Cardinal Matteo Zuppi A cardinal in northern Italy has said that the Covid-19 health crisis has created “immense” poverty in the area, and now is the time to rebuild, to take responsibility, and to share resources.
Indications from local charities and soup kitchens show that poverty in Bologna right now is “immense,” Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the city’s archbishop, told journalists July 3. “The economic crisis has already started.”
“We should have a sense of great closeness, of solidarity, of sharing,” he said.
Cardinal Zuppi, who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis last October, spoke to journalists in an informal online meeting organised by the Iscom Association. Since 2015, Cardinal Zuppi has led the Archdiocese of Bologna, which is located in northern Italy, one of the regions worst hit by the novel coronavirus, with more than 28,000 total cases and 4,200 deaths.
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The cardinal said the pandemic had involved everyone, at every level of the Church, and had given us “a sense of responsibility” and “an opportunity for sharing resources”.
Reconstruction, he added, would require “much humility and much determination,” not unlike Italy’s efforts in the post-war period.
Cardinal Zuppi also referenced the idea of society’s “next to lasts” (“penultimi” in Italian), and the need to look out for those people in this period. Unlike society’s weakest, such as the homeless and those in abject poverty, the “next to lasts” are those one often does not realise are in need of help, who now, due to job losses, are really struggling.