The 57th General Assembly of the Italian Bishops Conference (Vatican, 21-25 May) discussed the walk of the European Union. The press release published in the morning states that the Italian Bishops pointed out "the ambiguities of a walk, that, as well as positive values, shows guidelines and prospects that cannot always be shared, as they are not compatible with the anthropological values contained in the social teaching of the Church, in the integral conception of human rights and in the law of nature". So the bishops called the Christians who work within the European institutions "to give a braver testimony of faith and of the values of the Gospel". The Bishops said that, for building a "European social network, one should reconsider "the centrality of the family as the pillar of the social model". Other subjects discussed by the Assembly of the Italian Bishops Conference included the agreement with the Pope on the defence of non-negotiable values, "the mission as the horizon of life of the Church", the approval of the Pastoral Note after the IV National Ecclesial Meeting of Verona, the next dates of the Social Week of Pistoia and Pisa (18-21 October 2007) and the meeting-cum-pilgrimage of the young to Loreto (1 2 September), the initiatives about the mass media and the work of the Missio and Migrantes Foundations and the Italian Caritas.” “
