Rome, Italy, Nov 25, 2021 / 11:00 am (CNA).
No, it does not seem as if Pope Francis is going to resign. Indeed, his dynamism and desire to do things, working to bring the Church closer to the people, should be appreciated.
That is how Cardinal Matteo Zuppi responded when asked if the Pope Francis era was about to come to an end.
The questions, however, were legitimate because they were asked at the launch of a book explicitly addressing the papacy’s future.
Zuppi was on a panel for the Nov. 18 presentation of the book “Cosa Resta del Papato? Il futuro della Chiesa dopo Bergoglio” (“What Remains of the Papacy? The future of the Church after Bergoglio”), by the Italian Vaticanist Francesco Antonio Grana.
The book examines what the institution of the papacy is and what it can become after the resignation of Benedict XVI and the pontificate of Pope Francis.
It reconstructs the last part of Benedict XVI’s pontificate, revealing that among the few people aware of the forthcoming resignation was Italy’s then president, Giorgio Napolitano. The book also offers a glimpse of what the next conclave might look like.
Returning from Slovakia in September, Pope Francis had complained about the prelates who were allegedly already seeking to identify his successor. For this reason, the presence of a cardinal at the launch of a book that also looks at the papal succession risked being viewed as part of a “hidden electoral campaign.”
This is especially the case as Zuppi, the archbishop of Bologna, northern Italy, is seen by many as one of the possible papabili in a future conclave.
A leading figure in the Community of Sant’Egidio, and known internationally also for his role as a peace mediator in Mozambique, Zuppi has nevertheless always maintained a low-key and ascetic profile. This approach made him a beloved parish priest, first at the Rome church of Santa Maria in Trastevere and then in a parish on the city’s outskirts.
His hierarchical ascent began with his appointment as an auxiliary bishop of Rome in 2012. He was then called by Pope Francis to be archbishop of Bologna, a major Italian see, in 2015, receiving the cardinal’s red hat in 2019.
Zuppi’s presence at the book launch was all the more striking because he is a cardinal loved by Pope Francis, who gives little indication of wanting to detach himself from the legacy of the reigning pope and always defends his pastoral activities. (The one exception might be his decision not to clamp down severely on the Traditional Latin Mass in his archdiocese following the motu proprio Traditionis custodes.)
The 66-year-old cardinal’s words at the book launch were cautious. He began by reflecting on the book’s title. He then focused on the Statio Orbis of March 27, 2020: the solitary prayer in St. Peter’s Square in which Pope Francis asked for an end to the pandemic. Zuppi said that on that occasion, “for the first time, Ecclesialese — the language spoken among us priests — became the common language.”
Speaking of the crisis in the Church, Zuppi said that “we can spend a lifetime arguing among ourselves, fueling an internal conflict. But the point is that it is a crisis, generative of something new.”
He stressed that John XXIII was considered “a simpleton, who seemed to impoverish the greatness of the Church,” and that Benedict XVI “defined himself as a humble worker in the Lord’s vineyard.”
In short, Francis is not, according to Zuppi, a pope who is diminishing the institution’s importance. Rather, he is giving it a new impetus. So much so, that there is “anything but an air of resignation,” Zuppi said. “In the many decisions he has made, and in the processes he has initiated, there is a great awareness and sense of the future.”
He added: “Pope Francis tells us that there is so much to do now, and he helps us not to have a renunciatory attitude, as a retreating minority. His significant reform is pastoral and missionary conversion.”
“He allows us to place ourselves in an evangelical, straightforward way, close to the people, and shows us some priorities for a Church that speaks to the heart. He helps us to be more Church, in a world that makes identity fade.”
There was also talk of the Zan bill, a proposed anti-homophobia law discussed in the Italian Senate. The Holy See presented a formal diplomatic note to the Italian state, highlighting that the bill violated the Concordat between the Holy See and Italy as part of the freedom of education.
It was not an opinion of the Holy See, but rather a diplomatic initiative to avoid the violation of a treaty. One of the panelists, Peter Gomez, director of IlFattoquotidiano.it, suggested erroneously that the Holy See expresses an opinion and the secular state is free to make its own decisions. But this was not the focus of the discussion.
