Leo XIV seems less inclined to take sides in favor of the NGOs who defend immigration. And to which the Holy See every year allocates 220 million euros of offers of the faithful.
Even with the mildness of Christian charity, at the 50 of via della Circonvallazione Aurelia in Rome they did not take it very well: the friend of Pope Bergoglio is in trial because – this is the accusation – he had the money to save the migrants. For the Episcopal Conference that the Cardinal of Bologna Matteo Maria Zuppi leads to the reception if and without but – spending many money from the state and the faithful – is not a good viaticum in the era of Leo XIV know that Luca Casarini – the leader of the Mediterranean NGO Saving Humans – will go to the bar after being received and blessed with all the honors by Francesco.
The case is known: the Ionian Sea, Casarini’s ship, had taken 25 migrants on board in September 2020 which had been collected by the Maersk Etienne PortaContainer and then had them landed in Pozzallo. A month later Idra Social Shipping, which is the shipowner of the Ionian Sea, had received a “donation” of 125 thousand euros from the Maersk itself. Casarini – five other people go with him to the bar – has raised himself: “It is a trial of rescue”. The tribunal of Ragusa is set for the end of October and in the muffled rooms by the Curia, one wonders if the Cardinal of Bologna will still be in his place. Because on migrants, to what it seems, Leone XIV wants to change course. An example – not even too veiled – is the appointment that Pope Prevost made after a week from the Esser rising to the Soglio di Pietro. He created special correspondent – as the Blues Brothers would have said is one who is on a mission on behalf of the Vicar of Christ and only to him reports – Cardinal Guineian Robert Sarah, perhaps the highest moral authority of the African Church, a conservative who has repeatedly contested Bergoglio. And that on migrants has ideas very distant from those of Zuppi: “If there is the right to migrate” says Cardinal Guineian “there is an even stronger right of remaining so as not to impoverish Africa”.
In Poland, where he participated in a gathering by Pax Christi in the country that elected president Karol Nawrocki and has clear positions against the EU and the “rhetoric” of migrants He reiterated: “Each nation has the right to distinguish between refugees and economic migrants who do not share the culture of that nation”. It is understood that precise signs have arrived from the Vatican control cabin.
As for Matteo Maria Zuppi, they are immediately accidents, but open up to possible changes to the Secretariat of State. The president of the CEI had been commissioned by Francesco as a papal envoy of the special mission in Ukraine and Russia. To push Zuppi to this assignment were two conditions: his proximity to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, current secretary of state and exponent of the so -called group of Villa Nazareth (where he also studied Giuseppe Conte), forged by Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, the man of dialogue with Islam and communism, but also difficult relationships with the Orthodox. The second “condition” of Zuppi is his being full defender of the Community of Sant’Egidio where Andrea Riccardi – was very active throughout the conclave trying to sponsor his candidate – had constituted the good living room of Bergoglio by counting on the charm of the NGOs.
This is also explained by the irritation of the President of the CEI because the government retouched 8 per thousand. The reform was launched by the executive “Conte 2”, and signed by PD and M5S, provides that, in addition to the 8 per thousand destination option to the Church, it can be donated for other works. The Meloni government also added the possibility of “financing” the recovery communities for drug addicts, which are also largely managed by Catholic organizations. In celebrating the 40 years of 8 per thousand who replaced the “tenth” that the state paid as pays to the priests, Zuppi thundered: “As CEI we are disappointed with the government’s decision to unilaterally modify the methods of attributing 8 per thousand”. Cardinal Zuppi is aware that at risk are the money that CEI has all the CEI with so much generosity during the Pontificate of Bergoglio, to the NGOs who deal with migrants.
If you go to see the accounts – the latest published are those relating to 2023 – on a billion and 44 million euros that the church receives from the Italian state 389 million go to the support of the clergy380 million to cult needs and 277 to charitable works, but 80 percent of this money is intended for NGOs operating in the saves of migrants. To the point that two dioceses integrated by paying another 200 thousand euros to Casarini and that the Catholic Migrantes Organization – Don Mattia Ferrari, chaplain of the Mediterranean Social Promotion Association Saving Humans is the animator – at the expense of the CEI and the Diocese has put in the sea two support units of the Ionian Sea, the ship of Casarini who ended up on trial.
There is enough because Aurelia agitated in the ring road. In fibrillation, however, it is the whole progressive front of the Italian Church because it understood that from the Apostolic Palace where Robert Francis Prevost has returned to live – from rumors it was known that Francesco’s choice to live in Santa Marta to show that he contested Vatican opulence in reality has meant an expense aggravation of 200 thousand euros per year compared to the management cost of the papal apartment – a strong spirit of change spirits.
For those who secularize the church, they collected offers – Casarini was considered fraternal friend of Francesco And he has never been denied aid and so all the varied world of cooperatives, of the NGOs engaged on the migrant front – or built political relations of great prestige – is the case of Andrea Riccardi – obeying the Trinity of the old Pontiff: peace, poor and environment. Or for those who did it in the Curia, such as Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who became the economic plenipotentiary of the Vatican, Don Marco Pozza who managed the confidential communication of Bergoglio – was the great ear of Francis – are times of “reflection” as it is used to say in the sacristies.
Today beyond the Leonine walls, the most substantial question is the one concerning the future of the Secretariat of State. Leone XIV has (for now) confirmed full confidence to Cardinal Parolin, but it is also true that Prevost seems to have his own diplomatic “line”. The first summit – on the day of his intonation – marked with the hearing granted to the American vice -president JD Vance a rapprochement with the White House, in the meeting with religious leaders on May 19th last reiterated the ecumenical will, but also the Catholic centrality, started rapid rabbit with the rabbed through the quotation of our Aetate – one of the desk documents of the Vatican II – He was equally made with the Orthodox, having noticed that his Vatican offer as the venue for Russia-Ukraine dialogue met precisely in the underground hostility of Kirill III-the patriarch of Moscow-perhaps the largest of the obstacles.
For this reason, alongside Leone XIV, Antons Prikulis appears more and more often, A monsignor that comes from Latvia, “interpreter” of Prevost in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish. He was when the Pope met Volodymyr Zelensky. Just as the figure of the English archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher emerges in the Secretariat of State, who is the responsible for relations with the States and international organizations. It is not a mystery that Leo XIV looks much more to the West and the Anglo -Saxon origin matters!
But the real test is the relationship with China. Parolin was the textor of the agreements with Beijing, Prevost is very attentive to the cry of pain that rises by Cardinal Joseph Zen Zen Zen-Kiun, who has known the galleys of Beijing and for now he maintains an open dialogue both with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle-Sino-Filippino who was given among the papabile secure-and with the first cardinal of Singapore William Goh Seng Chye, Started to reconsider the role of the Church in the Far East and above all the relationships with XI Jinping. After all, the change of course provides that sooner or later someone landings. Casarini docet.
