Pope says condoms won't stop spread of AIDS

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Chibi_Neko
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17 Mar 2009, 10:09 am

cbc.ca

Quote:

Condoms are not the answer to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, Pope Benedict said Tuesday while on his way to the continent for a seven-day visit.

You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms," the Pope told reporters aboard his plane to Yaounde, Cameroon. "On the contrary, it increases the problem."

It's the first time the Pope has directly addressed the issue of condom use, which has been a divisive issue in the Roman Catholic Church.

While health workers — including some priests and nuns working with people with AIDS — advocate the use of condoms to curb the spread of disease during sex, the Catholic church promotes fidelity within marriage, chastity and abstinence.

More than 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to estimates from the United Nations. Since the 1980s, roughly 25 million people have died from AIDS.

Benedict's first papal trip to Africa will take him to Cameroon and Angola. Africa is the fastest-growing region for the Roman Catholic Church, though it competes with Islam and evangelical churches.

He will visit charitable groups and meet Muslim and Christian leaders during the visit.

The Pope also said Tuesday he intends to make an appeal for "international solidarity" for Africa in the face of the global economic downturn.

The church can provide "spiritual and moral" suggestions to help people get through the economic crisis, which the Pope blamed on a "deficit of ethics in economic structures."

"It is here that the church can make a contribution," he said.

Benedict also laughed off suggestions he has become increasingly isolated within the church, particularly after an outreach to ultra-conservatives that led to his lifting the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop.

"The myth of my solitude makes me laugh," the Pope said, adding he has a network of friends he sees on a daily basis.

This is outrageous! How out of touch can this guy be with reality? He is a religious leader, how much can he know about medicine?

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demeus
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17 Mar 2009, 10:57 am

And the pope is correct. All it would take is one defective condom for you to get HIV and I am sure those condoms they are handing out are of the cheapest kind.

Chibi_Neko
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17 Mar 2009, 11:09 am

demeus wrote:

And the pope is correct. All it would take is one defective condom for you to get HIV and I am sure those condoms they are handing out are of the cheapest kind.

The odds of a one defective condom is very small, and one defective condom is nothing to the millions of people that can avoid getting AIDS.

The pope is complete out of touch with what is going on in the world.

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Douglas_MacNeill
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17 Mar 2009, 11:18 am

Benedict Sechzehn (the former Cardinal Ratzinger)
has to say that in order to avoid admitting that
Humanae Vitae (the birth control encyclical)
was a mistake. The higher-ups in the Vatican may
have been fools and may have been wicked fools on
this issue, but there is no escape for them any more.

Zonta
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17 Mar 2009, 11:33 am

Douglas_MacNeill wrote:

Benedict Sechzehn (the former Cardinal Ratzinger)
has to say that in order to avoid admitting that
Humanae Vitae (the birth control encyclical)
was a mistake.

Oh, I do think he believes what he's saying. (I'm referring to his belief that condoms won't resolve the problem) That's the scariest part.

Katie_WPG
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17 Mar 2009, 11:40 am

Given the fact that Pope Benedict used to be a Hitler Youth (he claims against his will), I really don't think that he should be showing any sympathy to anti-semites and holocaust-deniers. Kind of seems fishy, you know.

mitharatowen
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17 Mar 2009, 11:43 am

Well I am not a Catholic but I think his view on this is probably that handing out condoms will just encourage people to have more 'immoral relations' and he can't condone that.

Also being Catholic.. can he even condole any type of birth control? It's kind of agains their teachings.

deadeyexx
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17 Mar 2009, 12:24 pm

The Catholic church will never support the use of condoms & will say anything to discourage people from using them. True or not.

Remember the old Monty Python bit. Every sperm is sacred.

0_equals_true
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17 Mar 2009, 12:32 pm

mitharatowen wrote:

Also being Catholic.. can he even condole any type of birth control? It's kind of agains their teachings.

So abstinence is immoral oh s**t!

I'm an atheist but a brought up a catholic. Basically nobody listens to the pope on this issue in the west. They are more likely to listen to him in Africa unfortunately, and they are especially targeting Africa with this message.

I am willing to bet that the number of priests that actually believe in this s**t is the minority, but they will never get into the Vatican unless they team up.

Stray-Ana
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17 Mar 2009, 2:20 pm

It's just another example of why religion is not entirely the best basis for living your life...Common sense and a sense of our own morals based on fact and logic is a good place to start...Never mind trying to live by age old traditions...

When keeping in mind that, in many tribes of Africa their beliefs include it to be the done thing for men to have x amount of wives and partners - go figure why aids spreads so quick amongst them - but it is down to their own religious / spiritual beliefs perhaps that they do it - ironic!!

Amongst those who live by these rules, stopping the practice of 58 [or how ever many] 'wives' to each man is the best place to start I would say - that first and then condoms - no matter what the Pope says!

Praying for people can't cure aids! Discussing 'morals' will only get you so far when the way they live their lives, because of their own beliefs, is not based on 'moral' thinking but that of the same things that make the Pope himself come out with ridiculous comments at times.

Durp
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17 Mar 2009, 4:49 pm

Stray-Ana wrote:

QFT

RE: The article

...That was one of the stupidest things I ever read.

mitharatowen
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17 Mar 2009, 5:21 pm

Religion/morals does not necessarily need to be in opposition to common sense. Although, I admit that it often turns out that way because people are missing one or the other or act in ignorance.

dedhead66
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17 Mar 2009, 6:56 pm

demeus wrote:

And the pope is correct. All it would take is one defective condom for you to get HIV and I am sure those condoms they are handing out are of the cheapest kind.

Since many of the people being exposed to HIV through casual sex will not practice safe sex or abstinence the only options are either no protection or some limited protection offered by condoms. I'll take the limited but better than none protection of condoms. To not offer these to the people of Africa is criminal. But maybe that's the plan. Help control the population of Africa with starvation, genocide and disease.

I'm going to hold my tongue on my thoughts of the pope and church.

Coadunate
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17 Mar 2009, 7:06 pm

So I guess now that Pope Benedict is in charge there will be no more extramarital sex by Catholics in Africa proving the popes infallibility that “Condoms are not the answer to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa”, cool.

gbollard
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17 Mar 2009, 7:39 pm

Obviously the pope feels that if you don't do IT, you won't need condoms.

It's probably quite effective in the vatican where every one (male and female) is a "blessed virgin".

He's also probably right that condoms alone won't stop aids... just as saving a single village won't stop environmental devastation... but that's no reason not to try.

The crack about the Hitler Youth is a bit unfair though... remember that most of the vatican were Nazi supporters. They gave them money and they saved a lot of them when they fled. The church was happy to reduce certain other religions - and communists too, because their views on religion weren't in the Catholic interest.

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Chibi_Neko
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17 Mar 2009, 7:45 pm

dedhead66 wrote:

I'm going to hold my tongue on my thoughts of the pope and church.

Not me.
The pope is a crank that doesn't know anything about the real world.

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