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Pope Decries Effects of Western Culture

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Religion News Service

Accusing the West of imposing an atheistic, life-despising model on other cultures, Pope John Paul II appealed this week for dialogue between cultures to build a “civilization of love and peace” in “a world marked by excessive conflict and violence.”

The 80-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff made the appeal in a sweeping 24-page statement to be distributed to governments, international organizations and religious leaders to mark the church’s annual World Day of Peace, celebrated on Jan. 1. It was issued in advance at a Vatican news conference Thursday.

In keeping with the United Nations’ designation of 2001 as the International Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations, the pope dedicated his message to “dialogue between cultures for a civilization of love and peace.”

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John Paul reserved some of his strongest language for an attack on “the slavish conformity of cultures, or at least of key aspects of them, to cultural models deriving from the Western world.”

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