Pope bids to 'wake up consciences' on climate change
Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Australia on a pilgrimage he says he wants to use to raise awareness about global warming and address the crisis of clergy sexual abuse.
Benedict’s plane landed in the northern city of Darwin after a more than 20-hour flight from the Vatican. His plane made a brief refuelling stop before flying on to Sydney, where he will lead celebrations at the World Youth Day festival.
Benedict, 81, will spend three days resting at a retreat in Sydney before taking part in the festival, including a vigil service with thousands of young people and an outdoor Mass.
The Pope met reporters aboard his plane during the flight, and was asked about climate change following discussions on the environment at this month’s summit of the Group of Eight industrialised nations in Japan.
There is a need to “wake up consciences”, Benedict responded. “We have to give impulse to rediscovering our responsibility and to finding an ethical way to change our way of life.”
Benedict said politicians and experts must be “capable of responding to the great ecological challenge and to be up to the task of this challenge”.
“We have our responsibilities toward creation,” he said, stressing, however, that he had no intention of weighing in on technical or political questions swirling around climate change.
The Pope said he also would address the problem of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.
At the start of a US pilgrimage earlier this year, Benedict had said he was “deeply ashamed” of the abuse scandal and pledged to work to make sure paedophiles did not become priests.
Benedict said that during his 10-day visit to Australia he would work for “healing and reconciliation with the victims” of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy there “just as I did in the US”.
Clergy abuse support groups in Australia have demanded that Benedict apologise during his visit for the abuse they suffered. The exact number of victims of clergy abuse in Australia is not known, though activists say it is in the thousands.
Benedict admitted that the Church in the West was “in crisis” but insisted it was not in decline. “I am an optimist” about its future, he said.
The Australia pilgrimage is the longest in his three-year-old papacy and will test the pontiff’s stamina.
After he succeeded John Paul three years ago, Benedict said he doubted he would make many long trips. But invitations keep coming in from world leaders and officials of his global billion-member flock.
He visited Brazil last year, made a pilgrimage to the US in April and is to travel to France in September.
