Pope tells Latin Americans to meet challenges by focusing on Jesus

Published: 2007-05-14

APARECIDA, Brazil (CNS) -- On a five-day visit to Latin America, Pope Benedict XVI identified a host of social and religious challenges and said the church should respond by focusing more clearly on the person of Jesus Christ. "This is the faith that has made America the 'continent of hope.' Not a political ideology, not a social movement, not an economic system: faith in the God who is love -- who took flesh, died and rose in Jesus Christ," the pope said on the final day of his May 9-13 visit to Brazil. It was a comment echoed in many of his encounters, which included a rally with young people, the canonization of the first Brazilian-born saint, and the inauguration of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean. The pope cited inroads by secularism, threats against the family and the institution of marriage, and an erosion of traditional Latin America values and said that in response the church needs to put greater emphasis on the religious education of its own members.

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