Pope to make second trip to Africa this November

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI will make his second trip as pope to Africa, visiting Benin Nov. 18-20 to sign and distribute a letter reflecting on the 2009 special Synod of Bishops for Africa.

The synod focused on "the church in Africa in service to reconciliation, justice and peace."

At the end of the synod, the bishops gave the pope 57 proposals for action on the part of church leaders and the faithful, including a call for a new spirituality to counter bad government, ethnic tensions, disease, exploitation by multinational companies and the cultural agenda of foreign aid organizations.

Pope Benedict used the propositions as the basis for the postsynodal apostolic exhortation that he will sign Nov. 19 in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Ouidah, Benin, and will present formally to African bishops the next day during a Mass in Cotonou.

With six-hour flights to and from Benin, the pope is scheduled to spend less than 50 hours on the ground in Benin, but his schedule still includes separate meetings with government representatives, with African bishops and with children.

He also is scheduled to pray at the tomb of the late Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, who died in 2008. The Benin cardinal had retired as dean of the College of Cardinals in 2002 and was succeeded by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.