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Pope Francis delivered a damning message to European leaders on Tuesday when he addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg. He denounced what he saw as Europe's 'throwaway culture' where the elderly, the terminally ill and unborn children are ignored. He said technology and economics were more important to politicians than those suffering. He told his audience: "Men and women risk being reduced to mere cogs in a machine that treats them as items of consumption to be exploited, with the result that whenever a human life no longer proves useful for that machine, it is discarded." He added: "It is the inevitable consequence ofa throwaway culture, and an uncontrolled consumerism".
The Pope was very critical of Europe's politicians and systems. He warned that Europe's once dynamic, caring and artistic cultures were being eroded by red tape, saying: "The great ideas which once inspired Europe seem to have lost their attraction, only to be replaced by the bureaucratic technicalities of its institutions." He said bureaucracy was "perceived as insensitive to individual peoples, if not downright harmful".The Pope said Europe risked losing its sense of community, saying: "One of the most common diseases in Europe today is the loneliness typical of those who have no connection with others. This is especially trueof the elderly, who are often abandoned to their fate, and also in the young."
