VATICAN CITY (UCAN) -- Pope Benedict XVI has praised the Thai Catholic Church for its "remarkable contribution" to education and for its efforts to uphold human dignity by combating the exploitation of women and children.

The pope also encouraged Thai Catholics to cooperate with Buddhists in counteracting globalization's negative effects.

The Holy Father addressed the Thai bishops on May 16, at the end of their ad limina visit, which bishops make every five years to report on their diocese to the pope and Vatican offices. All but one of the prelates heading the two archdioceses and eight dioceses in Thailand went on the visit, during which each met the pope in private. Bishop Joseph Sangval Surasarang of Chiang Mai was ill and sent Monsignor Joseph Vuthilert Haelom, his vicar general.

Cardinal Michael Michai Kitbunchu of Bangkok, 79, sat on the pope's right during the final audience.

Bishop George Yod Phimphisan, speaking as president of the Thai bishops' conference, thanked the pope for the encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is love), which he said offered a new bridge for understanding and dialogue with other people. He confided that the Thai bishops prayed "very hard" for Pope Benedict when he invited Muslim leaders to dialogue amid the controversy over his 2006 Regensburg lecture.

Bishop Phimphisan acknowledged "a similar difficulty" in Thailand, where close to 95 percent of the people are Buddhists and "conversion to Christianity is often seen as turning one's back against being a true Thai." He asked the pope to join the bishops in praying that "God's all-consuming love will penetrate all barriers toward making Jesus known and loved in our part of Asia."

The pope told the bishops that the Church's medical clinics, social work and schools manifest "Christ and his love for the world," and it is here "the noble Thai people may come to recognize and know the face of Jesus Christ."

About 330,000 Catholics in Thailand constitute a tiny minority, half a percent of the 65 million population.

Pope Benedict noted that today, "the coexistence of different religious communities unfolds against the backdrop of globalization," with its contrasting forces.

On the positive side, globalization has increased "economic and cultural bonds" that "usually enhance a sense of global solidarity and shared responsibility for the well-being of humanity."

On the negative side, he pointed to "disturbing signs of a fragmentation and a certain individualism in which secularism takes a hold, pushing the transcendent and the sense of the sacred to the margins and eclipsing the very source of harmony and unity within the universe."

The theologian pope highlighted "the importance of interreligious cooperation" and "a concerted effort to uphold the spiritual and moral soul" of Thailand's people.

Similarly, in praising the "remarkable contribution" Catholic schools and colleges make to intellectual formation, he emphasized the need to "also make an outstanding contribution to the spiritual and moral education of the young." Thai Buddhists and Catholics alike turn to Catholic schools for these "crucial aspects," he reminded.

In this vein he urged Catholics in general to work with Buddhists regarding "the transmission of traditions to succeeding generations, the articulation of ethical values discernable to reason, reverence for the transcendent, prayer and contemplation."

Encouraging Religious congregations' commitment to the education apostolate, he urged them to ensure their schools "become increasingly accessible to the poor."

The Holy Father praised the work of the almost 2,000 catechists who preach the Gospel "with great zeal and generosity," but said this task "cannot be left to them alone" and is also central to the ministry of priests. Strong cooperation here will "bear much fruit," he said.

Pope Benedict, 81, concluded by expressing his "appreciation" for "the efforts of the entire Catholic community of Thailand to uphold the dignity of every human life," especially through combating "the scourge of the trafficking of women and children, and prostitution."

While poverty is "undoubtedly a factor underlying these phenomena," the pope said, "the trivialization of sexuality in the media and entertainment industries, which fuels a decline in moral values and leads to the degradation of women, the weakening of fidelity in marriage and even the abuse of children," must also "be acknowledged and collectively addressed."

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