Meet the conclave: Cardinal Matteo Zuppi
His journey from shy student to Vatican peace envoy.
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Matteo Zuppi arrived at his high school on the banks of the Tiber in the revolutionary year of 1968. He was a year ahead of his age group and still wore the short trousers of a younger student, to his great embarrassment.
At Rome’s Virgilio Lyceum, he met an older student called Andrea Riccardi, who impressed him with his commitment to fraternity, prayer, and the service of others. In February 1968, Riccardi had organized a student meeting at Rome’s Chiesa Nuova that would lead to the creation of the Sant’Egidio Community, a Catholic movement now present in 73 countries. The students read the Gospel and discussed how to apply it among Rome’s poor.
Zuppi was the fifth of six children born to a journalist father who edited the weekly illustrated edition of the Vatican’s L’Osservatore Romano newspaper and a mother who was a niece of Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, dean of the College of Cardinals. Zuppi recalled his father as “more messy, creative,” and as his mother “more orderly and consistent,” but both had a lively faith.
Inspired by his experiences of reaching out to the marginalized with Riccardi’s nascent community, Zuppi pursued a vocation to the priesthood. After his ordination in 1981, his father insisted on calling him “Don Matteo” (Fr. Matthew), emphasizing the deep change his son had undergone.
Zuppi was immediately appointed vicar to the pastor of the ancient Roman Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia (later archbishop and president of the Pontifical Academy for Life).
In 1990, Zuppi and Riccardi represented the Sant’Egidio Community in talks to end Mozambique’s bloody civil war. After complex and difficult negotiations, the warring parties signed an accord ending a 15-year conflict that had claimed around 1 million lives. Riccardi credited Zuppi with keeping peace discussions on track, saying “he was able to hold together everything that could unite and push away everything that divided.”
In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named Zuppi an auxiliary bishop of Rome. Three years later, Pope Francis transferred him to the historic Archdiocese of Bologna, where the slender, constantly smiling Zuppi would be seen pedaling down the city streets on a black bicycle (without a helmet).
In 2019, Francis gave Zuppi the red hat, along with the title of Cardinal-Priest of Sant’Egidio. Impressed by the Italian’s track record of mediation, which also extended to Guatemala and Burundi, the pope asked Zuppi in 2023 to lead a Vatican mission to help end the Ukraine war. The cardinal visited Kyiv, Moscow, Washington, and Beijing, securing significant humanitarian gestures though peace remained elusive.
Zuppi was elected president of the Italian bishops’ conference in 2022, at a time of plummeting Catholic practice in the country and amid an emerging abuse crisis. Faced with decline, Zuppi rejected what he called the “let’s shut ourselves in a monastery” approach he associated with Rod Dreher’s book “The Benedict Option.” He stressed instead a person-to-person approach to evangelization that engages in dialogue without playing down questions of truth.
“The challenge is to look, to listen, to speak with the truth that is Jesus and to meet everyone,” he said.
As I understand it, he's also been very pastorally supportive to communities founded under the prescriptions of Summorum Pontificum. I think he's sort of a fascinating character - seems like a humble, simple, good man who loves his people.
Thanks for another great profile. I can really appreciate Cardinal Zuppi's dedication to peace and the kindness he shows to all. I think he would be a pope with a heart for all the faithful.
That being said, I think something that I have seen only discussed by a few is the need to address some of the unanswered moral and doctrinal questions of the Francis papacy. I understand that at least some aspects of TC need to be rolled back, but I think the moral questions raised by the previous papacy pose a much more imminent crisis for the Church's well-being. However, Amoris Laetitia and Fiducia Supplicans have both left confusion that will become increasingly difficult to address the longer we wait to address it. I am not saying that we need someone who, on day one, addresses these issues in a pontificating manner (pun intended). We need someone who can handle these situations with tact and care, yet address them effectively nonetheless. Seek feedback from bishops across the globe. Assemble a theological commission to investigate the issues. But work towards coming to a firm conclusion instead of creating de facto federally doctrinal churches. My fear is that a nice guy like Zuppi will not have the backbone to clarify moral questions, clean up Vatican corruption, and develop a real system for holding bishops accountable on abuse.