The card. Gualterio Bassetti has returned to the Covid illness that struck him at the age of 78. I remained in intensive care for ten days, with a sudden worsening and then began that slow, progressive and in some ways miraculous improvement that is consolidating. Now the cardinal has returned to his diocese of Perugia where he will spend Christmas among his people. He wanted to talk about his days in hospital and other issues at the center of Italian ecclesial life in a long interview with Avvenire, of which we report some passages.

Your Eminence, what should we expect from this Christmas after such a difficult year?

We must expect a wonderful and extraordinarily current celebration. Don Divo Barsotti, many years ago, invited us to celebrate Christmas "not as a wait for the final manifestation of Christ nor as a simple memory of a past event" but to live it fully as "our encounter with Him" ​​in the present time. It is, in fact, a meeting that takes place today, in 2020, and which projects us into a joyful future that is not on earth but in heaven. This encounter with God is continually renewed because, Don Divo always said, every Christmas is "absolutely new for man" and urges us to keep two fundamental aspects in mind. First of all, Jesus was born in a stable: God did not manifest himself in a conference of intellectuals or in a corporate meeting, but among the least and the simplest. Secondly, Jesus was born into a family with a father and a mother who, today more than ever, represents a model of life for all Christians. Pope Francis has proclaimed a special year on Saint Joseph. It would be very nice for families to meditate on his figure and the role of the father within today's families. We have a great need for women and men who, without running away from responsibilities or on the contrary without turning into masters, know how to make themselves available to God's plan with simplicity, humility and charity.

Many fathers and mothers, however, have a critical work situation or have even lost their jobs during the pandemic.

The social crisis opened by the pandemic is a serious wound for our society that affects everyone: even those who do not have work problems. Work is sacred, we must not forget it. It is not only a source of income but provides dignity to the person and is fundamental for the life of families. This crisis is worsening a social fabric of the contemporary world that has already been torn and weakened for some time. A laceration that is progressively causing the profound meaning of brotherhood, communion and living together to disappear. This is why Pope Francis' encyclical Fratelli tutti it has a prophetic value. We will never be able to get out of this dual crisis, economic and health, with an individualistic mentality or by looking for new spreaders among those allegedly responsible for the crisis. The pandemic is a great test for all of us. A test in which each of us is called to testify to our faith and love for others.

She experienced firsthand the infection, the hospital, the intensive care, the body that could fail, then the progress. What is the coronavirus?

It is a foreign body that takes possession of your person and empties you from the inside. It's terrible: it not only takes away your physical energy but also your psychological and I would say spiritual energy. It suddenly reduces you to a larva.

In trials, like a serious illness, there are those who claim to experience the silence of God. And you?

I would say no. As long as I was able, I continued to pray not only for myself but also for all those who suffer and to invoke the Lord's help asking forgiveness for my shortcomings. When you are close to giving an account of your life, you are reminded of the enormous possibilities of good that God has presented to you and which you have not exploited due to your limitations or your omissions. It's as if you want to make up for everything you weren't able to do.

The words of Ugo Foscolo and Saint John of the Cross accompanied his most dramatic moments in hospital.

I feel like I've returned to my cultural and spiritual bases. While I was examining my conscience, I imagined the end of my life as Foscolo describes it in Thank you, poem that saw the light in the Bellosguardo villa in my dearest and beloved city of Florence. Foscolo compares human existence to a dancer who "descends a slope from which no one ascends". Well, I thought of my life as if it were that hill. A hill that was also beautiful, where I encountered prophetic examples of holiness and total dedication to the Risen One, but which at that moment went down, down... without any hint of going back up. At the same time I realized how true what St. John of the Cross claimed was: in the evening of life we ​​will be judged on love, on charity. For this reason, when I understood that the body responded to treatment thanks to the intervention of the powerful hand of the Lord and the professionalism of excellent healthcare workers, I felt the desire to spend even more on each

my neighbor, starting with those who are poor, fragile, weak, marginalized, forgotten. In fact, the pandemic teaches us that it must also be addressed with solidarity, with disinterested altruism, with attention to the least. And I would add with a political action in which everyone contributes to the good of Italy, banning conflicts, electoral advantages and partisan interests. It is the time for unity, not for sterile or specious divisions.

A prayerful mobilization marked his illness together with that of all those infected by Covid.

I felt the strength and effectiveness of prayer which is comfort.

In the most acute phase, when all energy fails, you can only abandon yourself to the Father. While I was under the helmet and my head felt like it would explode, the prayer was an offering. I repeated: "Lord, everything for you." Then I understood what is written in the great hall of the Franciscan sanctuary of La Verna, in the diocese of Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro, where Brother Leo says to the stigmatized Saint Francis: «Father, I see that you are suffering greatly. Do you want me to read you a passage of Scripture?"; and the saint replies: «Now for me what matters is looking at Christ. And Christ crucified."

The Pope was close to her, as evidenced by his repeated phone calls.

I heard he called and always said he was praying. I felt him as a father and a friend. Above all I perceived Peter's intercessory prayer invoking God for a poor successor of the apostles in difficulty.

Pope Francis has defined doctors and nurses as the "saints next door"; she called them "angels".

I have experienced how love overflows in the hospital. I have met retired doctors who have returned to the ward due to this health crisis; doctors who don't know timetables when there's an emergency; very young people who are specializing and who show you their passion for giving of themselves; “kid” nurses and nurses on whom you depend in every way and who do everything they can for you. During the night shifts I also saw them praying. Here is the noble face of youth. I have tasted the goodness that God has written in the heart of man. A goodness that surprises.

He will be president of the CEI for another year and a half. How will you deal with the commitment?

The Latins said: motus in fine velocior. We need to be faster at the end. And Saint Francis, shortly before his death, explained to him: "Let's start doing something...". If the Lord gives me strength, I intend to do as much as possible together with all my brother bishops and with women and men of good

will who desire it.

Will you also be able to follow up on the meeting for peace in the Mediterranean that you wanted and which last February brought together the bishops of the basin for the first time in Bari?

It was the beginning of a commitment that must certainly be continued and which was interrupted, in its public dimension, due to the pandemic. However, in recent months, during the health crisis, we have continued to work to continue this experience. And in October we met in Rome with the Scientific Committee to organize future commitments. Soon I would like to bring some events to life. Meanwhile, I rejoice at the Pope's visit to Iraq, scheduled for next March and so supported by Patriarch Sako who spent so much on our appointment on the Mediterranean. The Pontiff shows us the route once again. It is up to us to follow it.