Govt must tackle new challenges - Church

(ANSA) - Rome, May 22 - Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, the president of Italian bishops' conference CEI, said Tuesday that the new government must tackle the unprecedented problems facing Italian society today. "Let's remind everyone that it is not sufficient to have a government to be able to lead the country," Bassetti said as he opened the CEI assembly.
    "It is necessary to truly know it, to know it and respect its history and identity.
    "It is necessary to know the world that we are part of and in which our republic - one of the co-founders of the united Europe - wants to return to carrying out its responsibilities as a free, democratic country of solidarity. "I think that, with the critical spirit of always, the time has come to accept the challenge of the new in Italian politics to have an examination of conscience and, above all, to renew our political pedagogy.
    "Social hardship has had effects on the political world.
    "But the game is not lost. The country is healthier than it's portrayed".