Pope chides weird beliefs in Africa

The Pope is in Angola, and he has condemned superstition there. There is widespread belief in witchcraft in Angola, and children and the elderly are being accused of being witches.

In Angola, police recently discovered a large group of children held by religious fanatics because they were suspected of being "possessed," prompting new awareness of the problem.

The ironic thing is of course that the Pope is a prime believer in superstition. However, within the Catholic church this is called something else:

The pope's comments on superstition underlined a broader point: that the church's missionary effort must know no bounds, and should reach those with traditional beliefs.

In other words, just very old superstition, that they have believed in for a long time.

But come on, the Pope is an educated man, and as I have noted earlier, the inner core of the Vatican are probably all atheists, quietly laughing at the common Catholic who believes in the weirdest shit - easily comparable to witchcraft. Exorcism, anyone? So when the Pope condemns Africans from acting on their fears of witchcraft and then in the very same breadth talk about "traditional beliefs", which most certainly include that of Satan, then I bet it's not because he doesn't see the glaring contraction, but because he really is concerned about superstition when it results in the suffering of children. But the power and wealth of the Vatican is of course always at stake, so he must not forget himself and leave anyone in doubt that their superstitious traditional beliefs are real.

Related post about African superstition in action:
Of the crimes against our children
Witch hunt in The Gambia
Albinones hunted for body-parts in Tanzania