Pope tells Latin America to beware of hedonism

SAO PAULO, May 11 (Reuters) Pope Benedict gave Brazil its first saint today and told Latin America's Roman Catholics to defend the traditional family and spurn distorted media portrayals of life that glamorize hedonism.

The Pope canonized Friar Antonio Galvao, a Franciscan who lived in the 18th century, at a festive mass before hundreds of thousands of people in Sao Paulo, the largest city in the world's most populous Catholic nation.

He also demanded that Catholic bishops and followers confront a tide of materialism and hedonism he sees threatening the faithful all over the world.

''The world needs transparent lives, clear souls, pure minds that refuse to be perceived as mere objects of pleasure,'' he said in his sermon at the open-air mass.

''It is necessary to oppose those elements of the media that ridicule the sanctity of marriage and virginity before marriage.'' The Pope later told Brazilian bishops the world often seemed without direction and that the Church was going through ''a difficult time'' with many followers leaving to join Protestant groups or simply turning away from religion.

''Society is experiencing moments of worrying disorientation,'' he said in a speech at Sao Paulo's magnificent Cathedral de Se. ''The sanctity of marriage and the family are attacked with impunity.'' The Pope denounced abortions as ''crimes against life'' and said the Church was making too many concessions to legislators in the name of individual freedom and rights.

When he began his trip to Brazil on Wednesday, the Pope suggested that Catholic politicians who support abortion risked excluding themselves from the Church.

Birth control is a big issue in Brazil, where the government has upset the Vatican by handing out free condoms in an anti-AIDS program and the health minister has called for a national referendum on abortion.

STOP DEFECTIONS The Pope told bishops they must do more to stem defections by Catholics in Latin America, and spare no effort to bring them back into the fold.

The 80-year-old Pontiff also reaffirmed the rule of celibacy and told bishops to better screen candidates for the priesthood ''to avoid the risk of sexual deviation''.

In recent years, the Church has been rocked by series of sexual abuse scandals involving priests around the world.

Galvao's canonization was an important part of the Pope's mission to revitalize the Church in Latin America, home to nearly half the world's 1.1 billion Catholics.

The new saint founded an order of nuns in the 18th century and is credited with countless miracles in Brazil, where people pray for his help in overcoming illness. Many eat so-called Friar Galvao Pills, tiny pieces of rice paper with a prayer written on them.

Followers flocked to the mass from across Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America. Many camped out overnight in chilly weather, although the crowd appeared to be smaller than the more than one million people that organizers claimed.

In a country where sex outside marriage is common, birth control is widely used, and divorce is not frowned upon, the Pope's message has had a mixed reception.

''This pope is a little too rigid, especially when it comes to issues like marriage,'' said Elisangela do Nascimento, 33-year-old divorced housewife from Sao Paulo in the crowd.

A conservative theologian who has spent nearly 25 years of his life in the Vatican's corridors of power, some faithful have seen him as lacking the warmth and charisma that made his predecessor Pope John Paul so beloved.

However, Vatican officials have insisted from the start of his Pontificate that Benedict is his own man, and he appeared to be winning some hearts and minds.

''We thought he was going to be a disappointment but he surprised us. People say he's authoritarian, but he's just a bit shy and sweet,'' said Lucilene Gutierres, a 21-year-old student who attended the mass.

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