The 57th General Assembly of the Italian Bishops (CEI) opened in the Vatican on 21 May (until 25 May) with a keynote address by Monsignor Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa; the delegates were also greeted by the Apostolic Nuncio in Italy Monsignor Francesco Bertello, and delegate bishops of foreign Bishops’ Conferences. The main theme of the plenary is the mission of the Church. The “Pastoral Note” following the 4th National Ecclesial Congress in Verona will be presented during the meeting. “If as bishops we raise the question, perhaps more often than is found agreeable, of the ethical and spiritual foundations rooted in the great tradition of our country, it is because we want not to attack, or impair, the secularism of public life, but to strengthen it with the concerns that alone can guarantee its future”, said Monsignor Angelo Bagnasco, in his opening speech. “When we appeal to people’s consciences – said the archbishop, referring indirectly to the debate going on the presumed interferences of the Church in the Italian public debate – it is not to be intrusive, but to recall those pregnant contents without which the ultimate protection of every person, and especially the less fortunate, would cease”. In this perspective, according to Bagnasco, “the distinction ‘between what belongs to Caesar and what to God’, as the fundamental structure not only of Christianity but also of modern democracies, is one in which we are firmly persuaded that we must join together, each in his own way, in seeking the progress of our communities, also by arousing those spiritual and moral forces without which a people cannot rise”.
