(LifeSiteNews) — The president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) has said that secularization was willed by God to deprive the Church of its cultural hegemony.

On November 17, during the General Assembly of the Italian Bishops in Assisi, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi explained to his confreres why secularism should not be regarded as a defeat, but rather as a providential opportunity to rethink the way Christians live their faith.

“What is fading is an order of power and culture, not the living force of the Gospel,” Zuppi said. “The believer of today is no longer the custodian of a Christian world, but the pilgrim of a hope that continues to make its way into hearts. In this horizon, the end of Christendom is not a defeat, but a kairòs: the chance to return to what is essential, to the freedom of the beginnings, to that ‘yes’ spoken out of love, without fear and without guarantees.”

Zuppi’s vision belongs to a theological current now widespread—shared, for example, by the cardinal-archbishop of Marseille, Jean-Marc Aveline—according to which Western secularization should be seen as a starting point for rethinking the faith, the mission, and the organization of the Church.

The Italian cardinal recalled how Pope Leo XIV, from the first months of his papacy, has indicated several priorities: the centrality of the proclamation of the Gospel, the safeguarding of ecclesial unity, collegiality lived through synodality, and the promotion of “unarmed” peace in a world marked by an arms race and the depletion of fundamental services.

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Zuppi also referred to the Holy Father’s strong insistence on the dignity of every person, from conception to natural death, and to the Pope’s appeal that pastors make courageous choices while looking to the future with trust. Citing the June 17 papal address to the Italian bishops, Zuppi reaffirmed the irreplaceable role of closeness with the people, service to the poor, and the proclamation of the Gospel as the primary task of the whole Church.

The head of the Italian bishops also recalled the Pope’s address to the Diplomatic Corps, centered on the triad “peace, justice, truth,” in which themes such as the defense of religious freedom, the revitalization of multilateral diplomacy, the critique of the arms race, the centrality of the family, and care for the most vulnerable were highlighted.

Zuppi then described the Italian religious landscape as marked by new forms of distance: not hostility, but indifference and solitude, often aggravated by economic hardship and the lack of family support.

Drawing on Pope Francis’ expression “change of epoch,” he observed that many now live far from ecclesial practice not out of polemical choice, but because they are immersed in a different cultural context. He took up Charles Taylor’s thought to describe a society in which faith is one possibility among others and no longer a given. In this scenario, he said, Christianity does not disappear, but is situated within a more personal form of adherence.

Zuppi reiterated that the present historical phase represents for the Church an opportunity to make the proclamation of the Gospel shine more brightly. He also cited a passage from Pope Leo XIV, taken from the encyclical Dilexi te, which presents the Church as a reality called to love without reserve and to recognize no form of enemy within society.

This year the Italian bishops are also called to confront the final document approved last October 25 by the National Synodal Assembly, which introduces controversial pastoral directives: from relations with LGBT-identifying individuals to the permanent study of the female diaconate, as well as guidelines for liturgical reform and new forms of ecclesial governance.