Faith, like water, is life-giving, pope says in Venice

May-9-2011

VENICE, Italy (CNS) -- Visiting Venice, the city of gondolas and canals, Pope Benedict XVI said Christians must make sure their lives as individuals and communities reflect the life-giving qualities of water and not the chaos and destruction it can bring.

"Water is an ambivalent symbol: of life, but also death; the populations struck by flooding and tsunamis know this," the pope said May 8 at the end of a two-day visit to Aquileia and Venice in northern Italy.

Seated in a white gondola amid a colorful flotilla of all kinds of boats, Pope Benedict rode to a meeting with Venetian cultural, artistic, political and economic leaders. the rest