Italian bishops’ head attends Ramadan event, raises concern over zero catechism enrollments

BOLOGNA (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Matteo Zuppi expressed concern over a lack of catechism enrollments while also taking part in a public Ramadan event in the city.

On March 4, Matteo Maria Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, commented on the fact that no children had enrolled in catechism classes in three central parishes of the city, attributing the situation to flawed housing policies and excessively high rents. One day earlier he had participated in a public Ramadan street iftar alongside important political authorities.

“Thank you, salam alaikum,” Zuppi said at the Islamic dinner. “I believe this gathering truly belongs to believers. And being believers means being brothers!”

Iftar is the evening meal with which Muslims break the daily fast during Ramadan. It takes place right after sunset, when the call to prayer signals the end of the day’s abstinence from food and drink.

Zuppi listened to the imam’s call with Romano Prodi, a well‑known Italian left‑wing politician from Bologna and a personal friend of Zuppi. Some time ago, Zuppi and Prodi were filmed at a local event in which Zuppi praised the former Italian prime minister, saying, “He is the real cardinal.” Commenting on Prodi’s frequent trips to China, he added: “By now he’s practically become Chinese.”

Two days later, the local newspaper Il Resto del Carlino interviewed Zuppi about the demographic crisis and the lack of catechism enrollment in the central parishes of Bologna, which are supposed to cover an area inhabited by around 9,000 people. Moreover, Bologna is the seventh most populous city in Italy.

“Students, offices and B&Bs — when parish priests go to bless homes, they don’t find anyone,” the archbishop of Bologna complained. “We must be the ones to guide these changes, not the other way around: the risk is that Bologna will lose its identity.”

Zuppi’s analysis blames political and sociological factors for the drastic emptying of Bologna’s parishes rather than any shortcomings in the pastoral work of Italian clergy. He described the absence of children registered for parish catechism as a “very, very worrying” sign, but in his view “it is clear that the issue is tied to the transformation of the historic center: University students pushed families out, and then the B&Bs pushed the students out.”

The journalist pressed him, explicitly asking the cardinal whether the data should also be attributed to a “crisis of faith,” but the cardinal completely dismissed this interpretation.

“The absence of children is a fact, but I would not read this fact as a problem of an absence or decline of families’ participation in ecclesial life. The point is that the very fabric of the area has changed,” he said.