Church Must Protect Africa's Poor: Pope

Thousands protest pontiff's claim that contraceptives don't halt HIV

(NEWSER) - The pope’s recent remark that condoms not only don’t prevent the spread of HIV but make it worse hasn’t earned him many friends on Facebook, CNN reports. Almost a dozen groups have sprung up in protest of the pontiff’s scientifically inaccurate statement, with thousands of Facebookers—many of them in Europe—pledging to send millions of condoms to the Vatican. More»

(NEWSER) - Two teenage girls were killed in a wild stampede as people rushed to view Pope Benedict in Angola yesterday, reports the Times of London. Some 30,000 people raced into a stadium where the pope spoke at a youth rally. The teenagers died at the scene and dozens were injured. "There were too many people and the temperatures were too high," said an injured woman. The pope said today he deeply regrets the deaths and intends to visit the injured, reports AP. More»

(NEWSER) - Roughly 60,000 people packed a soccer stadium in Yaounde, Cameroon, today to hear Pope Benedict XVI’s first giant African mass, the BBC reports. The pontiff used his sermon to warn the throngs of the dangers of urbanization and materialism. Earlier, Benedict met with Cameroon’s Muslim leaders, and said the peaceful relationship between the country’s Christians and Muslims should be a “beacon to other African nations.” More»

Condoms make Africa AIDS crisis worse, he had said

(NEWSER) - Irked by Pope Benedict’s anti-condom remarks in Africa, the French foreign ministry today called them “a threat to public health policies and the duty to protect human life” and voiced “extremely sharp concern over the consequences,” the BBC reports. The pontiff said on the first day of his current visit that condom distribution worsens the AIDS crisis. The Vatican advocates abstinence instead. More»

On visit to Africa, pope makes first statement on their use

(AP) - Condoms are not the answer to Africa's fight against AIDS, and in fact exacerbate the epidemic, Pope Benedict said at the start of a 7-day visit to the continent today. It's the first explicit statement about condoms from the pontiff, who has said that the Roman Catholic Church is at the forefront of the battle against AIDS. The Vatican encourages sexual abstinence to fight the spread of the disease. More»