“Whoever Doesn’t Have a Good Relationship With Pope Francis, Isn’t Catholic “

At the end of the year, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi waves his rod against critics of the Fiducia Supplicans pontificate

 (Rome) Resistance to the Roman declaration Fiducia supplicans on homosexual blessings is internal.  There is great indignation among the faithful, including in Italy, where the maxim of not wanting to be “more papal than the Pope” applies.  Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the chairman of the Italian Bishops' Conference, now threatened to use the rod to discipline the clergy and believers.

Today TV2000, the bishops' television station, is broadcasting an interview with the cardinal as a review of the year and an outlook.  Zuppi, with his unmistakable Roman accent, belongs to the Community of Sant'Egidio.  He was appointed archbishop of Bologna, Italy's left-wing stronghold par excellence, by Pope Francis and created a cardinal.  Zuppi is very close to Francis and is used by him as a peace mediator in the Ukrainian war.  In addition, the 68-year-old cardinal is considered the Bergoglian papabile in the next conclave.

A central content of the interview was distributed in advance by the Italian state press agency ANSA.  The wish is that this part of the message in particular should reach people.  According to ANSA, Zuppi first emphasizes:

 “There is a good dialectical relationship between the Italian Church and Pope Francis.”

To then get to the actual message:

"If you're Catholic and you don't have good relations with the Pope, then maybe you've forgotten that you're Catholic, I think."

In other words, anyone who does not follow Pope Francis “is not Catholic.”  In the current context, the statement is obviously aimed at contradicting Fiducia supplicans.

Of course, the cardinal continued, this applies in principle to “every pope,” but of course, “as always in life,” one can feel “closer to one pope than to others” because of one’s own history, “because of sensitivity, because of some words.”  but it’s always about the Pope.”  However, the rod that Zuppi wields is intended to discipline the clergy and believers not for just any pope, but for Francis.

In the context, there is also a reference to the Fiducia supplicans declaration, which is currently causing tempers to flare up.  Zuppi packages his support for “Love is Love”, the slogan of irregular relationships, especially the gay movement, as follows:

 “Sometimes the church also has a certain idea, which I think is distorted, to think that it has the copyright on love, 'the real one is ours, the other's is worth a little less'.  Obviously we then understand that our Lord is much wider than our hearts, and he allows us to discover many beautiful, incredible testimonies, many examples.  How can you have a master so great and yet be such a failure?  The Church is not an NGO, it is much more.”

Such statements, with the approval of Pope Francis, have been known for years by the Viennese Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn.

As a further example of the “dialectical relationship,” Zuppi cited the fact that Francis had asked the bishops’ conference “to be light, to do a lot with little, to help, but not to do it because we have the means, but to use the means,  to do things.”

Because of his papal mission as a peace broker in the Ukraine conflict, the cardinal commutes between Kiev, Moscow, Washington and Beijing.  So far, however, it has been largely unsuccessful.  Regarding his commitment, he said with reference to Francis:

“We must do everything to achieve peace because war hurts, it kills, it is a pandemic.”

 Text: Giuseppe Nardi

 Image: TV2000 (screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.Com

AMDG