Terrorism uses God - and the charge that secular societies have become Godless - as a pretext for attacking the West, Pope Benedict XVI said on Friday.
"Terrorism often uses God...as a pretext, founded on the charge that people have forgotten God, to justify assaults on the security of Western societies," the pope told an international gathering of Catholic politicians at his summer residence south of Rome.
The pope branded international terrorism an "extremely grave phenomenon".
Benedict went on to amplify his recently expressed views that economic activity based solely on the profit motive is bad for society at large.
He criticised "the tendency to identify (economic) welfare with profit" and urged the politicians present to work against "ideologies that can obscure or confuse consciences and convey an illusory vision of truth and good".
Benedict said the absence of an ethical dimension in business could "threaten profit itself".
Lastly, the pope reaffirmed the Catholic Church's stance on abortion and euthanasia, expressing concern over a "tendency to view as legitimate the elimination of human life in its prenatal or terminal stages".
