World

Pope critiques modern angst

by Rob Peters | July 20, 2008 at 01:26 pm

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The Pope had some interesting comments today about materialism and modern angst in his final address to the hundreds of thousands gathered in Australia for World Youth Day. He spoke about a spreading emptiness and quiet despair resulting from widespread materialism in many cultures.

It's interesting, and perhaps telling of our culture, that the Pope would tackle existential angst in his final speech. For the most part I agree with him. As to how he got onto this topic, maybe he's been listening to the new Beck album a lot?

“In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair,” he warned.

Earlier in the week, Benedict had fired a broadside against materialism.

He said that in the absence of God, “what was ostensibly promoted as human ingenuity soon manifests itself as folly, greed and selfish exploitation.”

“Our world has grown weary of greed, exploitation and division,” the pope said, “of the tedium of false idols and piecemeal responses, and the pain of false promises.”

Later in the speech, he also apologized to sexual abuse victims:

“I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured, and I assure them that, as their pastor, I too share in their suffering,” he said in a brief departure from his prepared script.

He said that those guilty of sexual abuse, “a grave betrayal of trust,” should be brought to justice.