botswana bishops meet new pope

By Monkagedi Gaotlhobogwe (Mmegi)

June 20, 2005: Gaborone - Botswana's two Catholic Bishops, Boniface Setlalekgosi and Nubuasah Frank returned home after their first meeting with the new Pope Benedict XVI.

The two were part of the Bishops Conference from Southern Africa that recently travelled to the Vatican City for a weeklong "ad limina" visit. The event is attended by heads of dioceses every five years.

Bishop Nubuasah, the vicar of Francistown, said none of the bishops from Southern Africa raised the question of contraceptives with the Pope. He said all the bishops prescribe to the old catholic traditions. He said it was the Pope who made a statement about AIDS. "The Pope believes that Western influences on Southern African people's culture is the cause of sexual immorality. The influences include prostitution, divorce, abortion, and contraceptive mentality," said the 56-year-old bishop who was born in Ghana.

He said the Pope encourages people to go back to traditional family and sexual moral values. The Pope stressed that sexual intercourse should be natural, and that birth control be carried out the natural way by observing the woman's monthly period. "The drastic action against AIDS is let's stick to one partner. Condoms are not reducing the rate of infection in Botswana. How did Uganda succeed? Uganda did not succeed with condoms but with abstinence. The church, the state and everybody was involved," Nubuasah said.

The Bishop said that in their meeting with the Pope, one AIDS related issue was brought up. He said the bishops asked what should be done with a married couple when one of them is HIV negative and the other is positive. This is one issue that troubled the region according to the bishop. "We never promote divorce; the church would never ever promote parting. The answer is clear. You get married for life." He said the issue was raised mainly to clarify a doctrinal issue as all Catholics ought to teach uniform doctrines.

The bishop said as Southern Africans they had the chance to meet with different ministers of the Vatican on various issues. However there was no attempt from the bishops to try and change the church's view on contraceptives and AIDS. The issue of homosexuality did not feature. "As Africans, and as Batswana, homosexuality is not an issue, it doesn't happen." The bishops asked the Vatican to lobby for debt relief for poor countries.