Pope warns of tuning out Christianity

Die moderne wêreld se wetenskap en tegnologie is nie genoeg om die samelewingsprobleme van die dag op te los nie, sê die Pous. Hy is tans op besoek aan sy geboorteland.

MUNICH, Germany - Pope Benedict XVI rebuked his fellow Germans and other Western societies Sunday, saying they often shut their ears to the Christian message and insisting that the modern world‘s science and technology alone cannot combat AIDS and other social ills.

It was the second day of a pilgrimage to his Bavarian homeland, a six-day trip filled with nostalgic meaning for Benedict as well as for his liberal flock in Germany.

"Hearts must be converted if progress is to be made on social issues and reconciliation is to begin, and if — for example, AIDS is to be combatted by realistically facing its deeper causes," Benedict said.

"Put simply, we are no longer able to hear God — there are too many different frequencies filling our ears," Benedict told the crowd, which stood quietly shoulder-to-shoulder on a field on the outskirts of Munich, where he served as archbishop from 1977 to 1982.