He didn’t play at home, but the cardinal did Matteo Zupi It can be said that he is satisfied with the trip to the United States. It is the agenda of the three American days that testifies to the success of the papal envoy’s mission in the Ukraine dossier. The former pastor of Torre Angela, a neighborhood in Rome’s eastern suburbs, was received with full honors by the US President at the White House last Tuesday Joe Biden.
The interview with Biden
It’s no small thing that the conversation between the two almost lasted two hours. In the press release issued by the Presidential Staff, it was revealed that Biden praised the pope’s global leadership and also welcomed the appointment of a US archbishop as a cardinal, which came in the consistory announcement in St. Peter’s Square a few weeks ago. The prelate in question is Monsignor Robert Francis Prevostthe Augustinian, who has headed the dicastery for bishops since April last year.
Apart from the courtesies, the discussion focused on the Ukraine issue, which is at the heart of the mission we have entrusted Francis to the Archbishop of Bologna. The tone of the press release echoes the US position, which says it speaks of “the efforts of the Holy See to provide humanitarian assistance to deal with the widespread suffering caused by the ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine” and apparently also the “Vatican support for the return of forcibly deported Ukrainian children.”
A point also highlighted in the press release of the Press Office of the Holy See, which states that “during the conversation, full readiness to support initiatives in the humanitarian field, especially for children and the most vulnerable people, was assured, both to respond to this urgency and to promote avenues of peace”. Another detail provided by the Pope’s media relates to letter by Francesco, which Zuppi presented to the American President. Bergoglio expressed all his pain at the suffering caused by the ongoing conflict.
An underestimated mission
The cardinal’s trip did not reach the Italian media resonance what he probably deserved. Those who expressed controversy about the previous mission to Russia corroborated the thesis of a failed outcome due to Zuppi’s failure to meet with him Wladimir Putin or Sergei Lavrov, this time preferring to remain silent about the three days in Washington, although the cardinal was received for almost two hours by the most powerful man in the world, just hours after his meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. A detail that gives an idea of how much importance the democratic government attached to the papal initiative entrusted to the Roman prelate.
There is a precedent that may be useful to clarify the scope of last Tuesday’s face-to-face meeting: when John Paul II nominated Cardinal Pio Laghi in 2003 as his special envoy in Washington to prevent the outbreak war in Iraq, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States was met with a far colder reception from then-George W. Bush – with whom he was a historic family friend – and members of his administration. Specifically, the day before the face-to-face meeting with Bush, who confirmed his readiness to continue the invasion, Laghi was scornfully interrogated by then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, as Massimo Franco recounts in the book Imperi Paralleli. An episode that will never be forgotten in the Vatican: a few years later, in the summer of 2007, Benedict XVI he refused to grant Castel Gandolfo an audience with Rice, who had by now become Secretary of State.
prediction reversed
When Zuppi landed last Monday, he didn’t find a friendly atmosphere on the other side of the ocean. Significant in this sense is the article published last week in the prestigious Wall Street Journal and signed by one of Catholicism’s best-known theologians George Weigel. The professor and biographer of John Paul II called the cardinal’s previous mission to Moscow “wrong” and then criticized Zuppi – and Sant’Egidio, from which he hails – for attending the presentation of Andrea Riccardi’s new book, The Cry of Peace, at which the philosopher was present Donatella di Cesare.
Weigel was very harsh in the article, attacking Zuppi for meeting Patriarch Kirill: “Why does a Vatican peace mission treat someone who blessed a genocidal war as if he were a real minister?” asked the theologian. Finally, Weigel rejected the formulation of the mission, which he attributes to the influence of Sant’Egidio: to seek a “dialogue between politically and morally symmetrical parties”. In his view, this prevents the establishment of a just peace. However, the visit of the Archbishop of Bologna showed that the Holy See’s attempt to create the conditions for a detente in Ukraine also finds support in American Catholicism in connection with the Wojtylian pontificate.
The Monsignor’s reaction Timothy Broglio – Head of US bishops and former associate of John Paul II’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano – is significant: speaking to Gianni Cardinale in Avvenire, Broglio expressed the US bishop’s opposition to sending cluster bombs to Kiev and expressed his appreciation for Zuppi’s mission, although he was aware of its limitations. It should be remembered that the President of the US Bishops’ Conference is also a military ordinary. Between the White House andUS episcopate The reports are still not great, as evidenced by the fact that Broglio has still not been received by Biden following his election. On the contrary, the face-to-face meeting with Zuppi lasted more than an hour, and the press release from the Presidential staff stated that the Cardinal was President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference: an element of prestige for the Italian Church, which has not experienced a happy season for years and to which the papal mission of its president has undoubtedly given an international relevance that has been lacking for some time.