Pope Benedict XVI, reflecting on crashing stock markets and capitalism, concluded that ``money vanishes, it is nothing'' and ``the only solid reality is the word of God.''
``He who builds only on visible and tangible things like success, career and money builds the house of his life on sand,'' the pontiff told bishops at an assembly in the Vatican.
The Vatican has been paying attention to the global financial meltdown and ran articles in its official newspaper, l'Osservatore Romano, that criticize the free-market model for having ``grown too much and badly in the past two decades.''
The crisis has begun to take its toll on global growth as companies and consumers find it increasingly difficult and costly to borrow money. The worldwide stock market slide yesterday wiped more than $2 trillion off investors' wealth. The Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Index lost as much as 8.3 percent before it closed with a 3.9 percent drop to 1,056.89.
