Pope Benedict XVI in Africa that AIDS is considered an ethical problem

Juan Lara

Ouidadh (Benin), 19 nov (EFE).-the Pope believes that AIDS, which particularly affects Africa, requires a medical response but that it is above all “an ethical problem”, and that the continent needs reconciliation and peace, but to this end it is necessary that those responsible for the crimes are brought to justice.

The Pope thus points out in the Apostolic Exhortation “Africae Munus”, document conclusive II Synod of Bishops for Africa held in 2009 in the Vatican, which was signed today in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, of Ouidadh, near Cotonou, considered the first cathedral in West Africa.

In the exhortation, 137 pages, Pope Ratzinger “deplores and strongly condemns the intolerable treatment” that so many children in Africa and reminds, including albinos, street children, child soldiers, forced to work, considered to be witches and sold as slaves sexual.

Document prepared it with 57 proposals made 244 African bishops who attended the Synod, which pointed out – in the same line that did him during his 2009 trip to Cameroon and Angola — its “no” to the use of condoms against AIDS.

On that trip, the Pope said that AIDS is not combated “only with money, nor with the distribution of condoms, which, on the contrary, increase the problem”, but it ends with “a humanization of sexuality and new forms of behaviour”.

Their words, in a continent where 27 million people are infected with the AIDS virus, were harshly answered from several Western countries, which stressed that the condom is essential to prevent the transmission of AIDS.

Now has not made explicit reference to the condom, but he has insisted that the medical response is not enough, because the problem is deeper ’ is ethical”.

The Pope added that the pandemic requires a “change of behaviour”, such as sexual abstinence, the rejection of sexual promiscuity and faithfulness in marriage. At the same time requires the pharmaceutical treatments of high quality and lower cost.

The document calls on Africans to reconciliation, justice and peace, but points out that to ensure that such reconciliation engender lasting peace the perpetrators of the crimes should be released in the hands of justice.

“The victims have the right to truth and justice and it is important to purify memory to build a better society in which these tragedies are never repeated”.

Benedict XVI tilting against the multinationals, who said are devastating Africa, and the corrupt rulers and stresses that a minority “might the assets of the land to the detriment of entire peoples is unacceptable because it is immoral”.

“Africae Munus” Pope calls for protection for the family and complaint that attacks the marriage, underestimates motherhood, banalises abortion and facilitates the divorce.

On women notes that it has the same dignity of man, denounces “still are too many humiliation” he suffers in the name of ancestral traditions and seeks to combat all acts of violence against her.

It also refers to the elderly, who in Africa are not sections of the family and notes that this “beautiful reality” should serve as inspiration to society West.

Young people said that they are vulnerable due to lack of education, unemployment and all kinds of units and puts them in warning the ideologies, sects, money, drugs, easy sex or violence.

The Pope points out that illiteracy is one of the main obstacles to the development of Africa.

Benedict XVI calls on bishops to work for an attentive to the poor economy and oppose an unjust order and stressed that to the chronic poverty of their populations, “victims of exploitation and malpractice local or foreign, the opulence of certain groups hurts to the human conscience”.

In his line of Defense of nature, denounces Governments and groups that pollute the environment and cause a desertification “unprecedented”.

In document also refers to immigrants and denounces the violence that many suffer in countries where they have gone, “it looks askance at them, are in danger, insecurity and threat and those perceptions lead to intolerance, xenophobia and racism”.

The Pope reiterates that priestly celibacy “in chastity” and calls for ecumenical dialogue and inter-religious.

Benedict XVI tomorrow delivered the document to the Chairmen of the 42 African Episcopal Conferences. EFE