MOSCOW, September 27 (RIA Novosti) - Pope Benedict XVI urged the Czech Republic and all Europe on Sunday to remember their Christian roots.
Speaking at the Throne Hall of the Archbishop's House in Prague on the second day of his pastoral visit to the Czech Republic, the pontiff said: "... Attempts to marginalize the influence of Christianity upon public life - sometimes under the pretext that its teachings are detrimental to the well-being of society - are emerging in new forms.
"We may ask ourselves, what does the Gospel have to say to the Czech Republic and indeed all of Europe today in a period marked by proliferating world views?"
The 82-year-old pontiff is visiting the Czech Republic as the country prepares to celebrate 20 years since the 1989 Velvet Revolution that ended the atheist Communist rule.
"As Europe listens to the story of Christianity, she hears her own. Her notions of justice, freedom and social responsibility, together with the cultural and legal institutions established to preserve these ideas and hand them on to future generations, are shaped by her Christian inheritance," Benedict told leaders of the country's Christian Churches.
Earlier on Sunday, the pope held an open-air Mass at an airfield in Brno in the country's south, which drew more than 120,000 people. Media reports said pilgrims from the Czech Republic and neighboring countries, including Hungary, Poland, Germany and Slovakia, attended the Mass.
