The AP reports that organizers of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Austria next month are offering the faithful a foretaste: daily cell phone text messages with quotes from the pontiff. The Archdiocese of Vienna said the service, which began Sunday and will continue through the pope's Sept. 7-9 visit, will provide free excerpts of his sermons, blessings and writings.
Currently on holiday, the Pope also framed an appeal on the environment in religious terms:
We cannot simply do what we want with this Earth of ours, with what has been entrusted to us...We must respect the interior laws of creation, of this Earth, to learn these laws and obey them if we want to survive....This obedience to the voice of the Earth is more important for our future happiness ... than the desires of the moment. Our Earth is talking to us and we must listen to it and decipher its message if we want to survive.