Pope gives views on modern love

Pope Benedict XVI has published his first encyclical, or letter to the whole Catholic Church, devoted to the meaning of love and charity.

In Deus Caritas Est, or "God is Love", he says physical love must be redefined by Christian faith and attacks modern obsessions with the "commodity" of sex.

Recent associations of God with "hatred and violence" make Christian love "timely and significant", he writes.

The encyclical has been published in seven key languages, including Latin. The rest