CASTEL GONDOLFO, Italy, (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI called on Group of Eight leaders meeting in Japan this week to focus on the needs of the world's poorest and most vulnerable.
He urged them to place "at the centre of their deliberations the needs of the weakest and the poorest, more vulnerable now because of speculation and financial turbulence and their perverse effects on the prices of food and energy."
Leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised nations will Monday begin three days of annual talks in the Japanese mountain resort town of Toyako that will be dominated by the fragile world economy and global warming.
The 81-year-old pontiff, speaking at his summer residence at Castelgandolfo near Rome during his traditional Sunday Angelus prayer, urged "generosity and far-sightedness" during the talks.
Benedict called on the leaders to "courageously adopt all the necessary measures to overcome the scourges of extreme poverty, of hunger, disease, illiteracy, that still affect such a great part of humanity."
He urged them to place "at the centre of their deliberations the needs of the weakest and the poorest, more vulnerable now because of speculation and financial turbulence and their perverse effects on the prices of food and energy."
Leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised nations will Monday begin three days of annual talks in the Japanese mountain resort town of Toyako that will be dominated by the fragile world economy and global warming.
The 81-year-old pontiff, speaking at his summer residence at Castelgandolfo near Rome during his traditional Sunday Angelus prayer, urged "generosity and far-sightedness" during the talks.
Benedict called on the leaders to "courageously adopt all the necessary measures to overcome the scourges of extreme poverty, of hunger, disease, illiteracy, that still affect such a great part of humanity."