” “There are references to Europe, international tensions and in particular to the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the closing release of the 56th general meeting of Cei, the Italian Bishops Conference (Vatican, 15-19 May), which has been published today. In the release, the bishops voice their concern for "the nuclear programs in Iran, international terrorism, mostly the Islamic-related one, religious persecution in many parts of the world". As well as the African continent, the release mentions "the delicate situation in Israel". As to Europe, the bishops hope in "a more widespread presence of Europe, which is called to overcome the deadlock in the Constitutional Treaty and to resume that initiative to find a common foreign and defence policy", and expresses regret "for the failure to make express reference to the Christian roots of the Continent and for the insistent request to revise the national legislations for granting gay couples rights comparable to those of married couples". Such positions taken by the European institutions, reads the release, "reveal the roller of the secularisation process, as well as the failure to sense the different climate that is becoming manifest in the European peoples, with the rediscovery of their religious, moral and cultural identity and their essential values and contents”.” “
