From Chiesa: Pope Benedict XVI Is Betting on Christian Italy

Benedict XVI Is Betting on Christian Italy: For a "Great Service to Europe and to the World As Well”
The programmatic address from the pope to the National Conference of the Church in Italy, delivered in Verona on the morning of Thursday, October 19, 2006. With the original section headings
by [Pope] Benedict XVI

The civil and political responsibilities of Catholics
. . .
A special attention and an extraordinary commitment are required today by the great threats to vast segments of the human family: war and terrorism, hunger and thirst, certain terrible epidemics.

But we must also face, with like determination and clarity of intention, the risk of political and legislative choices that would contradict fundamental values and anthropological and ethical principles rooted in the nature of the human being, in particular with regard to the safeguarding of human life in all its phases, from conception to natural death, and to the promotion of the family founded upon marriage, avoiding the introduction into the public order of other forms of union that would contribute to destabilizing it, obscuring its particular character and its irreplaceable social role.

The open and courageous testimony that the Italian Church and Italian Catholics have given and are giving in this regard are a valuable service to Italy, and useful and encouraging for many other nations. This commitment and this witness are certainly part of that great “yes” that we, as believers in Christ, say to man, who is loved by God.