Pope to visit 2 African countries in March

(October 27, 2008) Pope Benedict XVI announced he will make his first papal pilgrimage to Africa, a continent where the Catholic Church is growing, with visits next year to Cameroon and Angola. The 81-year-old Pontiff gave the surprise news at the end of his homily in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday, during a ceremony closing the synod of bishops on the topic of the word of God in the life and mission of the church. The Pope did not give specific dates for the trip, which traditionally are first announced by local Church officials in the host countries. The Vatican usually gives details of papal pilgrimages closer to departure. «Next March, I intend to go to Cameroon» as part of preparations for an October 2009 bishops' meeting at the Vatican dealing with Africa, Pope Benedict said at the end of his homily. «From there, God willing, I will go on to Angola, to celebrate solemnly the 500th anniversary of the evangelization of that country, » Pope Benedict said. The Catholic Church has been growing in parts of Africa and Asia, with those continents sometimes supplying priests for parishes in parts of Europe and North America where vocations have steadily declined in the last few decades.
On Sunday, Pope Benedict paid tribute to the Church in another distant part of the world, China, where Catholics loyal to him worship in clandestine churches and have sometimes suffered harassment, or in the case of clergy, even imprisonment. The pontiff noted that bishops from China had been unable to attend this month's gathering at the Vatican. The Vatican and Beijing do not have formal ties, largely due to China's insistence that it make appointments of bishops, a right claimed by the Holy See.