Pope’s Mass for more than 100,000 in Cameroon highlights Catholicism’s growth in Africa

Having spent several years in the Peace Corps in a Catholic community in Cameroon in the 2000s, I will say that I never heard anyone associated with the church say a single bad thing about contraception. Catholic clergy even participated in HIV/AIDs education classes that I was teaching. Official church doctrine may be against contraception but my impression is that in Africa it hasn't been something they emphasize. We were in the midst of the peak of the epidemic, with roughly 10% HIV infection rates in our area, and the Catholic church was *not* obstructing our efforts to encourage using condoms, they were helping. The bigger obstacle was just mistrust and superstition. There was a persistent folk belief that white people are actually distributing infected condoms to spread HIV and exterminate Africans, for example. It's hard to argue against that stuff because, well take a look at history - it wouldn't be unprecedented. But yeah the church was a non-issue. I'm not Catholic but they were nothing but helpful.