inputs: hypothesis: Africa is estimated to have a 158-million Catholic population. premise: VATICAN CITY - When Pope Benedict XVI embarks on his first trip to Africa as pontiff on Tuesday, traveling to Cameroon and Angola, he will be visiting the future of the Roman Catholic Church, if not its present. With one of the world's largest Catholic populations, estimated at 158 million, Africa is the continent where the church is at once strong - in terms of sheer numbers and devotional vitality - and weak, inevitably touched by the poverty, corruption, conflict and disease afflicting the larger society.