Africa News
Pope Benedict ends Africa trip following rousing Angola welcome
Mar 23, 2009, 12:51 GMT
Pope Benedith XVI waves to the crowd followed by Angolan President, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, during the farewell cerimonies at 4 de Fevereiro airport, in Luanda, after a four days visit to Angola, 23 March 2009. EPA/JOAO RELVAS
Luanda - Pope Benedict XVI left Africa on Monday after a week-long visit, which was marred at the outset by his controversial remarks over condoms but ended on a more positive note in Angola, where he was acclaimed by hundreds of thousands of Catholics.
Benedict lifted off from the main airport in Angola's capital Luanda shortly before 11 a.m. local time (10 GMT) after a three-day visit, during which he urged the oil-rich southern African nation to tackle high levels of corruption and inequality.
On Saturday, tragedy struck during his outdoor stadium rally for Angolan youth, when two teenage girls were trampled to death by a surging crowd.
But the sombre mood was dispelled Sunday by a rapturous reception from up to 1 million worshippers at an outdoor mass at the gates of the city.
Benedict was celebrating the 500 years of Angola's evangelization by Catholic missionaries. Over half of the population, which is estimated at 12.5 million people, is Catholic.
Before that he visited the west African state of Cameroon, where he met with bishops from across the continent about preparations for the second synod of African bishops in the autumn and held talks with local Muslim leaders.
His visit was overshadowed at the outset by his remarks about the role of condoms in preventing HIV infections.
On the plane to Cameroon the pope said condom use was not the answer to curbing the spread of the pandemic in Africa - remarks blasted by the health fraternity as a major setback to their prevention efforts.
Benedict was on his first trip as pontiff to Africa, the continent where the Catholic Church is growing the fastest.
During his trip he called for the church's evangelization efforts to be stepped up.
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in Africa
- 1. Several dead in car bombing in northern Nigeria
- 2. Mogadishu blast kills seven, including sports chiefs
- 3. Seven dead in Mogadishu suicide bomb attack
- 4. ANC suspends Youth League leader with immediate effect
- 5. Police arrest Uganda's opposition leader and others at protest march
Older Talkback
page: 1
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
We are the nation's largest, oldest and most active support group for women and men wounded by religious authority figures (priests, ministers, bishops, deacons, nuns and others). We are an independent and confidential organization, with no connections with the church or church officials. We are also a non-profit, certified 501 (c) (3) organization.
And we are here to help.
..........................www.snapnetwork.org.......................... ...
Don't even think about it,
I'm NOT Lance.
Lance. Sometimes all it takes is kindness and the ability to understand and you have both..
SNAP
I did not assume you were lance, and am sure that your organisation is a much needed help to anyone who has suffered so terrible a wrong at the hands of any authority figure! I have never sought to deny that such tragic abuses of trust, by priests of all denominations and faiths as well as by other authority figures have taken place in the past, and will, regrettably, continue to occur.
Yet I stand by my contention that those priests who have so abused their office form a very small minority of the whole and are acting in direct contravention of the tenets of their own faith(s) by doing so. I am on record on these pages as having stated that any such event should be of concern to all of us. I, personally, have no faith based 'axe to grind.'
The reason I have hunted the lance through these pages is his habit of talking complete tripe on almost any subject under the Sun! His use of extreme, simplistic, and juvenile language anent the very real problems which confront the victims that your organisation seeks to aid does you no favours!
Like many other posters I have resorted to ridicule to combat his inanities. Should some of the imagery evoked be distasteful to you, and I am not so entirely devoid of empathy as to be unable to see that it may, let me know and I will desist. My intent has been to assist various others in puncturing la-la's monumental self-regard. Not to bring added pain to anyone by thoughtless indulgence in invective.
After all, la-la does not leave us all short of alternative material to use to his discomfort.
is that when the same song is sung over, and over, and over, and over, and over, ad infinitum, ad nauseum, is that the message becomes meaningless, boring, insulting and any potential caring person turns on the source of annoyance. To the people of SNAP: you do not want Rancid Rance as a mouthpiece. You do not want him on your side. He is counterproductive. You may, or may not be doing any good. At this point I don't give a sh*t. Get your sore arses off this site and go sit on an icepack.
'and learn how HUGE it really is.'
First hand experience there, pea pod? (_*_)
was it as good for you as it was for that priest?
is just sore because he got the sausage and bun, and not the 'eggs' Benedict.
'I have spoken with many a SNAP 'activist', 'customer' and parent of 'customer''
Good for bloody you. Now shut the f*ck up. Damned few people care that you exist, let alone who you vegetate with. It's sounds like your stroking your little ego there, pal. Stroking something, anyway.
wimpy lance has gone crying to the editors and had some posts removed. Like the whining, snivelling little dork he is, he starts things and then goes crying to mommy when his crap gets thrown back in his face. Poor, widdle wance. Hey, Ramce, If you can't stand the heat, get the f*ck out of the Confessional.
Poor wickle wance! It must be soooooo difficult, being the most enlightened and compassionate human being on the entire planet. I dub thee St Rancid of Arse-easy!
This stupid religion is dying by its own evil actions.
that some of lance's posts are disappearing. Good. I await the day when he disappears altogether.
why Pope Benedict got a 'rousing Angola welcome' when he has BANNED the use of CONDOMS in a country with a major Aids Epidemic?
An estimated 22 million adults and children were living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa at the end of 2007.
During that year, an estimated 1.5 million Africans died from AIDS. The epidemic has left behind some 11.6 million orphaned African children.
The estimated number of adults and children living with HIV/AIDS, the number of deaths from AIDS, and the number of living orphans in ANGOLA at the end of 2007 is shown below.
Country Angola
People living with HIV/AIDS, 190,000
Women with HIV/AIDS, 110,000
Children with HIV/AIDS, 17,000
AIDS deaths, 11,000
Orphans due to AIDS, 50,000
page: 1
TruebritMar 23rd, 2009 - 13:44:41
www.sisterrancidlance.net/b*ll*cksaspeciality/monomaniacalfixatedbore
Report this comment