"That «I am ashamed» with which he has taken on the humiliation and pain of all the Church for the scandal caused by the priests charged of paedophilia was like the start of a rebirth, the restart of a new path, which eventually involved even those people who had suffered those scandals": with these words, referred to Pope Benedict XVI’s recent journey in the United States and his apologies for the cases of sexual abuse, card. Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian Bishops Conference, wanted to highlight the first point of his opening speech at the 58th general assembly of Italian Bishops which began in the Vatican this afternoon. After greeting the new bishops who during the year have joined the Italian Bishops Conference and mentioning those who have left their pastoral post as well as the deceased ones, Bagnasco recalled the Pope’s "admiration" for the experience of freedom that has been going on since the origin in that great nation" (the USA, editor’s note), "where the State is deliberately and definitely lay, but just because of its religious will, to give truthfulness to religion".
