The head of Italy's bishops, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa,
painted a dire picture of the current state of Italian public life and
politics in a recent speech.
Despite the difficulties created by the
"present situation," Italians must not give in to pessimism but should
shift their attention to "change for the better," he said.
In Cardinal Bagnasco's address to inaugurate the Italian Bishops'
Conference's winter gathering in Ancona, Italy on Jan. 24, he celebrated
the announcement of John Paul II's coming beatification and voiced
support for Pope Benedict XVI's push for more attention to religious
freedom in the world.
Most evident, however, was his intense description of the decadence
of Italian culture and religion's loss of influence on the national
identity and public life.
It is an openness to God that gives man "the ideals and that moral
strength that materialism does not guarantee," he said. "Most of all, it
makes him able to choose good instead of evil, which for a society is
the fundamental and irreplaceable direction."
He cited a lack of ethical behavior in financial and economic
dealings, a culture among the young of snubbing physical labor and a
"culture of seduction" resulting from a widespread consumerist ideals as
contributing to problems in Italy's current direction.
A "bizarre idea of life, where everything is at one's fingertips just
by demanding it," has been created, he said. It is a "type of
intoxication, to whose flattery - in fact - only a part of society has
ceded."
Young people, he said, must be aware of the nature of sacrifice and
suffering. Although they are often kept away from these experiences with
the "best intentions," such actions amount to "the most fatal
self-deception," explained the cardinal.
"Attempting to preserve them from the difficulties and the harshness
of existence, we risk raising fragile, unrealistic and ungenerous
people," he said.
If Italian youth are taught to seek a "bogus representation of life
... meant to pursue success based on artificiality, shortcuts, easy
earnings, ostentation and commercialization of oneself," the country
headed toward an "anthropological disaster," he said.
He called for a "conversion of lifestyles" fed by increased "ethical
literacy" and a "cultural rehabilitation" of the family in the face of
the "great powers who have often ignored it."
Policies to promote the family—based on marriage between a man and a
woman and open to life—must be supported "as the base for relaunching
the country," said the cardinal.
He spoke of the "convulsive phase" the country is now facing in which
weak ethical policies and uncoordinated institutions are mixed together
in “an increasingly threatening way.”
Politics has been ruled by a "logic of conflict" for too long and the
nation and its image are affected negatively as public figures are
investigated for acts of indecency and lifestyles "incompatible with
sobriety and correctness," he said.
The current situation, he said, goes from "one abnormal situation to another."
While the cardinal did not refer to any public figures by name, he
said that Italians regard the public arena "with dismay and live in
clear moral distress."
There are "too many" people contributing to this atmosphere of
"general disturbance, to a certain confusion and a climate of mutual
delegitimization" which "could leave deep marks on the collective soul,
if not true and proper injuries," he said.
Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been under heavy media
scrutiny for a week after an investigation was launched into parties he
hosted in which he allegedly paid "call girls" to take part.
It is still unclear if Berlusconi elicited sexual relations for
money. A minor may have also been on his payroll, according to
allegations.
Again, without citing names, Cardinal Bagnasco called for
clarification of matters in the "appropriate fora." If they do not act
quickly, he said, the effect could be the insertion of "subtle poisons"
into the Italian psyche, thus affecting generations.
The Italian people, he said, "ask to be accompanied with
far-sightedness and effectiveness ... beginning on the front of the
ethics of life, family, solidarity and work."
On behalf of the bishops, he called for the nation's people "not to give in to pessimism, but to look ahead with confidence."
It is necessary, he said in closing, that “the country as a whole be
rejuvenated,” that Italy rises again from its cultural, social and
economic catastrophes.
"We can and we must change for the better."