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Pope leaves Benin after second trip to Africa

Benin's President Thomas Yayi Boni (R) smiles as Pope Benedict XVI (L) prepares to leave Bernadin Gantin airport in Cotonou on November 20, 2011. Photo/AFP

Pope Benedict XVI left Benin on Sunday, ending his second trip to Africa as pontiff which saw him sign off on a grand vision for the Roman Catholic Church's future on the continent.

"I wanted to visit Africa once more," the pontiff said at the airport before his departure.

"It is a continent for which I have a special regard and affection, for I am deeply convinced that it is a land of hope. Here are found authentic values which have much to teach our world. They need only to spread and to blossom with God's help and the determination of Africans themselves," he said.

"Why should an African country not show the rest of the world the path to be taken towards living an authentic fraternity in justice, based on the greatness of the family and of labour?"

The pope on Sunday celebrated mass for some 50,000 people at a stadium in Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin, a country considered both a centre of voodoo and a bastion of Catholicism.