Become Prophets of a New Age - Benedict XVI

At the World Youth Day final Mass, Pope Benedict urged the assembled youth to become prophets of a new age to bring faith to a "spiritually barren" world. Declaring the spirit of the Church alive and well, the Pope told pilgrims from more than 170 countries he had shared an "unforgettable experience" in the great south land.

"Our eyes have been opened to see the world around us as it truly is, charged with the grandeur of God, filled with the glory of His creative love," he said. Pope Benedict said a new generation of Christians was being called to help build a world in which God's gift of life was welcomed and love was not greedy or self seeking but pure, faithful and genuinely free. 

He spoke of a "new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self absorption which deaden our souls and poison our relationships." 

"In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an    unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair. 

The Church also needed renewal, he said, adding: "She needs your faith, your idealism and your generosity so that she can always be young in the spirit."