Protect traditional families, Italian bishops say - update

(ANSA) - Rome, July 8 - The government should safeguard traditional families and beef up policies for "the family founded on a father and mother who seem to be absolutely missing at the moment," the secretary-general of the Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI), Msgr Nunzio Galantino, said Wednesday, denying reports he had met the rapporteur of a civil-union bill, Monica Cirinnà. The government led by Premier Matteo Renzi aims to introduce German-style legislation putting civil unions a rung below marriage with adoptions ruled out.