

The title of this paper ought to have been expanded with a sub-title which said something more or less like this:- "Observations of a son of the Catholic Church on the teaching of Fr. Benedict Calati, faithful disciple of Gregory the Great, chief of the Fathers of the Christian church of the West." All I have to say, in fact, is nothing but an expression of my awareness of the Fathers of the Western Church gained from the constant attention that a Camaldolese monk such as I am has tried to give to the reading of the Fathers. For more than forty years I have been helped along the way to God by my abbot and spiritual Father in the monastic life at Camaldoli in Italy.