Pope criticizes those who hurt children through abuse, prostitution

Published: 2007-12-10

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Lamenting the climate of consumerism and materialism in today's world, Pope Benedict XVI criticized "unscrupulous adults" who victimize children through sexual abuse and prostitution. Even the most sacred things, "like the human body, temple of the God of love and life," have been turned into objects of consumption, he said before praying the noonday Angelus Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. "Adolescents, young people, even young children are easy victims of the corruption of love, deceived by unscrupulous adults who, by lying to them and themselves, lure them down the dead-end roads of consumerism," he said, without specifically mentioning abuse or prostitution to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square. "How sad when young people are robbed of the amazement, the enchantment of the most beautiful feelings" and the value of respecting the human body, he said. Most young people growing up in a consumerist society are bombarded with "messages that offer false models of happiness," the pope said.

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