The Torn Tunic

<p>Copies of this little book by the Tuscan writer Tito Casini (1897-1987) first appeared in the bookshops of</p><p>Rome in 1967. It was described in the Italian press as a literary atomic bomb or <em>pyrobolus atomicus</em>-a</p><p>term found in the Italian-Latin dictionary of Cardinal Bacci who had served four popes in the drawing up</p><p>of major documents and who contributed a daring foreword to Casini's <em>cri de cœur</em> against the</p><p>vulgarization of Catholic liturgy in the name of reform. Representing both the common man and the</p><p>educated of his day Casini spares nothing and no one in his defense of cherished traditions and his</p><p>critique of utopian innovations. Although the process of relentless <em>aggiornamento</em> churned on</p><p>inexorably in spite of such protests Casini's work stands today as both a powerfully moving record of the</p><p>struggles of the early traditionalist movement caught by surprise in the maelstrom of Montini's</p><p>pontificate and an exemplary exercise of the <em>parrhesia</em> or boldness that belongs to the baptized in Christ.</p><p><em>The Torn Tunic</em> was in its day a testimonial of profound love for tradition in the face of callous contempt;</p><p>for readers over half a century later it reads like a prophecy of better days to come when the same</p><p>tradition surviving against all odds would be rediscovered by new generations.</p>