Pope warns Russian youth not to follow false idols of hedonism, drugs

Published: 2004-08-11

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II warned Russian youths not to squander hard-won freedoms by following the false idols of hedonism and drugs. "Do not allow the freedoms your dear nation has won back with the price of great sacrifice and suffering to be squandered away by giving in to false ideals," he said in a written message released Aug. 11 by the Vatican. Many youths in Russia today are "often distracted by the mirages of an easy and comfortable life, by the temptations of drugs and hedonism, often ending up as slaves to violence, meaninglessness and desperation," he said. Young people need now more than ever to see other young people's "radical loyalty" to Christ and the Gospel, he said. The pope's remarks came in a written message for an Aug. 11-15 nationwide gathering of Catholic young people in Russia's Siberian city of Irkutsk. The meeting, promoted by the nation's bishops, was part of Russia's preparations for World Youth Day 2005 next August in Cologne, Germany.

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