Matteo Zuppi, most papable cardinal
To assume that most of the cardinal votes will opt for continuity this time, it is difficult to imagine another candidate for the pope, such as a 69-year-old Cardinal Matteo Zuppi from Bologna, which is probably closest to the potential “pope Francis II«, Writes the editor of the newspaper Crux John L. Allen Jr.
Not only does the Zuppi background in the Sant’egidio community, which is by far a favorite among the so -called new movements in the Catholic Church, Frančišek assigned an influential place in Bologna in 2015, in 2022 he chose him as president of the Italian conference, and in 2023 he also named him his personal envoy in Ukraine.
In return, the Zuppi supported Francis in every « controversial » step during his papacy, since the decision in 2015 to open the door to communion to Catholics who divorce and re -marry until the approval of the blessing for people in same -sex relationships in 2024, who, in his words, puts the church « on the horizon of mercy. »
Francis’s legacy
Zuppi was born in 1955 as fifth of six children. He was born almost literally for church service: his father Enrico was a long -time editor of the illustrated weekly annex of the official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, and the mother was niece of the legendary Cardinal Carla Confalonieri. In 1973, at the age of 18, Zuppi’s life changed as he met the 23-year-old then Andrew Riccardi, A lay Catholic intellectual and an activist who had founded the Sant’Egidio (St. Egidia) community five years earlier. Riccardi initially envisioned the group’s mission as serving poor students in folk schools in poor neighborhoods on the outskirts of Rome.
Zuppi became pastor of Santa Maria’s Basilica in Trastevere, where the Sant’egidio community organizes the famous Masses of Večernica, who attracts the masses of secularized young Romans, and in the early 1990s became part of the Saint Egidia team, which helped in negotiating for the end of the long -term civil war in Mozambik.
The Zuppi and Riccardi are so strongly linked that the late Australian Cardinal George Pell once warned that the « real pope » Riccardi will be dressed in white.
In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI. Named Zuppia as auxiliary bishop of the Roman Diocese. When Francis took over the management of the diocese in 2013, his enthusiasm for Sant’egidio was immediately visible. As early as 2015, Zuppija appointed Archbishop of Bologna, and later as president of the influential Italian bishop’s conference, making it a national and international reference point.
Zuppi’s election would consolidate and at least to some extent institutionalized the legacy of Pope Francis, according to editor John L. Allen Jr. At a time when the uncertainty and pressure of geopolitics are considered to be a key issue of voting in the Conclav, Zuppi also brings international experience, and also applies to a talented pastor, who understands how to attract and impress many different people.
