The president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia-Città della Pieve, delivered a wide-ranging address to fellow bishops on March 22.

The prelate spoke of Europe’s Covid deaths and declining birth rate, denounced the war in Ukraine as a “useless massacre,” and announced that Italy’s bishops will take part in the March 25 act of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.