Pope Benedict XVI Blog

In Brazil, Pope Stresses Morality

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Pope Benedict XVI Visits Brazil
Pontiff makes his first papal trip to Latin America, a region considered by many to be the heart of his church, home to nearly half the world's Roman Catholics.

Washington Post
By Monte Reel

Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, May 12, 2007; Page A11

SAO PAULO, Brazil, May 11 -- Pope Benedict XVI used an open-air Mass on Friday to stress the importance of sexual morality, directly confronting what many here say represents the widest gap between the church hierarchy and a country with a reputation for tolerance.

Taking advantage of the largest crowd he is expected to attract during his five-day visit to Brazil, Benedict called for a rejection of those elements of popular culture that trivialize the church's prohibitions on sex out of wedlock.

"The world needs clean lives, clear souls and pure minds that refuse to be considered mere objects of pleasure," Benedict said during the Mass, which was held at a military airfield here and attended by hundreds of thousands of people. "It is necessary to say no to the elements of the media that ridicule the sanctity of marriage and of virginity before marriage."
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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 1:47 PM