Vatican City: Pope Benedict XVI warned today against sex becoming a drug and against the human body being seen merely as an object to be bought and sold.

To lose sight of the unity of body and soul could mean "losing the value of a person and falling prey to the serious danger of seeing the body as an object that can be bought and sold," the leader of the Roman Catholic Church said.

His address marking the 40th anniversary of the papal encyclical "Humanae Vitae," copies of which were made available, also said: "If sex becomes a drug in which one s partner is subjected to one's own desires and needs... We must not only defend the concept of love, but above all that of human dignity."

It was urgent for the fruitful combination of love and reason to be re-discovered, he said, expressing hope that young people would be "able to learn the true meaning of love and prepare for it with proper sex education".

Source : PTI