Papal paper on erotic, spiritual love

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict set a keynote for his papacy today with the release of his first encyclical, a document about human and divine love and the relationship between the two.

Called "Deus Caritas Est," (God is Love) it was to praise the positive aspects of erotic love and human desire within the context of a greater spiritual love, officials said.

The main themes of the encyclical, the highest form of papal writing, are love and charity. In the writing, a booklet of about 70 pages, the Pope discusses the relationship between "eros", or erotic love, and "agape", the Greek word referring to unconditional, spiritual and selfless love as taught by Jesus.

"In our culture we presuppose that there must be a separation between eros - understood as human desire, sexually expressed - and agape," Cardinal Francis George of Chicago told a Vatican conference.

"The Pope tries to overcome, and I think does so successfully, a separation between eros and agape by pointing to the inner movement of erotic love towards a generosity between a man and a woman based on the total self-giving of one to the other for the sake of the other."

The Pope said he chose to focus on love because the word had become "wasted" and "abused". The second part of the encyclical is on charity, the need for Catholics to do charitable works and support aid organisations.

- REUTERS