"In mid-November 2011, Pope Benedict XVI visited Ouidah, Benin to address the public and unveil his most recent exhortation titled Africae Munus (“Africa’s Commitment”). Portions of Africae Munus, and some of the Pope’s accompanying remarks, were deeply disturbing and reminiscent of the Catholic Church’s early rationalization for Christianizing Africa, conquering the Americas as well as parts of South Asia and the Pacific. Among other comments, Pope Benedict voiced opposition to the “syncretism” of Catholicism with indigenous religious beliefs, used descriptive terms such as “occultism” and “evil” in reference to African religions and called for a “profound evangelization” of Africans."