Pope Francis addresses TED Vancouver in historic first

Pope Francis addresed 1,800 TED Conference attendees in Vancouver Tuesday (April 25) evening via a privately recorded video, marking the first time the Pope has spoken to an international conference.

The 18-minute speech, filmed in Vatican City, according to a TED release sent out by email, touched on the worldwide quest for scientific achievement but warned that people should not disregard fellow humans in the quest for knowledge in the far reaches of the universe. "How wonderful would it be if, while we discover faraway planets, we could also rediscover the needs of the brother, or the sister, orbiting around us!"

The Pope's TED talk, watched remotely and simultaneously by thousands of viewers in cinemas around the world, was delivered in subtitled Italian by the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church while he sat in a high-backed chair in front of a bookcase.

The pontiff touched on other global issues as well, including this unmistakable caution to leaders of the world's most powerful nations and those who aspire to that status: "Allow me to say it loud and clear: the more powerful you are, the more your actions will have an impact on people, the more you are responsible to become humble. If you don't, your power will ruin you and you will ruin the other." 

The entire speech is available—subtitled in more than 20 languages—at TED.com.