Pope visits tiny San Marino

Pope Benedict XVI voiced concern Sunday at the effects of the economic crisis, especially on the youth, during his first visit to tiny San Marino, nestled on the eastern slopes of Italy's Apennine Mountains. Twenty-nine years after his predecessor John Paul II became the first pope to visit the world's oldest sovereign state, Benedict called for attention to be paid to "the crisis affecting numerous families" and the difficulties of educating today's youth hit by "the precariousness of their role in society and in the prospect of finding a job". Under a blazing sun, the pope celebrated mass for over two hours in front of 22,000 people, the capacity of the stadium in Serravalle, a village at the foot of the San Marino fortress. Many in the crowd waved flags and wore t-shirts and caps in the Vatican's gold and white livery. Earlier the papal helicopter touched down at Torraccia heliport, where San Marino Bishop Luigi Negri greeted the pope before he boarded the Popemobile to ride to Serravalle. In his pronouncement, Pope Benedict warned against "hedonism and the greed of power". He also appealed, ahead of World Refugee Day Monday, for the conditions and dignity of refugees worldwide to be guaranteed "until they can return home freely and in security". The 84-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church was to meet government leaders in the afternoon before crossing into Italy for a prayer meeting with some 4,000 youths in the nearby town of Pennabilli. San Marino, with an area of 61 square kilometres (23 square miles), is Europe's smallest state after the Vatican and Monaco. Established in 1600, it has a population of around 30,000 including about 1,000 foreigners. Its economy is in crisis because of a dispute with Italy, which continues to consider it a tax haven even though it has been taken off a "grey list" of states not conforming to laws against tax fraud by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The crisis began in 2009 when Italy decreed a tax amnesty that allowed Italians to repatriate capital from places like San Marino, whose banking sector then made up a quarter of gross domestic product. More than 4.0 billion euros ($5.7 billion) of the roughly 14 billion euros held in San Marino bank coffers has left the country since the amnesty.