AGRICULTURE MUST BE SUPPORTED BY SOCIAL ASSISTANCE

VATICAN CITY, NOV 12, 2000 (VIS) - This morning in St. Peter's Square, the Pope celebrated Mass for 120,000 people, most of them farmers and agricultural workers from all over the world. He affirmed that if "the most refined technology" is not harmonized with nature, human life will run serious risks.

Among those participating in the Eucharistic celebration, which marked the Jubilee of the agricultural world, were 100,000 members of the largest European agricultural organization, Coldiretti, who filled the square with their yellow banners.

"Agricultural activity in our time," said the Holy Father, "has had to face the consequences of industrialization and the development - not always well-ordered - of urban areas, as well as the phenomena of atmospheric pollution, the ecological imbalance, the discharge of toxic waste and deforestation."

He went on to say that "it is necessary that agricultural work become ever better organized and supported by social assistance that fully repays the effort it involves and the truly great worth that distinguishes it. If the world of the most refined technology is not reconciled with the simple language of nature in a healthy equilibrium, then the life of man will run ever greater risks of which we already see the first worrying signs."

After encouraging those present to "resist the temptation of a productivity and profit that are detrimental to respect for nature," he recalled that the world was entrusted to man to cultivate and protect. "When this principle is forgotten," he added, "and we become tyrants and not guardians of the earth, then that earth will sooner or later rebel."

The Holy Father concluded by highlighting the conditions of extreme poverty suffered by so many people who live from agriculture: "Vast regions are devastated by frequent natural calamities. Sometimes, to these disasters are added the consequences of wars that, apart from provoking victims, sow destruction and depopulate fertile areas, sometimes leaving them infested with mines or poisonous substances."

After Mass and prior to praying the angelus, the Pope thanked Jacques Diouf, director general of the Food and Agricultural Organization, and Paolo Bedoni, representative of the agricultural workers, and he greeted those present in eight languages.

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