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Vienna: Pope Benedict yesterday called on Catholics to keep the Sabbath a day set aside for reflection on their faith and the fate of the world and not surrender it to "the mad rush of the modern world".
The Pontiff made his call on the last day of a trip to Austria during a Mass in Vienna's majestic St Stephen's Cathedral whose colourfully patterned tiled mosaic roof and 136-metre-high tower are the city's main landmark.
The Pope said Western societies had transformed Sundays into days where leisure activities had eclipsed the traditional Catholic meaning of the day - to devote time to God.
"Give the soul its Sunday, give Sunday its soul," he said, quoting a phrase coined by a German bishop in the 20th century.
Austria, like many other Western European countries, has seen declining church attendance on Sunday, just one sign of what Benedict sees as a rapid decline in religious sentiment that he would like to see turned around.
The issue of Sunday also has economic ramifications in predominantly Catholic Austria.
Most shops are not allowed to open and there has been some pressure from business groups and shop operators to get the right to open on Sunday, a move Catholic groups oppose.
Calling Sunday the Church's "weekly feast of creation", the Pope said the day should also be a weekly reminder of the dangers to the planet.
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