AFRICA
San Francisco Chronicle
March 11 (Bloomberg) — Ugandan property broker Joseph Nsubuga has a message for those who think choosing an African pope would lead the Catholic church to become more flexible on such divisive social issues as abortion or homosexuality: Think again.
“An African pope would fight the homosexuality vice which has infiltrated our society,” the father of six said as he exited Sunday mass in the Kampala suburb of Kiwatule on Feb. 17. “The Pope would fight abortions and contraceptives since they are condemned by the faith.”
Africa is the fastest-growing region for a church with 1.2 billion members worldwide. The number of baptized Catholics on the continent more than tripled between 1980 and 2010 to 185.6 million, offsetting a decline in the flock in Europe and slower growth in the U.S. The shifting Catholic demographics and the African faithful’s conservative social values have helped make Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson one of the favorite’s to succeed Benedict XVI at oddsmakers William Hill Plc and Paddy Power Plc.
“The church is doing well here because Africans are notoriously religious,” Emmanuel Abbey-Quaye, assistant secretary general of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said in a Feb. 11 interview in the capital, Accra. “Africans have strong cultural values which, in consonance with the church, frown on many issues including homosexuality.”
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