Zuppi: “I’ll be going to Moscow at the end of September.” “People around the world tend to shut themselves away in enclaves to feel safe.”

“The Vatican’s Foreign Minister, Monsignor Paul Richard Gallagher, will travel to Moscow next week, and I too hope to return to Russia at the end of September.” This was stated by the President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, on Tg2 Post whilst discussing the Vatican’s diplomatic efforts to bring the war to an end.

Zuppi has thus officially confirmed the rumours about his visit to Moscow, which had been circulating for a few days. “The Pope’s speech,” commented Zuppi, speaking about Leone’s visit to San Marino and Rimini, “placed particular emphasis on dialogue, diplomacy and coming together.”

“In this world, it is so easy to feel safe by shutting oneself away in an enclave”, but this is the opposite of the Gospel’s message. This was stated by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), recalling that “yesterday the Pope invited us to break free from what divides us so that we may bind ourselves to the great and suffering multitude that is this world and to one another”. “This is called communion, and it is always dynamic and inclusive,” said Zuppi, addressing the attendees of the Meeting during his homily at the Mass at the Fiera, “and, as Pope Leo said, you have not created an enclave… let us think of Ceuta…”. Zuppi called on people to “combat enmity with friendship”, adding, “Pope Leo told us to go out: ‘Go out to meet everyone’”. God “continues to gather a universal family, which is all the more important in this age when the insolent arrogance of power prevails”, “the Babel of the ‘I’ or of a closed ‘we’, set against others”. The Church cannot follow this path because “it lives in the world but is not of the world, and it is precisely for this reason that it feels a decisive responsibility towards it”.