{"id":2516,"date":"2009-03-27T16:39:07","date_gmt":"2009-03-27T21:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=2516"},"modified":"2013-05-10T14:52:59","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T18:52:59","slug":"march-27-2009-popes-trip-to-africa-wrap-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/03\/27\/march-27-2009-popes-trip-to-africa-wrap-up\/2516\/","title":{"rendered":" Pope&#8217;s Trip to Africa Wrap-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BOB ABERNETHY<\/strong>, anchor: Pope Benedict XVI returned to the Vatican this week from his\u00a0 seven-day visit to Africa, his first trip there as pope. News coverage of what happened in Africa was overshadowed by the controversy the pope himself set off when he told reporters en route that the distribution of condoms in Africa makes the HIV-AIDS crisis there worse, not better. Here to review the pope\u2019s trip is Kevin Eckstrom, the editor of Religion News Service. Kevin, welcome.<\/p>\n<p><strong>KEVIN ECKSTROM<\/strong> (Editor, Religion News Service): Thanks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ABERNETHY<\/strong>: What happened?<\/p>\n<p>Mr. <strong>ECKSTROM<\/strong>: Well, there was, I think, two trips in one here. There was the trip that happened on the ground where the pope went to meet his flock in Africa, which was for the most part pretty successful. But the other trip that we saw was the one that was overshadowed by the controversy on the condom comments. You know, that story, it\u2019s a week later, and we\u2019re still talking about it. So it \u2014 that sort of overshadowed everything else they talked about<\/p>\n<p><strong>ABERNETHY<\/strong>: He seems to have a tendency to say things that seem to us unnecessarily controversial, true?<\/p>\n<p>Mr. <strong>ECKSTROM<\/strong>: There is a tendency, rightly or wrongly, that this Vatican is a little tone deaf on how things are going to come across. It makes total sense to them, and their positions are very well thought out.\u00a0 But how it\u2019s received by everyone else\u2014there\u2019s a big gap there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ABERNETHY<\/strong>: But this condom thing, that was not an accident. I mean, all questions for the pope on his plane must be submitted in advance, in writing. So he knew what he was going to be asked?<\/p>\n<p>Mr. <strong>ECKSTROM<\/strong>: Exactly. I mean, they knew exactly what they were getting into on this one. And it always makes you wonder if they were actually trying to make some news out of this. You know, the pope\u2019s trip to Africa was news before he even landed in Cameroon.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ABERNETHY<\/strong>: It was, as you said, very successful. He encouraged the Catholics in Africa?<\/p>\n<p>Mr. <strong>ECKSTROM<\/strong>: Right. I mean, this is a growing, thriving part of the church that the pope sort of wanted to see and almost needs to see. He\u2019s been decrying this dictatorship of relativism in Europe in sort of an anemic church. And you go to Africa and they can\u2019t fit enough people into the churches. They can\u2019t ordain enough pastors for all the people. It\u2019s a rapidly growing part of the church, and I think there\u2019s a bit of an energy boost for both sides there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ABERNETHY<\/strong>: And competition for Islam there too, right?<\/p>\n<p>Mr. <strong>ECKSTROM<\/strong>: Right. In Cameroon, for example, his first stop, one out of every four people is Muslim, and only half the population\u2019s Christian, and they\u2019re both fighting\u2014nonviolently, of course\u2014for souls in that area of the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ABERNETHY<\/strong>: And that is now the center of Christianity in the world, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n<p>Mr. <strong>ECKSTROM<\/strong>: Right. The balance of power has shifted from the largely Christian North to the rapidly growing South.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ABERNETHY<\/strong>: Kevin Eckstrom of Religion News Service, many thanks.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. <strong>ECKSTROM<\/strong>: You\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Pope Benedict XVI returned to the Vatican this week from his\u00a0 seven-day visit to Africa, his first trip there as pope. News coverage of what happened in Africa was overshadowed by the controversy the pope himself set &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/03\/27\/march-27-2009-popes-trip-to-africa-wrap-up\/2516\/\" class=\"more\">More <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":16495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[93,2197,1821],"class_list":["post-2516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-africa","tag-pope-benedict-xvi","tag-vatican","topics-international","faith-muslim"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>March 27, 2009 ~ Pope&#039;s Trip to Africa Wrap-Up | March 27, 2009 | Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After a week in Cameroon and Angola the pope said he was moved by Africa&#039;s &quot;powerful sense of the sacred.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2009\/03\/27\/march-27-2009-popes-trip-to-africa-wrap-up\/2516\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"March 27, 2009 ~ Pope&#039;s Trip to Africa Wrap-Up | March 27, 2009 | Religion &amp; 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