Pope hits out at consumer culture during Australia visit

Pope Benedict XVI is an unlikely green campaigner, but he made environmental concerns a theme of his speech to young Catholics in Sydney today.

The world's natural resources were being squandered because of "insatiable" demands of consumers, he said, urging young people to care for the environment.

The 81-year-old pontiff said that television and the internet often exalted violence, alcohol and drug abuse and sexual exploitation as entertainment, but young people's "keen sense of social justice and ethics" and the innate goodness of mankind filled him with hope for the future.



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