Benin: Pope Signs Pledge for Africa

By Staff Writer

Ouidah --Pope Benedict XVI signed off on a roadmap for the Roman Catholic Church in Africa at a basilica in the city of Ouidah, Saturday on the second day of his visit to the West African country of Benin.

The document signed by Benedict -- an apostolic exhortation called "The Pledge for Africa" containing conclusions from a 2009 synod of African bishops -- includes conflict, poverty, corruption, peace, reconciliation and justice as its main message.

It calls for good governance, the abolition of the death penalty and denounces abuses, particularly against women and children, while describing Aids as a mainly ethical problem that requires a medical response.

The document describe the Aids pandemic as a disease that is above all, an ethical problem and calls for changes in behavior, including sexual abstinence and rejection of promiscuity.

The Catholic Church's position on Aids and the use of condoms has long been controversial and carefully scrutinised, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, home to nearly 70 percent of the world's HIV cases.

On his first trip to Africa in 2009, the pope stirred controversy when he suggested to reporters on his plane that condoms aggravate the AIDS problem. He has since seemed to back off from that position, and has not even mentioned condoms during this visit.

He also outlined his vision for Africa in a speech by stating that: “When I say Africa is the continent of hope, I’m not resorting to easy rhetoric; I’m just expressing my personal conviction that is also the Church’s. Too often, our minds focus on prejudice and ideas giving a negative vision of African reality, resulting from a wrongful analysis.”

Addressing the issue of corruption and good governance, Pope Benedict told political and religious leaders at the presidential palace in Benin's commercial capital of Cotonou not to cut off the people "from their future by mutilating their present."

This visit to Benin is the second trip of the Pontiff to Africa, before his departure on Sunday afternoon.