The Community of Sant’Egidio in the Shadow of Pope Francis

The Vaticanist thus informs us of the discreet role that Sant’Egidio plays with the Pope:

“The Community has been active at an international level for years. One of its most eminent members, Mario Giro, was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Italy for two governments in the past and is President of DemoS, Democrazia Solidale, a small party whose Secretary is Paolo Ciani, also from Sant’Egidio, who sits in Parliament in the ranks of the Democratic Party.”

Better known is the personal ambassador of Francis to Ukraine, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI). Sandro Magister writes of him: “A prominent member of Sant’Egidio from the very beginning, Zuppi is the man Pope Francis uses as his emissary on the battlefront in Ukraine.

“So far without result, not even on the humanitarian level of the hoped-for return of thousands of children deported to Russia. And this despite the amicable relations maintained for years with the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow, cultivated above all by the Vice President of the Community, Adriano Roccucci, professor of contemporary history at the Roma Tre University and specialist in Russia.”

And he explains: “What links the geopolitical activism of Sant’Egidio to that of Pope Francis is a common vision, supported by Mario Giro in the articles that he writes in the daily Domani, which sees in the ‘Global South’ of Africa, Asia, and Latin America the alternative to this domination of the United States and Europe that the Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio has always had a horror of deep down.”

However, the Vaticanist notes, this distrust regarding the United States and Europe “does not prevent the Community from flattering and praising the highest political authorities of the West, from the Secretary of State of the Clinton administration, Madeleine Albright, who described them as ‘wonderful people’ to Angela Merkel, via Emmanuel Macron.

“Nor from bringing together in the grandiose interreligious meetings that it orchestrates (organized every year in this so-called ‘spirit of Assisi’) both the most prominent Muslim leaders and Jewish rabbis, and even, from time to time, Pope Francis himself.”

A very visible sign of “the partiality that Francis shows for Sant’Egidio” is found, Sandro Magister points out, “in the growing number of episcopal appointments within its ranks.

“To Archbishop Zuppi, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, and to the Bishop of Frosinone, Veroli, and Ferentino, Bishop Ambrogio Spreafico, ordained by Benedict XVI, were added in 2021 Bishop Giuseppe Mazzafaro, Bishop of the Dioceses of Cerreto Sannita, Telese [Terme], and Sant’Agata de’ Goti, and in 2023 Archbishop Giorgio Ferretti, Archbishop of Foggia and Bovino.”

Another fact shows the exceptional favor enjoyed by Sant’Egidio in the Vatican: “Last July, Francis entrusted entirely to the Community the keys to the very new Commission for New Martyrs (which ecumenically must take an interest in martyrs of all Christian confessions).

“Andrea Riccardi, the founder of Sant’Egidio, is its Vice-President, and the Secretary is Marco Gnavi, parish priest of the Roman Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere with members Angelo Romano and Gianni La Bella, another university professor of contemporary history, the typical profession of high-ranking members of the Community.”

And he remarks: “It is therefore not surprising that Francis, who has established the rule that no president of a Catholic movement can remain in office for more than ten years, kindly allows Marco Impagliazzo, professor of contemporary history at Roma Tre University, to continue to preside over the Community of Sant’Egidio without interruption since 2003.”

However, Sandro Magister warns, there must be no mistake about the real influence of President Impagliazzo: “He is not the true number one of the Community, any more than Cardinal Zuppi, although many consider him to be the first on the list of candidates for the papacy, especially thanks to his way of speaking without saying anything, of half-opening doors without ever opening them wide, and of always evading the most divisive questions.”

No, the Vaticanist recalls: “Cardinal George Pell, with the competence that we know him for in the matter, liked to say: ‘Be careful, because if Zuppi is elected in the conclave, the real Pope will be Andrea Riccardi’. That is to say, the omnipotent founder of the Community, famous specialist in the history of the Church.

“Former Minister for International Cooperation, awarded the Charlemagne Prize in 2009 and in the running for the presidency of the Italian Republic in 2022, he is the only one who has the power to pull all the strings of this formidable machine called Sant’Egidio.”