Pope Benedict XVI has welcomed the outcome of the recent G8 Summit in Italy but has warned that “immediate intervention” and “lasting global solutions” are now urgently needed in order to end social inequalities and structural injustice throughout the world.

The Pope praised the G8 for having “repeated the need to reach common agreements in order to ensure a better future for humanity”. And he said his new encyclical Caritas in Veritate wanted to make a contribution, by showing that social issues were most “radically anthropological issues” which could not be solved by relying on technology alone. “Solutions to the current problems facing humanity cannot be only technical, but must take account of all the needs of the person, which is equipped with a body and soul, and must therefore take account of the Creator, God,” he said.