Bishops at the Vatican's Synod on Africa are calling for "saintlypoliticians who will clean the continent", lambasting corrupt leadersin office in a communique released on Friday."Many Catholics in high office have fallen woefully short in their performance in office," CBC News and Reuters reports cite the bishops as saying.
Such people should "repent, or quit the public arena and stop causing havoc to the people and giving the Catholic Church a bad name."
Although the bishops don't mention the name of any leader, the reports point out that Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Angola's Eduardo dos Santos, both Catholics, are criticised internationally for various forms of repression.
At the closing of the Synod on Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI called for peace and reconciliation among all people on the continent, regardless of ethnic and religious differences, AP reported.
"Courage! Get up, African continent!" Benedict said during the Mass, which he concelebrated with some of the prelates who attended the synod.
The pope also said that globalisation should be regulated in order to include all nations, not just developed ones. The bishops statement, too, refers to the issue: "Multinationals have to stop their criminal devastation of the environment in their greedy exploitation of natural resources.
"It is short-sighted policy to foment wars in order to make fast gains from chaos, at the cost of human lives and blood."
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