On the eve of tomorrow's diocesan Assembly on 18 September at St John Lateran, the Cardinal Vicar Baldassare Reina, in an interview with Vatican News, stresses the importance of "strengthening the bond between the bishop and his Diocese" through the synodal journey undertaken in recent years, recalling that "we have made progress that needs to be reinforced". The Cardinal points to the main pastoral emergencies of the Diocese of Rome: weakening family bonds, youth distress and addictions, poverty (loneliness, lack of work and housing) and difficulties in proclaiming the faith, also noting the geographical imbalance whereby "most churches are concentrated in the centre, while most people are concentrated in the periphery". Tomorrow's Assembly will be attended by representatives of the Diocese's 334 parishes.