Using HTML tags in Spry data?

I need to be able to use simple html in my spry data, such as em or strong.

Let's say my XML data item is something like <item>This is some text!</item> and the word "text" needs to be italic.

In Flash, I have merely enclosed the text in CDATA tags, and added the <em> tags. But when I do this here, the text is printed in the web page as "This is some <em>text</em>!"

Is this possible? How do I make it happen?

Thanks.