«They did not talk about the referendum on citizenship that reached, in record time, the 500 thousand signatures necessary for admission, but «on the issue of citizenship the CEI has always assumed a favorable position, in particular to the so-called ius scholae». Monsignor Giuseppe Baturi, secretary general of the CEI, during the final press conference of the Permanent Council also spoke about immigration. Also shocked by the massacre that occurred in Nuoro, he then added, on this point that «these are tragedies that truly leave you speechless, especially since they happen in contexts dedicated to trust, to mutual love, the educational issue is the issue of learning to love, that is, learning to welcome the other, to respect the other, to keep the other company». The educational issue, he added, «is posed in the terms already stated by Vatican II: it is necessary to look at young people and the future by transmitting reasons for life and hope because the young people who commit these crimes are as if they did not have a future ahead of them, as if they did not have a reason to travel even difficult paths. It is a social problem, it is not only about the fate of individuals because a society that does not know how to transmit the values of coexistence in the most elementary place which is the family, is a society that is in crisis”.
The educational issue will also be addressed in the first synodal assembly scheduled for November. In view of the appointment, the Lineamenti were approved, developed on the basis of listening and discernment carried out in the three years of the Synodal Path both in the local Churches and within the Committee of the Synodal Path, taking into account the contributions offered by the 79th General Assembly of the CEI. The Lineamenti, as stated in the final press release, «outline the conditions of possibility for ecclesial communities to be more streamlined, more missionary and more welcoming». It is a question of acting on three nuclei: «the renewal of the ecclesial mentality and pastoral practices; formation in faith and life; co-responsibility. All within the missionary horizon, in the style of proximity».
The first Synodal Assembly – through over a thousand delegates – “will have the task of developing some proposals, starting from the trajectories identified in the Lineamenti, which will then be returned to the local Churches in view of the second Synodal Assembly that will take place from March 31 to April 4, 2025”. Finally, the secretary of the CEI spoke of a reform of the Italian Church that should take place within a year.
The permanent council also made a strong appeal for peace. “We continue to see broken lives, families marked by pain, children devastated by violence and tears,” the bishops say. “Homes, schools and hospitals razed to the ground, cities turned into deserts. A wounded humanity calls for peace and justice. It is the duty of each person to invoke peace and to work in everyday life in the name of Fratelli tutti; it is the duty of governments to ensure peace for the peoples of the Earth.”