POPE BENEDICT XVI WARNS OF PERILS FACING AFRICA

By RACHEL DONADIO
NEW YORK TIMES
October 4, 2009

Opening a monthlong meeting in Rome that will be devoted to Africa, where the Roman Catholic Church is growing most rapidly, Pope Benedict XVI warned Sunday that the continent was at risk from materialism, nihilism and religious fundamentalism.

Benedict called Africa “a great spiritual lung” for the Catholic Church, but he added that it was also subject to maladies, including the “spiritual toxic waste” of materialism and nihilism sent by the first world, which he called a new form of colonialism.

That development, he said, led to the “virus” of “religious fundamentalism, mixed with political and economic interests.”

“Groups that claim to represent various religious strains are spreading around the African continent,” Benedict said. “They act in the name of God but follow a logic the opposite of divine logic, teaching and practicing not love and the respect of liberty but intolerance and violence.”

Benedict did not specify which groups he meant, but in the past the Catholic Church has spoken out against clashes between Muslims and Christians in western Africa.

Benedict addressed his remarks to international church hierarchy from around the world gathered in Rome for the meeting, the annual synod of bishops.

One issue that might be raised at the synod is the church’s ban on condoms, which have been found to reduce the spread of AIDS.

The pope, who visited Cameroon and Angola in March, said he hoped the church could help facilitate reconciliation, justice and peace on the continent.

The pope also called for “a new evangelism” that takes into account the “rapid social changes” of the current era and “the phenomenon of worldwide globalization.”

In recent years, the Catholic Church has met with fierce competition from evangelical Christian groups also vying to convert Africans from indigenous religions.