Cardinal Zuppi Opens Permanent Council of Italian Bishops, Calls for Renewed Mission and Peacebuilding

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, opened the Permanent Council of Italian Bishops in Rome on Monday, September 21, 2026. The three-day meeting, which continues through September 23, focused on renewing the Church’s mission in Italy and strengthening its presence in society. In his address, Cardinal Zuppi stressed the importance of dialogue, peace, and assistance to the most vulnerable groups.

The cardinal asserted that church unity should not result in isolation but should serve as a force to reach the world and share the Bible. He called on bishops to take mutual care, shoulder burdens together, and maintain freedom of debate and frankness while continuing to listen. Cardinal Zuppi noted that in a society where human ties are weakened and separation is easier, the Church can be a beacon for hope through relationships based on love and proximity.

During the opening remarks, Cardinal Zuppi paid tribute to Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who died in June. He recognized Ruini’s long service to the Italian Church and his interest in attending to the Church’s role in society. The late cardinal emphasized preventing the reduction of faith to a purely private experience and highlighted the importance of dialogue with contemporary issues and building a Christian and humanitarian culture.

Cardinal Zuppi stressed that the proclamation of the Bible should be linked to people’s daily lives rather than becoming a speech separate from reality. He noted that Pope Francis emphasized the Bible as a priority and that the Church should be less concerned with preserving what it had and more free to declare Christ.

The president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference linked faith to social action, emphasizing that human proximity is not limited to individual initiatives but should be reflected in culture, laws, and political and economic choices. He referred to the issue of migrants, calling for policies that receive, protect, promote, and integrate them, and ensure that people do not have to leave their land.

He also addressed the importance of discernment in pastoral work, citing the Pope’s call for a review of what has been achieved, an understanding of what has worked and what has not, and a collective search for reasons. In this context, Cardinal Zuppi recalled the story of St. Francis and the Gubbio wolf as a model for negotiating and finding solutions to violence through dialogue rather than arms. He described peace not as the exclusion of the other, but as a way of living together, addressing the causes of violence, and building reconciliation.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Arabic)