SW News: Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the new head of the Italian bishops' conference emphasized the importance of focusing on the poor and avoiding controversial debate ahead of the upcoming Italian general election on September 25.
While speaking to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Cardinal Zuppi said the election is “a decisive moment for the country,” which is trying to recover from the COVID -19 pandemic. He asked political leaders to plan new innovative solutions to handle political opposition against the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Just recently, Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy's far-right League party, asked to end Western sanctions against Russia as it is not working and it hurts Italy. It keeps the citizens “on their knees” because of the high energy bills.

The top prelate stated that the pandemic led Italian citizens to poverty. With the lockdown and control of international travel, many citizens who depended on tourism were affected badly and they were left jobless. The number of people who are now living in poverty in Italy is calculated at around six million, Cardinal Zuppi added.

He said this data “must force us to ask ourselves about wasted opportunities and about the choices to make, without deceiving ourselves with promises that we cannot keep and fighting poverty, not the poor.”

The head of the episcopate stated that “we have job opportunities for many,” and what we seriously need is “training itineraries and job opportunities that are not perennially precarious.”

The cardinal sought the “involvement of every man and woman” as experts suggest that the national poverty rate may rise even higher. He said that the church “will continue to say that the poor and therefore the person are relevant and that politics must put the person at the center and defend them.”

Cardinal Zuppi assured that in the upcoming election, the church “is for freedom of conscience, which is not the freedom of indifference.”

The 66-year-old Archbishop of Bologna, who received the red hat from Pope Francis in 2019, is considered by Vatican insiders as papabile or a candidate who is likely to be elected as pope.