Pope issues tough warning over pop culture, environment

posted July 17, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) — Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday warned Catholics of the perils of pop culture and pillaging the earth's resources after a rapturous welcome at the world's biggest Christian festival in Australia.

Speaking against the spectacular backdrop of Sydney's famous harbour, the pontiff told hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in Australia's biggest and trendiest city that "something is amiss" in modern society.

"Our world has grown weary of greed, exploitation and division, of the tedium of false idols and piecemeal responses, and the pain of false promises," the pope said after a welcoming ceremony by Aborigines in tribal paint.

Benedict told a vast sea of youths from around the world, gathered under a forest of national flags for World Youth Day, that humanity was squandering the earth's resources to satisfy its insatiable appetite for material goods. the rest

NYT: Pope Assails Moral Relativism
By TIM JOHNSTON
July 18, 2008
SYDNEY, Australia -- Pope Benedict XVI laid out a modern agenda Thursday for the event that the Catholic Church is describing as the largest gathering of young people on the planet, putting social justice and the environment center stage and attacking moral relativism.