Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
Most Africans aren't Catholics, so I doubt most would notice if he said anything.
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Last I heard they make up 16%,
135 million people, while Christians make up around 40%, the rest mostly Islam.
The problem is that the Vatican has a serious influence on Africans, many of the religious in Africa, be it Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, et al.. The mixture of old religion and tribal religion leads to all kinds of interesting outcomes, but what it has done is cause massive distrust to the west, especially after Africa's colonial age.
That distrust is everything from western medicine and things such as condom use. The fact the Vatican tells its many bishops over Africa to tell their followers not to use condoms only spreads to the regular people as "condoms are dangerous, product of white man that spreads aids." You get a highly religious populace, with horrible education standards and all kinds of nonsense becomes believed, such as raping a virgin will cure aids.
The problem of distrust is so bad, that while the Vatican speaks to 'Catholics' in Africa, its message unfortunately is spread to others and helps continue this mistrust of the west technology, medicine, etc.
There is no doubt condoms would save millions in Africa, and the Vatican has a big hand in continuing this fear of protection, whether it be directly to their 135 million followers or to those who hear this message 2nd hand.
Its gotten so bad that in some countries in Africa they are pushing circumcision on boys in order to lower AIDS risks since young African males are very unlikely to use protection.
So yes, African's do listen to their religious leaders and the Pope is in charge of a lot of them.