Pope Benedict XVI called for a common front with Christians to defend traditional church values and shun“lukewarm” faith during a speech to 30,000 young people in his homeland of Germany Saturday. AP reports that the 84-year-old pope warned of threats posed by abortion and gay marriage, and declared in a separate meeting with Orthodox Christians that religion must not be banished from public life. The Pope said that christian churches “are walking side by side” in the battle.
“They speak up jointly for the protection of human life from conception to natural death,” he told the meeting of Orthodox Christians on the third day of his visit.
“Knowing, too, the value of family and marriage, we as Christians attach great importance to defending the integrity and the uniqueness of marriage between one man and one woman from any kind of misinterpretation,” he said. “Here the common engagement of...