Neptune? Didn’t Caligula boot him out of town?
There’s a study out there, published in The Catholic Herald, that states “Italy’s Catholics reverting to ancient Roman gods, seers, and sorcerors”–by the thousands and ten thousands (https://catholicherald.co.uk/italian-catholics-reverting-to-ancient-roman-gods-seers-and-sorcerers/).
It looks like the kind of New Age claptrap we find in America and Britain, picking up steam in Italy. But how can that be? The Vatican! St. Peter’s! Soothsayers? Fortune-tellers? Roman gods–that even the Romans didn’t quite believe in, going down the stretch. Native Roman religion was on life support even before the Senate declared Augustus Caesar a god.
Pope Francis I has made remarks which have so far proved ineffectual. What’s the College of Cardinals doing? And I don’t think lugging the Pachamama idol into the Vatican was a good idea. Sort of set a bad example, dontcha know.
Pray for the Church in Italy. We’re all in the same boat.
[P.S.–You have no idea how I want to go back to bed.]