Pope urges a new generation of Catholic politicians for Italy

(September 8, 2008) Pope Benedict XVI said on Sunday Italy needed "a new generation" of Catholic politicians committed to using their religious beliefs to shepherd the country's future. Visiting the Mediterranean island of Sardinia on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria near the regional capital Cagliari, the Holy Father celebrated an open air mass for some 150,000 faithful. In his homily he made it clear that he wanted a return to Catholic values in the political arena. Italian politics, he said, needed "a new generation of committed lay Christians, capable of seeking solutions of sustainable development with competence and moral rigour". Italy's Catholic vote has been suffering a diaspora since the mid-1990s, when the powerful and now defunct Christian Democratic party disappeared in a wave of corruption scandals. Since his election in 2005, the pope has several times jumped into Italy's political fray on issues such as abortion and gay rights, drawing fire from the left.
Before leaving for the Vatican on Sunday afternoon, the pope addressed some 60,000 young people, urging them to honour traditional family values and to shun a consumerist society where money and success had become the new idols to which so many people pay homage. "What can we say about the fact that today's consumerist society, money and success have become the new idols before which so many people prostrate themselves?" he asked. Earlier the pope met some of the centenarians of Sardinia, which has one of the highest rates of longevity in the world. "I wish you will reach my age, Your Holiness," said 106-year-old Antonia Girau, known as the doyenne of Cagliari's centenarians and one of 30 people aged over 100 to meet him.
At the end of Sunday’s Mass the Holy Father remembered Haiti's people, who are suffering from the effects of three hurricanes. He said he is praying for the «unfortunately numerous» victims and for the homeless, and was close to the entire Caribbean nation. He expressed hope that all necessary aid reach the country as soon as possible. Dozens have been killed by flooding last week in Haiti and officials there fear the approaching Hurricane Ike could do further damage.