The coats of arms of the cardinals: this is how the papabili present themselves to the world
Matteo Maria Zuppi (1955), Archbishop of Bologna
Motto: Gaudium Domini fortitudo vestra (May the joy of the Lord be your strength)
Scheme: The Gospel book - opened in Chapter IV of John with the sentence that Jesus pronounces after the encounter with the Samaritan woman: "Levate oculos vestros ad messem" (Lift up your eyes to the harvest) - surmounts three wavy fillets under which is placed the Constantinian golden cross (i.e. with the four arms of equal length) with the A and the Ω, sign of Christ, beginning and end of all things according to a symbolism derived from the Apocalypse of John.
Message: Zuppi, therefore, feels the urgency of an evangelising Church, so that in Christ-God all things are fulfilled. Biographical elements are the waters of the Tiber in Rome, his hometown, and the Greek cross on the triumphal arch of the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, where he spent much of his priestly ministry with the community of Sant'Egidio.
