Pope Laments Greedy Economy at World Youth Day

By Francis X. Rocca
Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI lamented the "superficiality, consumerism and hedonism" of contemporary society on Thursday (Aug. 18), while offering a message of Christian hope to young Catholic pilgrims gathered in Madrid.

Benedict made his remarks upon landing at the Madrid airport for the start of a four-day visit, during which he will take part in Catholic World Youth Day (WYD) celebrations that are expected to draw some 500,000 young people.

The pope said WYD participants have seen the need for divine help in facing challenges such as a "widespread banalization of sexuality," corruption, drug use, environmental pollution and the persecution of Christians.

Arriving in a country with an unemployment rate of more than 20 percent, the pope also acknowledged economic concerns, noting that "many young people look worriedly to the future, as they search for work, or because they have lost their job or because the one they have is precarious or uncertain."

Earlier the same morning, speaking to reporters on his plane from Rome, Benedict said ethics must play a greater role in economic policy, which must be measured not only "by the maximization of profit but according to the common good."

On Wednesday night, thousands in Madrid protested the pope's visit, citing what they said was its excessive cost to the Spanish public. Police arrested eight and reported 11 injured in related clashes.

WATCH POPE BENEDICT XVI ARRIVE IN MADRID

Comments

[KennebunkportIndependent]

10:34 PM on 08/23/2011

Hedonism?  The Vatican is a hedonistic as the Playboy Mansion; the difference being that the Vatican has REAL play boys.

[KennebunkportIndependent]

10:31 PM on 08/23/2011

Hypocrite:  BE GONE!

[ceeenbee]

06:13 PM on 08/21/2011

Is this the same Pope Benedict that wears red Prada shoes?

[Albert Westpy]

12:14 AM on 08/21/2011

"superficicality" just have a look at the way you are dressed and how you live and then we can talk about superficiality.

[Inannawhimsey]

10:31 PM on 08/20/2011

So how much longer, folks, do you think this Gang Leader has left?

[erehwon man]

02:09 PM on 08/20/2011

The pope must be joking. How in the world can a man who administers one of the
wealthiest corporations on the planet; that arrived at that wealth through means that
make robber barons look like saints, condemn contemporary (read: secular) society as
greedy and hedonistic?

Besides this hypocrisy there is the never ending crisis of child molestation, as seen
earlier this week in St. Louis. Maybe the bishop there will be rewarded a Vatican
apartment next door to Cardinal Law of Boston for his efforts to cover up the activities
of one of his priests. It's all part of the same mindset: the notion that they have to
answer only to God, that they should be above secular laws, that they should be
above criticism.

It's all pretty disheartening.

[JohnnyKay]

12:08 PM on 08/20/2011

While (s)he sits on a seventeen trillion plus dollar empire with an historical record worse than all the monsters put together in the last seventeen hundred years, this pope condemns everyone else but the bowels he sits atop.

Time for some historical perspective before the last truthful prophecy of Fatima comes to fruition.

[Inannawhimsey]

10:32 PM on 08/20/2011

You mean the one that the Space Mother gave to the young children?

[JohnnyKay]

11:04 PM on 08/20/2011

Precisely.

[Tanrioldu]

12:25 AM on 08/20/2011

I lament a greedy and child-molesting church

[Inannawhimsey]

10:33 PM on 08/20/2011

It certainly is an exciting time to be alive. The Vatican has survived through so many scandals...I'm amazed they got through supporting the Nazis unscathed.

[Tanrioldu]

11:09 PM on 08/20/2011

religious criminals always get off scot free.

[Craig2]

12:21 AM on 08/20/2011

Good evening, Did the Pope just call us hedonist? Really? The guy who, with a bunch of Cardinals, thinks they are directed by God. That's hedonistic.

[garybob]

09:37 AM on 08/23/2011

Please buy a dictionary.

[brokerthanu]

09:11 PM on 08/19/2011

He laments that the centuries old pedo-ring is finally coming to an end.

[brokerthanu]

09:09 PM on 08/19/2011

I can't believe this guy snuck into a World Youth Day event. Don't they have age cut-offs at these things? Certainly they have a right to exclude the fossilized.

[ThinkCreeps]

06:37 AM on 08/21/2011

Don't they vet the list of invitees for people on the `don't-leave-your-shildren-with' list?

[Gabriele Vaitkeviciute]

07:44 PM on 08/19/2011

Poor Christians being persecuted and stuff... I'm really sorry that the biggest majority in the world feels persecuted.

[dockers]

06:15 PM on 08/19/2011

This guy is a fraud.He is about a far away from the bible as you can get.He calls for a world government with teeth ,he blesses homosexuals this pope is going straight to hell and he`s leading his virgin mary followers with him.

[flurrysdad]

04:35 PM on 08/19/2011

Why doesn't the pope lament the GREED of his own church . . . the pedophile priests that he and his henchmen continue to protect . . . the antiquated view of birth control . . . the second class status of women . . .

Just another example of the religious being the root of all evil in this world . . .

[nwlover]

03:55 PM on 08/19/2011

Pope laments hedonism and greed? I lament pedophile priests and popes who cover up their crimes. What ever happened to his top aide who was running a gay prostitution business out of the Vatican?

[peter prete]

08:01 PM on 08/19/2011

[shameless plug] i think i saw that "top aide" half way up the Spanish Steps selling bootleg copies of the POPE ON A ROPE action figure [very poor quality, the robes are flammable and the shoes are not real patent leather, caveat emptor]