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stuff.co.nz Earth's natural resources are being squandered to fuel "insatiable consumption", the Pope says.
Addressing tens of thousands of Catholic youths gathered in Sydney for World Youth Day, Pope Benedict XVI referred to man-made "scars marking the earth". After sailing across Sydney Harbour aboard a cruise boat, the 81-year-old pontiff spoke at length about the beauty of the world he passed over during his "daunting" flight from the Vatican to Sydney.
He mentioned: "The sparkle of the Mediterranean, the grandeur of the North African desert, the lushness of Asia's forestation, the vastness of the Pacific. . . and the majestic splendour of Australia's natural beauty, which I have been able to enjoy these last couple of days".
But he voiced strong regret these resources were in danger.
"Perhaps reluctantly we come to acknowledge that there are also scars which mark the surface of our earth – erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world's mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption," he said.
He referred to pilgrims from countries threatened by rising water levels, or the "effect of devastating droughts".
"God's wondrous creation is sometimes experienced as almost hostile to its stewards, even something dangerous," he said.
"How can what is good appear so threatening?"
En route to Australia earlier this week, the Pope also spoke of environmental concerns and "our responsibility towards creation".
"We have to face up to this great challenge and find the ethical capacity to change the situation of the environment for the good," he told reporters aboard his flight to Sydney.
In his first address to the WYD pilgrims taking part in the six-day event, Pope Benedict said yesterday the world had "grown weary of greed, exploitation and division".
"Our hearts and minds are yearning for a vision of life where love endures, where gifts are shared, where unity is built, where freedom finds meaning in truth, and where identity is found in respectful communion," he said in his homily at Barangaroo, beside Sydney Harbour.
"Let this be the message that you bring from Sydney to the world."
The Pope said the "social environment" was under threat, warning pilgrims against the scourge of drugs and alcohol abuse, against the exaltation of sex and violence, and moral relativism.
"Here too, in our personal lives and in our community, we can encounter a hostility, something dangerous, a poison which threatens to corrode what is good, reshape who we are and distort the purpose for which we have been created," he said.
"Examples abound, as you yourselves know. Among the more prevalent are alcohol and drug abuse, and the exaltation of violence and sexual degradation, often presented through television and the internet as entertainment.
"I ask myself, could anyone standing face to face with people who actually do suffer from violence and sexual exploitation explain that these tragedies, portrayed in the virtual form, are considered merely entertainment."
The Pope told the young Catholics life was not just a succession of events or experiences, but a search for truth and beauty, and this was the basis on which they should make their life choices.
"Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty and subjective experience displaces truth," he said.
He had earlier welcomed the WYD pilgrims from around the world, including those from the "dynamic multicultural communities of Australia".
"For some of us, it might seem like we have come to the end of the world," he said.
Pope Benedict also praised the "pioneering priests, sisters and brothers" who spread christianity throughout Australia and the Pacific, including the Blessed Mary MacKillop, who is in line to become Australia's first saint.
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