Nairobi, Kenya, Dec 10, 2008 / 02:53 am
An official with the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has called on industrial nations to do more for the family and for the protection in human life in Africa, charging that most Western aid programs promote a concept of the family that is foreign to Africans.
Christine du Coudray, who heads the Africa desk at ACN, made her comments after returning from a fact-finding trip to Africa. She said that ACN seems to be almost alone in its efforts to promote a “Culture of Life” in Africa.
She claimed that aid agencies in Africa often promote a “Western concept of the family” that is no longer based on the community of husband, wife, and children. Du Coudray reported that such agencies promote artificial contraception and abortion and offer condoms as a solution to the spread of AIDS.
“The Africans see these ideas as foreign. They understand at once that this is no culture of life but rather a culture of death,” she said, according to ACN.