Cardinal Bagnasco gets a chance to comment on national and international issues, other than the state of the Church in Italy, at least three times during the year - at the yearly general assembly of the Italian bishops' conference (CEI) which he leads, and during the twice-yearly meetings of the CEI Permanent Council, whose spring meeting opened Monday evening in Rome... Tomorrow's issue of OR carries generous excerpts from his address, but meanwhile, here is a summary report from the English service fo SIR, teh news agency of the CEI.
Praise for the Japanese and
their 'discipline of suffering'
ROME, March 28 (SIR) - “In their darkest hour, the people of Japan have given the world a supreme lesson of composure, determination and strength. This is what has been effectively called ‘the discipline of suffering’”.
With these words, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), began his opening speech to the spring meeting of the CEI's Permanent Episcopal Council this evening in Rome, pointing to the powerful witness shown by the Japanese people to the world these days.
In the face of an enormous natural catastrophe and an exceptional and possibly worsening radioactive threat, he said “we should all rediscover the sense of our innate limitedness, of the intrinsic fragility of things, and thus, feel more humble, closer and more generous”.
The cardinal discussed various subjects in his speech: Lent and the need for personal conversion; the 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification; events in North Africa and the military intervention by Western nations in Libya; the “European emergency” in which Italy has seen boatloads of North African refugees and fugitives arriving on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa; terrorist attacks and persecutions against Christians in several countries; poverty in Italy; the north-south gap in the country; and pending laws governing 'end of life' issues and the family.
On the African crisis, the Cardinal expressed the hope that “this bloody phase may end immediately” and that Libyans may have “access to the necessary humanitarian aid, in a framework of justice”.
He went on to say that the North AFrican emergency is ‘European’, due to the thousands of refugees fleeing to Europe by boat. He called for “the generous help of each Region” as well as “for a concerted response by the European Union”.
With thousands arriving in Lampedusa, he said “the working activities of the small community run the risk of being seriously jeopardized, to the growing concern of the residents”.
He described serious threats to, and attacks on, religious freedom, especially towards Christians in several countries, recalling in particular the sassassinated Pakistani minister Bhatti, whom he called 'a martyr'.
Finally, commenting on the final judgement of the European Court of Human Rights that displaying the crucifix in Italian schools was not a violation of human rights, he said it was a religious symbol that
is “an integral part of Italian culture, and now, at this point, even European”.