Pope calls for peace on last day in Lebanon

You can see the video for this story on the euronews website here

 

On the last day of the Pope Benedict’s visit to Lebanon, he celebrated an open-air mass in front of around 350,000 pilgrims, as well as politicians from all sectors of the multi-faith country.

 

The pilgrims had come to Beirut from across the Middle East, where the service was held at an altar built on land reclaimed with debris from Lebanon’s 1975-1990 sectarian civil war.

 

The crowd cheered and waved Vatican as well as Lebanese flags as the Pope gave a speech in which he appealed for tolerance and religious freedom and for reconciliation between Christians and Muslims.

 

These have been the central themes of the visit which comes amid soaring sectarian tensions in the region, exacerbated by the conflict in Syria.

 

The pope also called on Christians not to leave the region despite war and growing pressure from radical Islamists.

 

 

Uganda family planning

In Uganda today family planning is at the top of the agenda. At the moment there are 34 million citizens but the country has one of the fastest growing populations anywhere in the world. On average each woman will give birth to six children.

In villages and communities people gather to listen the presenters of Heart Radio Uganda. Their talk show discusses family planning, covering topics such as contraceptive injections, condoms and how to avoid teenage pregnancy.