The Cardinal from Naples

One prophetic voice of our times is that of the Catholic Archbishop of Naples, Italy, who was placed in that position by Pope Francis and then elevated to the rank of Cardinal by the same. Domenico Battaglia is his name, popularly known by his nickname “Mimmo.” At the last Conclave, his name came up as a candidate, but it’s unlikely he was actually considered for the position.

He devoted his early years as a priest to drug-addicted people and their recovery, being dubbed the “street priest.” Now he can speak and act from a position of relative visibility. His words are especially potent, and he seems unafraid to offend the powerful. I can’t gauge their effect, but I thought it might be interesting for our readers to hear them and perhaps offer their comments.

In March 2026, he penned a Letter to the Merchants of Death, i.e., weapons manufacturers and tradesmen, which reads in part:

To you who trade with the blood of men,
to you who count profits while mothers count their children,
to you who call “strategy” what the Gospel calls scandal,
I address words that arise not from diplomacy, but from wounds.
I write to you from this trembling land.
It trembles beneath the footsteps of the poor, beneath the cries of children,
beneath the silence of the innocent, beneath the ferocious roar of the weapons you built, sold, blessed by your cynicism.
I write to you as the world seems to have relearned the language of Cain.
That ancient and terrible language that asks:
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” And yet, yes, we are. We all are.
And you, more than others, because you have chosen not only to look away, but to profit from your brother’s wound.(…)

I do not speak to you as a judge. I have no courts to open.
I speak to you as a man and a pastor.
As a believer wounded by the ferocity of the times.
As a bishop who feels in his depths the cry of Christ still crucified in humiliated peoples, in devastated cities, in the nameless bodies that the sea returns and war hides.

(…) And you, merchants of death, continue to pass beneath that cross as the soldiers once passed, dividing up the condemned man’s clothes.

Only today you don’t draw lots for a tunic: you draw lots for entire peoples. You gamble on borders, on grudges, on escalations, on armed balances. And meanwhile, you call fear peace, you call domination order, you call the permanent threat security.

But there is no security where death is sown. There is no future where young people are educated to be suspicious. There is no justice if the wealth of a few is based on the grief of many. And there will be no peace as long as war remains an acceptable investment.

(…) Have a gasp. Just one, but true. Let the tears you’ve kept out of your rooms reach you. Let the names of the dead enter your boardrooms.
Let a mother come and disturb your accounts. Let the Gospel ruin your peace. (…) You must become human again. (…)

Most recently, Battaglia wrote yet another open letter To The Powerful of the Earth, responding to the odious symbolic cadeau that the president of Turkey gave to NATO leaders at the recent summit in Ankara, that is, an engraved revolver with live ammunition:

Evil does not always arrive by breaking down a door. Sometimes it enters silently, wearing an elegant suit. It smiles before cameras, and then it is laid out in a case, with a note, and gifted with honor. And then, for a moment, nobody recognizes evil anymore, because it has learned how to behave properly. This is what hurts me (…) that death is transformed into courtesy.

(…) We have domesticated weapons to the point we can gift them, and this is the true scandal. You say “it’s just a symbol,” but symbols are indeed what educate the world. They come earlier than laws, they penetrate deeper than speeches, they teach silently what a civilization believes to be normal.

(…) On that barrel was engraved the name of those who received the gift, but each pistol always carries another name, an invisible one, the name of the person against whom it can be used. (…) The true addressee of a weapon is the unknown body that could one day meet that bullet. That is why I can’t deem the event just a diplomatic blunder, because it shows an idea of the world.

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Banner Image: “Don Mimmo Battaglia, Pentecoste 2018.” Photo by Vincenzo Amoruso on Wikimedia Commons.

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Queries for Contemplation

Is the production and selling of weapons the major cause of the present world crisis? Have you ever considered this possibility, or have you changed your mind about the subject? Is your money invested in banks that trade in weapons? And what can you do about it?

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Related Readings by Matthew Fox

The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society

Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ

Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action

LETTERS TO POPE FRANCIS: Building a Church with Justice & Compassion

A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey

Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations

Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

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