Our new Holy Father's comments to other religious leaders yesterday did not really break any new ground, but it was the simplicity and clarity with which he re-committed himself to ecumenism and inter-religious dialog that stood out. I especially liked this comment towards the end of his talk: "But above all, we must keep alive in our world the thirst for the absolute, and must not allow the vision of the human person with a single dimension to prevail, according to which man is reduced to what he produces and to what he consumes: this is one most dangerous threats of our times." Communism has, more or less, been dead and buried since 1989. So, which "vision of the human person" that reduced man to what he produces and what he consumes do you imagine he had in mind?
