Some bridges closed while train and ferry services suspended across Scandinavia

Giorgia Meloni has asked for an MP whose gun was fired at a New Year’s Eve party to be suspended from her far-right Brothers of Italy party, she said.

Meloni has been under pressure from opposition leaders to take action against Emanuele Pozzolo, who confirmed that the pistol belonged to him but denied firing the bullet, which injured a member of the security entourage of the Italian justice ministry undersecretary Andrea Delmastro.

We need to build relationships as equals, serious and non-predatory. This can be done through investments and strategies.

The cases of some Episcopal Conferences must be understood in their contexts. In several countries there are strong cultural and even legal issues that require time and pastoral strategies that go beyond the short term.

If there are laws that condemn the mere act of declaring oneself as a homosexual with prison and in some cases with torture and even death, it goes without saying that a blessing would be imprudent. It is clear that the Bishops do not wish to expose homosexual persons to violence.

In some places, perhaps, some catechesis will be necessary that can help everyone to understand that these types of blessings are not an endorsement of the life led by those who request them.

Even less are they an absolution, as these gestures are far from being a sacrament or a rite. They are simple expressions of pastoral closeness that do not impose the same requirements as a sacrament or a formal rite. We will all have to become accustomed to accepting the fact that, if a priest gives this type of simple blessings, he is not a heretic, he is not ratifying anything nor is he denying Catholic doctrine.