Pope Complains That Sunday Is Losing Its Significance.

Observance of Sunday as a holy day is under increasing assault, Pope John Paul II has asserted.

Addressing Hungarian bishops in late January at the Vatican, the pope noted that the church in Hungary faced persecution when that nation was under communist domination but insisted that the rise of consumerism is a new threat.

"In the last 10 years, the church has lived through a different reality," John Paul said. "The change has brought not only a new liberty but also new consumeristic shock. Material goods are offered with such insistence as to often suffocate any desire for religious and moral values."

Continued the pope, "In this context, I want to express my concern regarding the significance of Sunday, which is more and more threatened with emptiness."

In other developments in Rome, John Paul has signed a new constitution for the Vatican City State, the 108-acre domain of the church. This basic law names the pope as the sovereign of the independent state and gives him full political power over it.