Pope brings 'message of hope'
2009-03-17 19:01
Yaounde - Pope Benedict brought the "Christian message of hope" to Africa as he arrived in Cameroon on Tuesday at the start of his first visit to the world's poorest continent as pontiff.
"Even amid the greatest suffering, the Christian message always brings hope," the pope said as he arrived from Rome.
"In the face of suffering or violence, poverty or hunger, corruption or abuse of power, a Christian can never remain silent," the 81-year-old pope said after being greeted on the tarmac of Yaounde's Nsimalen airport by Cameroon President Paul Biya.
"Here in Africa, as in so many parts of the world, countless men and women long to hear a word of hope and comfort," he said.
"Human trafficking, especially of defenceless women and children, has become a new form of slavery," said the pope, who will also visit Angola during his weeklong trip.
"At a time of global food shortages, financial turmoil, and disturbing patterns of climate change, Africa suffers disproportionately," he said. "More and more of her people are falling prey to hunger, poverty and disease."
The Roman Catholic Church offers "not new forms of economic or political oppression... not bitter interethnic or interreligious rivalry (but) the righteousness, peace and joy of God's kingdom," Benedict said.
Apart from Biya, the pontiff was met on his arrival by a large delegation of government and Church officials.
Against a backdrop of lush green hills, the pope spoke from a plexiglass podium which he approached along a gold-bordered red carpet.
The stop in Yaounde, where Benedict will stay until Friday, will include a meeting with the representatives of 52 African states preparing the October synod.
Benedict, who is due to celebrate an open-air mass in the capital on Thursday, will also meet with representatives of the Muslim community and associations serving the handicapped.
The German pontiff will celebrate an open-air mass in the Angolan capital Luanda on Sunday.
In Angola, which is still recovering from 27 years of civil war, Benedict will meet with diplomats posted in Luanda and urge the international community not to abandon Africa.