” “In his speech to the Italian Bishops, Benedict XVI also touched on the subject of the relations between the State and the Church and stated: “Finally, I would like to share with you the concern that you have for the good of Italy. As I mentioned in my encyclical, Deus caritas est (nn. 28-29), the Church is well aware that ‘the distinction between what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God, in other words, between the State and the Church, the independence of the temporal realities, is rooted in the fundamental structure of Christianity'”. According to the Pope, “at the same time, and just for the sake of salvation, the Church cannot fail its task of purifying reason through the proposal of its social doctrine, argued ‘from what is consistent with the nature of every human being’, and of reawakening the moral and spiritual forces, by opening the will to the true needs of good”. He then concluded by saying: “In this predicament, when we refer to the value that some fundamental ethical principles rooted in the great Christian legacy of Europe, and of Italy in particular, have for private and public life, we by no means breach the lay status of the State, but contribute instead to guarantee and promote the dignity of man and the common good of society”.
