The Pope is presently visiting South America. There are doubtlessly challenges facing many of the nations on that continent, principally an exploding birth-rate. Of course, with majorities of Roman Catholics in many South American countries, birth-control is a hot-button issue.
Der Spiegel addresses the issue head-on in this interesting background piece:
"Austrian bishop Erwin Kräutler is in charge of South America's largest and most dangerous diocese. The follower of liberation theology, who will meet with Pope Benedict XVI during his Brazil visit, speaks up for the rights of the poor in the Amazon region -- and has received death threats as a result.
When Erwin Kräutler reads the mass in the cathedral, two men are always sitting in the congregation. They are the same two men who sit in a nearby room after the service, when Kräutler delivers a lecture to elementary school teachers on the subject of forgiveness. And they also jog along next to him when the bishop, wearing a tracksuit, goes for his morning walk through Altamira, seat of the territorial prelature of Xingu in the Amazon."
And:
"Kräutler knows Benedict XVI -- then plain Joseph Ratzinger -- from the time when he was a student in Bavaria. "We have an interesting and good relationship," says Kräutler, perhaps a touch defensively. The German Pope is controversial in Brazil, where many see him as cold, conservative and unreceptive to the problems of the Third World."
Der Spiegel addresses the issue head-on in this interesting background piece:
"Austrian bishop Erwin Kräutler is in charge of South America's largest and most dangerous diocese. The follower of liberation theology, who will meet with Pope Benedict XVI during his Brazil visit, speaks up for the rights of the poor in the Amazon region -- and has received death threats as a result.
When Erwin Kräutler reads the mass in the cathedral, two men are always sitting in the congregation. They are the same two men who sit in a nearby room after the service, when Kräutler delivers a lecture to elementary school teachers on the subject of forgiveness. And they also jog along next to him when the bishop, wearing a tracksuit, goes for his morning walk through Altamira, seat of the territorial prelature of Xingu in the Amazon."
And:
"Kräutler knows Benedict XVI -- then plain Joseph Ratzinger -- from the time when he was a student in Bavaria. "We have an interesting and good relationship," says Kräutler, perhaps a touch defensively. The German Pope is controversial in Brazil, where many see him as cold, conservative and unreceptive to the problems of the Third World."
Comments