Breitbart.com is reporting that Pope Francis expressed serious concern for what he described as the "spiritual poverty" of a world that is increasingly comfortable with rejection of both God and objective standards of morality.
"It is the spiritual poverty of our time, which afflicts the so-called richer countries particularly seriously. It is what my much-loved predecessor, Benedict XVI, called the 'tyranny of relativism', which makes everyone his own criterion and endangers the coexistence of peoples," he said.
"And that brings me to a second reason for my name. Francis of Assisi tells us we should work to build peace. But there is no true peace without truth! There cannot be true peace if everyone is his own criterion, if everyone can always claim exclusively his own rights, without at the same time caring for the good of others, of everyone, on the basis of the nature that unites every human being on this earth."
He went on to explain to the diplomats that the word “pontiff” means “bridge-builder,” and that he hoped to follow the example of his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, the great bridge-builder who appealed to people of all backgrounds but never compromised the truth.
"It is not possible to build bridges between people while forgetting God. But the converse is also true: it is not possible to establish true links with God, while ignoring other people. Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam. At the Mass marking the beginning of my ministry, I greatly appreciated the presence of so many civil and religious leaders from the Islamic world."
He added: "And it is also important to intensify outreach to non-believers, so that the differences which divide and hurt us may never prevail, but rather the desire to build true links of friendship between all peoples, despite their diversity."
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