News/International

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - Government officials in Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium publicly criticized Pope Benedict XVI after newspapers reported that he said the use of condoms could increase the spread of AIDS.

On his March 17 flight to Cameroon, Pope Benedict had told reporters, "One cannot overcome the problem with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, they increase the problem."

{mosimage}YAOUNDE, Cameroon - Pope Benedict XVI offered a sneak preview of the Synod of Bishops for Africa, identifying several issues he believes will be crucial.

Above all, he said, the church in Africa is called to be a healing community on a continent torn by "savage conflicts" and other tragedies.

{mosimage}YAOUNDE, Cameroon (CNS) -- Celebrating Mass with more than 40,000 Catholics in Cameroon, Pope Benedict XVI urged African families to reject the "tyranny of materialism" and other social changes that risk eroding the continent's traditional values.

"Brothers and sisters in Cameroon and throughout Africa, you who have received from God so many human virtues, take care of your souls! Do not let yourselves be captivated by selfish illusions and false ideals!" the pope said in a homily March 19 at the Amadou Ahidjo soccer stadium in Yaounde.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI said his trip to Africa would be a missionary journey highlighting the continent’s challenges, its enormous potential and its “profound religious soul.”

The Pope, speaking two days before his departure for Cameroon and Angola, said he was not bringing a political or social program to Africa, but simply the Gospel message of love that is “capable of transforming the world.”

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI has written a letter to the world’s bishops defending his decision to lift the excommunications of four traditionalist bishops and expressing regret that it gave rise to misunderstandings and polemics, according to Italian newspapers.

The Pope said the controversy over Bishop Richard Williamson’s statements denying the extent of the Holocaust was “a misadventure that was for me unforeseeable” and acknowledged that the Vatican should have paid more attention to information easily available on the Internet, the reports said.

{mosimage}WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama's executive order reversing the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research represents "a sad victory of politics over science and ethics," Cardinal Justin Rigali said shortly after the March 9 signing of the order at the White House.

The chairman of the  U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities was among Catholic, pro-life and other leaders who criticized the reversal, which Obama had promised during his campaign.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - A group of Nigerian bishops expressed hope that Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to Africa will spur the troubled continent on a path toward peace, justice and reconciliation.

Three bishops from Nigeria said they are looking at Pope Benedict’s March 17-23 visit to Cameroon and Angola as an opportunity to show that the church wants to help heal divisions that continue to tear apart the continent.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - The Vatican said Bishop Richard Williamson's statement of regret for denying the extent of the Holocaust does not meet the Vatican's demand that he publicly recant his position.

"The declaration of the bishop does not seem to respect the conditions established in the note of the Secretariat of State of Feb. 4, 2009, where it says that he 'must distance himself in an absolutely unequivocal and public way from his positions regarding the Shoah,' ” Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said Feb. 27.

{mosimage}LONDON - Ultratraditionalist Bishop Richard Williamson said he regrets the remarks he made denying the extent of the Holocaust.

In a statement released Feb. 26, a day after he arrived in London, Williamson said his superior, Bishop Bernard Fellay, and Pope Benedict XVI "have requested that I reconsider the remarks I made on Swedish television four months ago because their consequences have been so heavy."

{mosimage}CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh - Bishop Patrick D'Rozario of Chittagong announced the opening of the sainthood cause of Canadian Holy Cross Brother Flavian Laplante, founder of a popular Marian shrine in Bangladesh.

D'Rozario also said that the shrine in Diang, which Brother Laplante started in 1976, has been elevated to a parish dedicated to Mary, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News.