Pope Benedict XVI yesterday warned Catholics of the perils of pop culture and pillaging the earth’s resources after a rapturous welcome at the world’s biggest Christian festival in Australia.
Speaking against the spectacular backdrop of Sydney’s famous harbor, the pontiff told hundreds of thousands of pilgrims that “something is amiss” in modern society.
“Our world has grown weary of greed, exploitation and division, of the tedium of false idols and piecemeal responses, and the pain of false promises,” the pope said after a welcoming ceremony by Aborigines in tribal paint.
Benedict told a vast sea of youths from around the world, gathered under a forest of national flags for World Youth Day, that humanity was squandering the earth’s resources to satisfy its insatiable appetite for material goods.
In one of his strongest-ever messages on the environment, the pope spoke poetically of his 20-hour flight from Rome to Australia, saying the wondrous views from his plane evoked a profound sense of awe.
But the 81-year-old pontiff told his youthful audience that the planet’s problems were also easier to perceive from the sky.
“Perhaps reluctantly, we come to acknowledge that there are 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.
Earlier, shouts of “Viva, Papa” rang out over the harbor as a “boat-a-cade” of 13 vessels led by a water-spouting fire tug and flanked by bodyguards on jet skis glided past Sydney’s iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge en route to the pope’s World Youth Day debut.
Benedict arrived in Sydney last Sunday, but took a four-day holiday before beginning his formal duties, which end with a papal mass expected to draw 500,000 people on Sunday.
Ahead of his public appearance, the pope was welcomed by Governor-General Michael Jeffery, the representative of Australia’s head of state, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
In a brief speech at the ceremony at Sydney’s Government House, the pontiff hailed Rudd’s apology to Aborigines for past injustices in an historic address to parliament in February.
“Thanks to the Australian government’s courageous decision to acknowledge the injustices committed against the indigenous peoples in the past, concrete steps are now being taken to achieve reconciliation based on mutual respect,” Benedict said.
“This example of reconciliation offers hope to peoples all over the world who long to see their rights affirmed and their contribution to society acknowledged and promoted,” he said.
But there was some confusion over whether the pope would deliver an apology of his own to Australian victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergymen, as the scandal cast a shadow over the festival.
Benedict indicated to journalists on his plane on the way to Australia that he would apologize but a Vatican official late on Wednesday raised doubts over the issue.
The angry parents of two Australian girls sexually abused by a Catholic priest urged Benedict not to back away from his apparent pledge to apologize.
“I can’t really understand why they’re backpedaling on that,” said Anthony Foster, as he and his wife Christine flew into Sydney after cutting short a holiday in London.
The Fosters’ daughter Emma committed suicide this year aged 26, after struggling to deal with abuse by a priest while she was at primary school.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source