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Pope Benedict XVI began the New Year on Thursday, calling for global solidarity to fight poverty worsened by the global financial crisis.

The Pontiff, to raise a traditional New Year prayer for peace, said the economic crisis should be considered an opportunity to challenge "the dominant development model and amend it to narrow the gap between the haves and the have-nots.


"The current global economic crisis should also be seen as a test: Are we ready to look at it in all its complexity, and a challenge for the future, not only as an emergency that requires short answers?" He said during Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

"Are we ready for a thorough review of the dominant development model to correct a concerted and long term?" He asked.


The pope added: "The state of the global environment and, above all, moral and cultural crisis (...) are demanding this, even more than the immediate financial problems."

Benedict XVI added that poverty threaten world peace and urged a new round of solidarity and sobriety.


The pope reiterated his appeal to end the conflict in the Gaza Strip, saying that violence was also a form of poverty and that a large majority of Israelis and Palestinians wanted peace.