In its final recommendations, the African Synod has denounced corruption, called for urgent dialogue with Islam and traditional religions, recommended that each bishop name an exorcist, and denounced Maputo Protocol provisions for legalization of abortion. Bishops also called for “saintly politicians who will clean the continent”, lambasting corrupt leaders in 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 note that Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Angola’s Eduardo dos Santos, both Catholics, are criticized internationally for various forms of repression.
At the closing of the Synod on Sunday, Pope Benedict called for peace and reconciliation among all people on the continent, regardless of ethnic and religious differences, AP reports.
“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 globalization 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.”
However, in their final recommendations to the pope, the bishops made no mention of condoms, leaving it up to the couples themselves to decide how to prevent HIV/AIDS infection, Ghanaweb reports.
Asked at a news conference if this marked a deviation from church teaching, Cardinal Turkson replied that the Vatican still had no firm policy on the matter.
“That issue is still being discussed,” Turkson said. “I don’t know when this discussion will come to an end, but I’m aware such a discussion is going on in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
In the final recommendation, the bishops called for pastoral care for couples dealing with an infected spouse to help form their consciences “so that they might choose what is right, with full responsibility for the greater good of each other, their union and their family.”
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