Vatican City - Top Vatican officials, citing Wednesday a new message by Pope Benedict XVI, urged European nations to show more solidarity towards refugees and immigrants from poor countries.

"In a globalized world, migration is unstoppable and the problem won't be solved by closing borders, but by welcoming" people, said Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's refugee department.

Vatican City - The first Jewish holy man to address the Roman Catholic Bishops' Synod on Monday caused possible embarrassment to his Vatican hosts when in his speech he appeared to criticize the conduct of controversial wartime pope Pius XII.

Referring to the World War II Nazi massacre of the Jews, the Holocaust, Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen said: "We remember those religious leaders who did not raise their voice to save our brethren. We cannot forgive and forget."

Vatican City  - Pope Benedict XVI said Monday that the current global market crash should teach humans not to value their career and success above all else and that money is ultimately worth "nothing".

"Those who build the house of their lives on sand, are those who build on things that are visible and tangible, such as success, career and money," Benedict was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.

"We can now see with the collapse of the great banks, how this money disappears, and becomes nothing," the pontiff added.

Rome - Pope Benedict XVI spoke Saturday about the "emptiness" of modern times and called for a "New Europe" in which people, especially the young, could approach the "spiritual treasures" of religion.

Today's world was characterized by a "dangerous culture of emptiness and senselesness," the pope said in an address at the general meeting of the Benedictine order in Castel Gandolfo.

The men and women of the religious orders were asked to present suggestions for possible new ways of spreading the world of God.

Castel Gandolfo, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday thanked the organizers of a symposium examining role played during World War II by Pius XII - a pope criticized by some for his stance towards the Nazi-led persecution of Jews.

Benedict, referring to Pius as "this noble Pope" said the symposium's work had helped appreciate that pontiff's "human wisdom and pastoral intensity... especially in providing organized assistance to the Jewish people," Benedict said.