Zuppi has repeatedly refused to address the controversy publicly. Many have interpreted this as a tactical move. The general assembly of the Italian bishops’ conference is currently discussing who should be its next president. Zuppi is one of the leading candidates to succeed Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia-Città della Pieve.
Then there is the question of the next conclave that continues to hang over Zuppi. It was the author of the book himself, Francesco Grana, who sought to damp down any speculation. He explained that, despite its arresting title, the book was not presenting a manifesto.
He referred to a book recently published by Andrea Riccardi, founder of the community with which Zuppi is closely associated.
“Andrea Riccardi, the founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio, wrote the book ‘The Church burns.’ And if the Church burns, how can we not ask ourselves about the papacy of the future?” he asked.
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I don’t enjoy saying this but most of the people in this Vatican make me want to vomit.
“Pope Francis tells us that there is so much to do now” …
Aka, there is more demolition to be done…
Spare us, O Lord….
Those who walk in to the conclave expecting white, walk out with the blues… Thank you Holy Spirit.
“Pope Francis tells us that there is so much to do now …. His significant reform is pastoral and missionary conversion.”
I agree. Our Lord has given us a Vicar that His Church is desperately in need of. Not only are there progressives to deal with, but also a stubborn element that is refusing to budge, to allow the Church to be relevant in today’s world. Protesting groups in the past did the right thing and left the Church. Today, the protestants from the left and the right stay put, hoping to take over the Church. They do not realize that millions of us are with the Pope and will not let them destroy the Church.
Another member of the Corruption Network pushing for “reform” (i.e Demolition) of the Church.
We read: “….Zuppi, the archbishop of Bologna, northern Italy, is seen by many as one of the possible papabili in a future conclave.” For those interested, and for those responsible for voting at the conclave, the problematic Zuppi is afforded a full 47 pages in Edward Pentin, “The Next Pope: The [19] Leading Cardinal Candidates” (Sophia Institute Press, 2020), pp. 620-667.
From the book I select but one entry in his complex, nuanced and (some imply evasive at times), profile: “…individual religions will point their faithful to the future reality of our entire planet, that is, living together and thinking of each other…in this unique, extraordinary home that is earth. Each religion has the duty to teach its faithful how to live together with others.”
He clarifies that there “will not be the ‘supermarket of religions’; the future will not be a ‘super-religion’! [….] “a kind of UN of religions might frighten some, since it would mean that then there is also a ‘super-religion’ above all others. [Better he said], is “a meeting between a friend who invites his friend, rather than a cold institution.” Maybe like the World Parliament of Religions at the Chicago World’s Columbia Exposition of 1894!
The naivete! The post-Christian Thomas Hobbs in a red hat, and wearing a smiley button. The Leviathan in a suit and tie.
Instead of downplaying the total uniqueness of the Word made flesh, and in Him the graced elevation of our human nature into the divine life of the Second Person, we have, what?
In an earlier situation of collapsing cosmologies, St. Augustine, sixteen centuries ago, already connected our growing (and mass production) passions to a finite world: “[the passions, he said] are more easily mortified finally in those who love God, than satisfied, even for a time, in those who love the world.” (Advice to a Military Commander Boniface,” Letter 199, in Henry Paolucci (ed.), The Political Writings of St. Augustine, 1962, p. 285). Yes, belt-tightening is counseled in John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus and Francis’ Laudato si.
But, despite our grasping nature, we are made for a supernatural, beatific vision beyond our natural selves and reach (i.e., “how to live together with others” AND with the OTHER?). In Revealed Religion we find ourselves with both the non-modernist predisposition called original sin and the incarnate gift of Redemption. Natural religions (e.g., Islam) know no such truths. So, for starters, perhaps we might hang our red hat on fraternity (the Abu Dhabi Declaration), but Christianity is forever radically more than one among the many. Likewise, each transcendent human person.
Is the Church, founded by Christ, really a “cold institution?” What, exactly, is the “missionary” part of synodality?