WORLD : Pope Assails African Practices

MWANZA, Tanzania — Huge crowds today flocked to hear Pope John Paul II denounce what he called “the unspeakable crime of abortion,” birth control, polygamy, witchcraft and bride-selling.

In the lakeside Tanzanian town of Mwanza on the fourth day of the Pope’s 11-day African tour, thousands from neighboring Kenya and Uganda swelled the Tanzanian congregation for the open-air Mass. Witnesses estimated the milling crowds in the port town on the shores of Lake Victoria at several hundred thousand.

In his sermon, the pontiff called for an end to witchcraft--common throughout East Africa--because he said it led to “forms of enslavement and false worship.”