Pope Says Enlarged EU Needs Christianity
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May 2, 8:03 AM (ET)
By Rachel Sanderson
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul Sunday welcomed the 10 new nations of the European Union but said the bloc could only face the challenges of the 21st century if it defended its Christian roots.
The pope, whose native country, Poland, is one of the new countries in the 25-strong EU, told a packed St Peter's Square Europe's identity would be "incomprehensible" without Christianity.
"Only a Europe that does not remove, but rediscovers its Christian roots will reach the stature needed for the great challenges of the third millennium: peace, dialogue between cultures and religions, the safeguarding of creation," he said.
He has repeatedly called for bloc to enshrine Christianity in its constitution, but this has been resisted by secular politicians.
EU leaders are also aware of the risk of offending Turkey, a secular state but with a largely Muslim population, which wants to join the EU.
Earlier, in a sign of his growing concern with the secularization of society, the pope warned 26 new priests it would be hard to convince people God was still important in a materialistic world.
"You are becoming priests in an age in which, even here in Rome, strong cultural tendencies seem to want to cause people to forget God, in particular the young and families," he said, speaking in the relatively clear voice.
The leader of the world's one billion Roman Catholics, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, appeared in better form than on many previous occasions. Last year his aides had cut secondary engagements such as ordinations from his schedule.
But Sunday, the pontiff led the ordination mass, seated in a throne on wheels. At the start of his noon address in St Peter's Square, he unusually raised his voice and banged his hand twice on the lectern to gain attention.
In another sign of the pope's improved health, he is expected to travel to Switzerland in June and to the shrine of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes in August.
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