Pope urges prayers for end to 'family values crisis'

Pope Benedict XVI decried the collapse of marriages, telling tens of thousands of young Catholics that he was praying a crisis in traditional family values does not become an “irreversible failure.”

Benedict, who is to celebrate Mass at the gathering later today, told an estimated 300,000 young pilgrims who trekked to the shrine city of Loreto in Italy for a weekend religious rally to have faith that they can succeed in marriage even though so many others had failed.