It's time for the Pope to apologize to Ethiopians

In an historical trip to Cameroon and Angola, Pope Benedict XVI made a stand by appealing to the African people and calling upon African leaders to rid the continent of corruption. For this he should be applauded.

On the other hand, he not only refrained from condoning the use of condoms to the dismay of many Africans, Europeans, Americans, and HIV/AIDS experts, but he even criticized its use to mitigate the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, which has already claimed millions of lives.

The above stories made plenty of headlines, but another controversy surrounding the Pope's visit has eluded Western media.

I refer to the appeal of Ethiopians in the Diaspora to the Catholic Church to apologize for siding with the Italian regime in the 1930s, which killed hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians with chemical weapons.

The church claims to have a policy of transparency and to strive to correct past wrongs. Indeed, it recently apologized to the Jewish community for its failure to speak out against the Nazis and for supporting the fascist regime in Italy during the Second World War. For this, the church should be commended.

But it is also high time that the church address the outstanding issue of crimes committed against the Ethiopian people. For the first time, chemical weapons were used overwhelmingly and indiscriminately on the Ethiopian people and on the resistance. Isn't it time for the Vatican to apologize for that too?

After all, it is never too late to correct wrongs. The Bible even insists upon it.