Pope Benedict XVI's stand in Angola against witchcraft promises life to imperiled children on a content where belief that it is real and demonic frequently results in the torture of children.
The National Catholic Reporter said:
In Angola, children suffering from diseases such as malaria and AIDS, or street children, are sometimes accused of practicing witchcraft and subjected to abuse. In 2006, a three-year-old HIV-positive child was suspected of placing a curse on his parents, so neighbors abandoned the child in a coop, where chickens pecked out one of his eyes. Between 2001 and 2005, 423 children accused of witchcraft sought refuge at the Santa Child Centre run by the Catholic Church in M'banza Congo, the capital of Zaire Province, on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The problem is pervasive, well-documented and horrific, as the New York Times reported:
In parts of Angola, Congo and the Congo Republic, thousands of children are accused of witchcraft and are cast out of their homes, blinded or killed . . . The latest human rights report for Angola by the United States State Department says that children accused of witchcraft suffer abuses such as “the denial of food and water, or ritualistic cuttings and the placing of various caustic oils or peppers on their eyes or ears.”
Speaking to 1,500 Angolan clergy and laypeople at Luanda's Sao Paulo church, Pope Benedict XVI placed the Catholic Church in peaceful but implacable opposition to the blight, urging all to "offer the message of Christ to the many who live in the fear of spirits, of evil powers."
If somewhat besieged for other reasons, the Pope struck exactly the right note on this one.
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