"The accomplishment of fair structures is not a strict task of the Church, but is part of the political sphere", and "in this respect, the task of the Church is mediate, since the Church has to pay its contribution for the purification of reason and the awakening of moral forces". Those words were spoken by the Pope today. He recalled the encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is charity) in the salutation addressed to the president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), Msgr. Angelo Bagnasco, during the opening of the 45th round of the Social Week in Pistoia, on "The Common Good Today: A Commitment From Afar". According to Benedict XVI, if "on the one hand" the Church "acknowledges it is not a political agent, on the other hand it cannot avoid being interested in the goodness of the whole civil community, in which it lives and works. And the Church pays the civil community its peculiar contribution, by shaping a genuine spirit of truth and honesty in the political and entrepreneurial classes". However, it is "exactly the task of lay believers" to operate "for a fair order within society". As "citizens of the State, it is up to them to participate in the public life personally, and to cooperate to shape social life correctly, respecting legitimate independencies". By mentioning his speech at the meeting in Verona, Benedict XVI stated again that lay believers "must dedicate themselves with generosity and courage to this highly important task".
