Pope Calls Astronauts. . .

. . .with thoughtful questions and his blessing

Taylor Wang was moved to say about Earth on seeing it from space:

A Chinese tale tells of some men sent to harm a young girl who, upon seeing her beauty, become her protectors rather than her violators. That's how I felt seeing the Earth for the first time. I could not help but love and cherish her. [Source]

Pope Benedict articulated what Payload Specialist Wang and earlier astronauts and cosmonauts, who beheld the earth as a globe, marveled about it. Not "to cherish" the Earth leads to the sadness of harming it and humans. The pope to the entire International Space Station crew:

From space, "I think it must be obvious to you that we all live together on this earth and how absurd it is that we fight and kill," said Benedict, speaking from the Vatican to the International Space Station, where the space shuttle Endeavour docked Wednesday during its final mission. "I know that Mark Kelly's wife was the victim of a serious attack, and I hope that her health continues to improve."

Read the Houston Chronicle post here. The Mother Nature Network [MNN] post includes a video [the call was a conversation] as well other reporting of last Saturday's historic communication.

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Wiki-image of Earth from Space is in the public domain.