"We are surprised and pained that some statements" contained in the "magnificent" lesson of the Pope at Regensburg University "have been misunderstood to the point of being construed as an offence to the Islamic religion and of leading to intimidations and disgraceful threats", to the point "perhaps of even offering an excuse for the abominable murder of sister Leonella Sgorbati in Mogadishu yesterday". With these words, card. Camillo Ruini, president of the Italian Bishops Conference, expressed the Italian bishops’ "total closeness to and sympathy with" the Pope. "We will pray harder for him, for our Church, for religious freedom, for dialogue and friendship between religions and peoples", said the cardinal: "We condemn, instead, those interpretations, that are not missing in our country either, which blame the Holy Father for faults that he does not have at all or mistakes that he has not committed or tend to affect his person and his role". Benedict XVI, explained Ruini, in his visit to Bavaria, "wanted to promote ‘a real dialogue of cultures and religions a dialogue we so urgently need’, as he said himself in his lecture and as the Cardinal and Secretary of State excellently specified in his statement last Saturday, which the Holy Father made his own in yesterday’s Angelus". (to be continued)
