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Catholic World News News Feature

Mary's purity: antidote for consumerism December 10, 2007

On the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, Pope Benedict XVI offered the Virgin Mary as a model of purity, particularly for young people "growing up in an atmosphere pervaded with messages that propose false models of happiness."

Speaking at midday to an audience gathered in St. Peter's Square, the Pontiff said that Mary shows "the greatness and beauty of God's project for each human being: to become holy and immaculate in love, in the image of our Creator." He said that the image of love is easily distorted, and adolescents in particular are vulnerable to "unscrupulous adults" who tempt them "into the blind alleys of consumerism."

"Even the most sacred things such as the human body-- the temple of God, of love and of life-- thus become objects of consumption; and this is happening ever earlier, even before adolescence," the Pope said. "How sad it is when children lose their sense of wonder, the enchantment of the most beautiful feelings, the value of respect for the body which is the manifestation of the individual and of his or her unfathomable mystery."

Later on Saturday the Pontiff traveled across Rome to the Spanish Steps, where-- following a Vatican tradition-- he laid a floral wreath at the foot of a statue dedicated to Mary Immaculate. There he urged all people to recognize that the Virgin as the "mother of all humanity," who brought the world a "message of light and hope."