Rome, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI urged Italian leaders and lawmakers to use the values of the Catholic Church when setting policies that affect families, schools and the sanctity of life.
The pontiff said he supports a ``healthy secularism of the State that supports the temporal reality with its own laws, without however excluding the ethical reference points that find their ultimate origin in religion.'' He made a speech today at the presidential palace in Rome.
The pope, 78, made his first official visit to the Italian state by crossing Rome in a convertible limousine, waving to crowds gathered along the route, to meet with President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at his residence in the 17th century Quirinale palace. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the presidents of the two houses of parliament and other lawmakers also attended.
Pope Benedict's visit comes just two weeks after a failed referendum that would have amended Italy's restrictive fertility laws. On May 30 the pontiff endorsed a call from the congregation of Italian bishops for voters to abstain. Only about a quarter of Italians voted, less than the 50 percent required to validate the ballot. About 97 percent of Italians say they are Catholic, while the majority don't go to church regularly.
After recalling the church's role in Italy's history, the pontiff underlined three of his main ``concerns'' that ``can't not interest those who have public responsibilities.''
`Human' Solution
The first was the family ``founded in marriage,'' the second was ``human life from conception to its natural end,'' and the third was education.
``I trust that Italian legislators, in their wisdom, will know how to give to the problems mentioned a `human' solution, which respects the inviolable values that they involve,'' the pope said.
Ciampi, speaking before the pope, said the separation between church and state had been the reason for the good relationship between the two bodies.
``The necessary distinction between everyone's religious creed and the life of the civil community is regulated by the laws of the republic and has helped build through the years a profound harmony between church and state,'' Ciampi said.
After meeting privately for about a half-hour, Pope Benedict and Ciampi exchanged gifts. The pope gave Ciampi a mosaic of the Virgin Mary with Jesus Christ as an infant in her arms, while Ciampi gave the pope a commemorative coin and a book containing pictures and the history of the Quirinale palace, once the summer home of popes.