“A frank and serene dialogue began on the afternoon of May 22, 2023, between Pope Francis and the some 200 bishops who make up the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), gathered for their 77th plenary assembly in the Vatican.”
The account that the official website of the Holy See gave of the opening of the spring meeting of the CEI deserves attention, because the terms “frank” and “serene” are often synonymous – in Vatican rhetoric – reading the riot act.
The proof of this is given a few lines later by the editor of Vatican News: “A change of mentality is necessary,” the successor of Peter reminded the Italian bishops whom he called to adopt “a new style,” in reference to the “synodal path,” as well as “never giving up on charity.”
No need to be an expert in newspeak to understand the deep persistent unease between the bishop of Rome and the bishops of the peninsula.
It is a malaise confirmed by one of the most read Italian media: the newspaper La Repubblica. In his column of June 2, 2023, the Vaticanist Filippo Di Giacomo – thanks to indiscretions – delivered his version: “Pope Francis has in fact improvised some reflections that the Secretary General of the CEI, Msgr. Giuseppe Baturi, summarized by emphasizing “the urgency of a new evangelizing impetus which passes through a credible witness.”
According to the journalist’s information, the Roman pontiff literally “gave an earful” to the members of the IEC, referring pell-mell to their “unhealthy relationship with money,” reproaching them for “inaction” in the management of certain seminaries considered “eccentric and defective” – would that be an allusion to Traditionis custodes? – and deploring that they do not “take sufficient account” of his demands.
One can imagine the Siberian wind that must have been blowing through the synodal aula. The session was then adjourned, and the next day, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi – president of the CEI – was responsible for providing after-sales service.
The prelates began to pray together Psalm 74 (73) of the Office of None scheduled for that day, a Psalm that more than one bishop has deemed appropriate, and which expresses Israel’s dismay in these terms: “O God, why hast thou cast us off unto the end: why is thy wrath enkindled against the sheep of thy pasture? . . . Our signs we have not seen, there is now no prophet: and he will know us no more.”
The head of the CEI gently underlined the need to correct the “excess bureaucracy” that exists within the episcopate, complaining in passing of the “resistance” of many diocesan priests to the synodal path: a sign that the parish priests – such as Don Camillo – are far from having all lost their common sense in Dante’s homeland.
But Cardinal Zuppi was not very convincing. We wish him more success in the context of the peace mission entrusted to him in Ukraine.
And the La Repubblica Vaticanist concludes: “That the clergy are exasperated, everyone knows, but no one dares to point the finger at the real cause.”
We know a little more about the last meeting of the Italian bishops which took place behind closed doors from May 22 to 25: a heavy atmosphere, reproaches from the Holy Father, and resistance to the synod. The Pontiff may not be so popular on the Italian peninsula anymore.