Leading Italian prelate reflects on Pope’s invitation to make parishes ‘homes of peace’

July 15, 2025

Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi of Bologna, the president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, reflected Pope Leo XIV’s recent invitation to make Italian parishes “homes of peace.”

In a June 17 address to the Italian Episcopal Conference, Pope Leo said:

The relationship with Christ calls on us to develop a pastoral focus on the theme of peace. Indeed, the Lord sends us into the world to bring his same gift: “Peace be with you!”, and to become its creators in everyday life. I am thinking of parishes, neighbourhoods, areas within the country, the urban and existential peripheries. There, where human and social relationships become difficult and conflict takes shape, perhaps subtly, a Church capable of reconciliation must make herself visible.

The apostle Paul urges us, “If possible, on your part, live at peace with all” (Rm 12:18); it is an invitation that entrusts a tangible portion of responsibility to every person. I hope, then, that every diocese may promote pathways of education in non-violence, mediation initiatives in local conflicts, and welcoming projects that transform fear of the other into an opportunity for encounter. May every community become a “house of peace”, where one learns how to defuse hostility through dialogue, where justice is practiced and forgiveness is cherished. Peace is not a spiritual utopia: it is a humble path, made up of daily gestures that interweave patience and courage, listening and action, and which demands today, more than ever, our vigilant and generative presence.

In an interview with a Vatican spokesman and the editor of the Vatican newspaper, Cardinal Zuppi said that “the Pope’s invitation clashes with a situation that only the irresponsible can consider sustainable, and at times, it seems to me that there are irresponsible people, that there are those who, for example, always think that in the end everything will go well, who do not confront reality.”

“And so, it would be irresponsible not to pose the problem of peace, while the Pope, as a responsible person, has asked us to make every community a ‘home of peace,’“ Cardinal Zuppi continued. “He used this very concrete and very effective expression: ‘home of peace.’“

Cardinal Zuppi added, “What, then, is the commitment? First and foremost, it is that of prayer ... and then welcome and solidarity. In welcoming, in fact, there is the antidote to violence, to war; and on the other hand, solidarity is indispensable to help those who are overwhelmed by the storm of war.”

 

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Further information:

• Cardinal Zuppi: Pope Leo XIV asks us to make every community a 'home of peace' (Vatican News)
• ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER TO THE ITALIAN EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE (Dicastery for Communication - Libreria Editrice Vaticana)