In May, the Pope will open the general assembly of the Italian Bishops. The announcement was made by cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa and president of the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), as he opened the meeting of the Permanent Council of the Italian Bishops that is taking place in the capital of Liguria, which will host the national Eucharistic Congress from 15th to 18th September. “We affectionately send our warmest wishesto the Holy Father, Francis, for his third year of papacy”, the cardinal began: “While we reassure him of our loyal obedience and our fervent prayer, I have the pleasure to tell you that again this year he will grace us with his presence at the General Assembly in May where he will give an opening speech”. Among the milestones of this year of papacy, Bagnasco mentioned his recent trip to Mexico, where “he offered words and gestures of great intensity and significance to the Church and to the world”, starting with “the poorest and the weakest: labourers, old people, families, sick people and convicts”. “A special, epoch-making, moving and very promising moment that had been longed for, for centuries”, according to the president of CEI, was his meeting with Patriarch Kirill and their joint Declaration, “full of truth and hope, of history and future: the hearts of the two men of God spread out from the Church to the troubled world, to beg for faith, freedom, justice and peace”.