—– Condoms Not The Answer To African HIV Crisis, Pope Says (David Lewis/The Herald; March 18)

Pope Benedict XVI has insisted condoms are not the answer to Africa’s fight against HIV in his first explicit statement on an issue that has divided even clergy working with AIDS patients.

The pontiff, who yesterday began his first trip in office to the continent with a visit to Cameroon, is seeking to encourage peace and help tackle corruption.

The Vatican’s refusal to let Catholics use condoms remains controversial on a continent where AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since the 1980s.

While medical workers advocate the use of condoms to help prevent the spread of Aids, the Church insists on fidelity within heterosexual marriage, chastity and abstinence.

“The problem cannot be overcome by distributing condoms. It only increases the problem,” the pontiff told reporters on board the plane headed for Africa.

About 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, according to UNAIDS. In 2007, three-quarters of all Aids deaths worldwide were there.

Rebecca Hodes of the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa said that if the Pope was serious about preventing new HIV infections, he would focus on promoting wide access to condoms and spreading information on how best to use them.

“Instead, his opposition to condoms conveys that religious dogma is more important to him than the lives of Africans,” said Ms Hodes, director of policy, communication and research for the action campaign….

—– Pope’s Condom Stance Sparks Row (The BBC; March 18)

Several EU states have criticised Pope Benedict for saying that the use of condoms could endanger public health and increase the problem of HIV/Aids.

The Pope argued that distribution of condoms aggravated the problem, rather than helping to contain the virus, as he began a visit to Africa this week.

France’s foreign ministry said condoms were fundamental to prevention.

German ministers said it was irresponsible to withhold family planning from the poorest of the poor.

The Roman Catholic Church believes marital fidelity and sexual abstinence are the best way to prevent the spread of HIV.

Some 22 million people are infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, according to UN figures for 2007.

This amounts to about two-thirds of the global total.

French foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said: “While it is not up to us to pass judgment on Church doctrine, we consider that such comments are a threat to public health policies and the duty to protect human life.”

In Berlin, German Health Minister Ulla Schmidt and Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said in a joint statement: “Condoms save lives, in Europe as well as on other continents. Modern assistance to the developing world today must make access to family planning available to the poorest of the poor – especially the use of condoms. Anything else would be irresponsible.”

Dutch Development Minister Bert Koenders said it was “extremely harmful and very serious” that the Pope was “forbidding people from protecting themselves”.

“There is an enormous stigma surrounding the subject of Aids and Aids sufferers face serious discrimination,” he added. “The Pope is making matters worse.”

On his way to Cameroon, the Pope said HIV/Aids was “a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem”.

The solution lay, he said, in a “spiritual and human awakening” and “friendship for those who suffer”.

Campaigners say condoms are one of the few methods proven to stop the spread of HIV….

The Pope also warned of a threat to the Catholic Church in Cameroon from evangelical movements and from the “growing influence of superstitious forms of religion”….

What these stories don’t say (but I will) is this:

—– Virtually ALL religion – including Catholicism – is based on superstition (which my American Heritage College Dictionary defines as “1. An irrational belief that something unrelated to an event influences its outcome; 2a. A belief, practice, or rite maintained by ignorance of the laws of nature or by faith in magic or chance; 2b. A fearful or abject state of mind due to such ignorance or irrationality”).

—– The Vatican has been making the AIDS crisis much worse with its deadly lies about condoms for a *very* long time now. The BBC exposed those lies quite clearly more than 5 years ago (as explained in detail in the entry I posted on Oct 9, 2003) yet here we have yet another pope continuing to spread them like some irresponsible Typhoid Mary of the mind.

It can be argued that Pope Benedict is actually much more of a danger than Typhoid Mary ever was since only three deaths can apparently be attributed to her actions. How many AIDS deaths in Africa and around the world might the Pope’s lies about condoms be responsible for? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions??

I’m a strong defender of free speech, but – like many people – I draw the line at yelling fire in a crowded theater. But what if the theater *is* on fire and someone stands up and tells people NOT to use the fire extinguishers and NOT to listen to the firefighters who are trying to save them? Isn’t that just as bad? And isn’t that what Pope Benedict is essentially doing?

Typhoid Mary was eventually quarantined before she could do any more damage. Should the Pope now be quarantined by the World Health Organization before he does any more damage? Should he at least be charged with practicing medicine without a license? Or interfering with medical experts during an international health crisis?

Exactly how outrageous and devastating must a lie be before legal action of some kind is taken by somebody?