Pope Francis today warned of a "cancer" of despair in materially obsessed, outwardly affluent societies and urged South Korean Catholics to reject "inhumane economic models" in a stark message to wealthier Asian nations.
In an apparent reference to South Korea's high suicide rate he also warned 45,000 people at a mass in a World Cup stadium in Daejeon of the "culture of death" that can pervade countries where the quest for rapid growth marginalises the poor and vulnerable.
The message, delivered on the first papal visit to the region in 15 years, was designed to resonate not just with South Koreans, but in other dynamic Asian economies where many are beginning to question the social consequences of rapid growth and rampant consumerism.
"It is almost as though a spiritual desert is beginning to spread through our world. It affects the young too, robbing them of hope and even, in all too many cases, of life itself," he said.
And he returned to the theme later in the day in an address to a gathering of 10,000 young Asian Catholics in Dangjin, when he spoke of the "idolatry of wealth, power and pleasure" and its unacceptably high human cost.
In a visit to a shrine near the western city, where the young believers were celebrating Asian Youth Day, the pope also touched on the acrimonious relationship between North and South Korea, saying both sides should not lose hope in an eventual reunification.
"Pray for our brothers in the North, that, just as in a family, there should be no winners or losers," he said, leading a moment's silence for the unity of the two countries.
"Korea is united by a common language. When in a family we speak the same tongue there is always hope," he told a young South Korean woman who expressed sorrow at the ongoing hostilities.
The mass in Daejeon, some 160 kilometres south of Seoul, was the pope's first public event following his arrival in Seoul yesterday, which nuclear-armed North Korea marked by firing a series of short-range rockets into the sea.
The North, which split from the South after the 1950-53 war, rejected accusations that it had timed the launches to upstage the visit by the "so-called Pope."
Among the capacity crowd in the stadium were 38 survivors and relatives of victims of April's Sewol ferry tragedy in which 300 people died, most of them schoolchildren.
Pope Francis offered a special prayer for the dead and their families and, before the mass, held a brief private audience with some of the relatives.
