Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Worship God not technology, Pope says on Christmas

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) –
Mankind, which has reached other planets and unraveled many of nature's secrets, should not presume it can live without God, Pope Benedict said in his Christmas message on Monday.

Speaking to tens of thousands of people in a sunny square, he wished the world a Happy Christmas in 62 languages - including Arabic, Hebrew, Mongolian and Latin - but his speech highlighted his preoccupation with humanity's fate.

In an age of unbridled consumerism it was shameful many remained deaf to the "heart-rending cry" of those dying of hunger, thirst, disease, poverty, war and terrorism, he said.

"Does a 'Savior' still have any value and meaning for the men and women of the third millennium?" he asked in his Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) message to the faithful in St Peter's Square. "Is a 'Savior' still needed by a humanity which has reached the moon and Mars and is prepared to conquer the universe; for a humanity which knows no limits in its pursuit of nature's secrets and which has succeeded even in deciphering the marvelous codes of the human genome?"

He appealed for peace and justice in the Middle East, an end to the brutal violence in Iraq and to the fratricidal conflict in Darfur and other parts of Africa, and expressed his hope for
"a
democratic Lebanon".

For more of the Reuters story

1 comment:

Scott Hughes said...

I personally am not a religious man, and worry more about secular problems and secular solutions. Nonetheless, I agree with the Pope about the serious issues plaguing our society such as hunger, poverty, homelessness, and disease. We need to put an end to them. It tears my heart apart to think of the 16,000 children who die from hunger everyday.

Thanks,
Scott Hughes
Hunger & Poverty Blog