Picture: Reuters Pope Francis has warned the European Parliament in Strasbourg that all of Europe needs to work together to build a Europe which revolves 'not around the economy, but around the sacredness of the human person, around inalienable values.' The Pope, in a clear criticism of euthanasia and abortion, said that 'men and women risk being reduced to mere cogs in a machine that treats them as items of consumption to be exploited, with the result that - as is so tragically apparent - whenever a human life no longer proves useful for that machine, it is discarded with few qualms, as in the case of the terminally ill, the elderly who are abandoned and uncared for, and children who are killed in the womb.' The Pope also stressed the importance of God in our world suggesting that we all need to be open to the transcendent. He said: 'A Europe which is no longer open to the transcendent dimension of life is a Europe which risks slowly losing its own soul and that "humanistic spirit" which it still loves and defends.' Click this link to read the full address of Pope Francis to the European Parliament: http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-address-to-european-parliament |