From ........... National Catholic Reporter

September 14, 1990

page 5

POPE: SELF CONTROL CAN HELP SOLVE POPULATION PROBLEM

Pope John Paul II, traveling deep into Burundi's crowded interior, said the answer to overpopulation was improved agriculture and sexual self-control among couples.

The pope, during his first full day in the East African country Sept.6, celebrated MAss in the central city of Gitega and afterward met with the region's laypeople.

The problem of rapid population growth requires "above all the maximum effort so that the land of Burundi can nourish its children," the pope told 50,000 people gathered at a Mass site outside Gitega.

Agriculture, he said, "must be developed so that your fields produce more and produce better, without exhausting the land.

Tiny Burundi is the most crowded African country after Rwanda and is also one of the fastest-growing, with an annual population increase of 3.3 percent.

The pope challenged Catholic couples to take personal responsibility for over-population through natural family planning methods promoted by the church. "Fertility control must remain profoundly human," he said.

*END QUOTE*

From ............National Catholic Reporter

May 27, 1994

Page 9

RWANDANS INVOLVED in the widespread slaughter of their fellow citizens

will be judged by history and by God, Pope John Paul II said.

The fighting in the African nation involves "a real and true genocide for which, unfortunately, even [Roman] Catholics are responsible," the pope said.

The country is about 70 percent [Roman] Catholic.

*END QUOTE*

(Ireland, Nicaragua, Croatia, Ustashi, Mafia, Inquisitions, Crusades,....)