2009-05-31 15:29:01 -

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that today's focus on products that promote pleasure and violence was «poisoning» spiritual life.
In the same way the world is fighting environmental pollution with new ecological initiatives, the same must be done to fight the pollution that is corrupting hearts and minds, Benedict said.
«What the air is to biological life, the holy spirit is to spiritual life,» Benedict said. «And in the same way there is atmospheric pollution that poisons the environment and its human beings, there is also a pollution of the heart and spirit that kills and poisons spiritual existence.
Benedict made the comments during a Mass Sunday in St. Peter's Basilica to mark Pentecost, one of the more important feast days in the Christian church calendar that marks the descent of the holy spirit on Jesus' apostles.
The pope has frequently lamented how the entertainment industry and the media sensationalize sex and violence. On Sunday, he didn't specify who was responsible for making the products and images «that make a show of pleasure, violence or the disregard for man and woman» which he said the world was increasingly getting used to.

«In the same way we can't get used to the poisons in the air _ and for this reason the ecological challenge is such a priority today _ we must do the same to fight that which corrupts the spirit,» he said.