The Bishops cannot "refuse to give" their "specific contribution" for "Italy to experience a season of progress and harmony, making the most of those energies and impulses that spring out of its great Christian history". This was asked by Pope Benedict XVI in the speech he gave this morning to the Italian Bishops during their Assembly. "In the light of a healthy, well-considered laicism said the Pope , one must therefore resist any trend to regard religion, especially Christianity, as a quintessentially private fact: the perspectives that are born of our faith can offer instead a fundamental contribution to the explanation and solution of the biggest social and moral problems of today’s Italy and Europe".
