Papal warning against claiming creator's right

The Pope has warned man against trying to put himself in God's place. As part of his homily to 2.2 million people in the southern Polish city of Krakow yesterday, the Pontiff warned against man claiming a Creator's right for himself and interfering in the mystery of human life. Referring to abuses of genetic engineering he told the listening millions inside and outside Blonia Park that man wished "to determine human life through genetic manipulating and to establish the limits of death. "With this heritage both of good and of evil, we have entered the new millennium. New prospects of development are opening up before mankind, together with hitherto unheard-of dangers. Frequently man lives as if God did not exist, and even puts himself in God's place. "In a variety of ways he attempts to silence the voice of God in human hearts; he wishes to make God the "great absence" in the culture and the conscience of peoples. The "mystery of iniquity" continues to mark the reality of the world." After an emotional farewell at the end of the outdoor Mass, during which he told the huge congregation that any chance of a return visit was "in God's hands", Pope John Paul II held private prayers at Krakow's history Wawel Cathedral before visiting the graves of his parents and elder brother at Rakowice cemetery.