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Loading ...Pope: Condoms not the answer to fighting AIDS
03.17.2009 12:33pm EDT
Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday that the distribution of condoms is not the answer in the fight against AIDS in Africa.
Benedict has never before spoken explicitly on condom use although he has stressed that the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against AIDS. The Vatican encourages sexual abstinence to fight the spread of the disease.“You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde, Cameroon. “On the contrary, it increases the problem.”
Some priests and nuns working with victims of the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa question the church’s opposition to condoms.
The pope also said that he intends to make an appeal for “international solidarity” for Africa in the face of the global economic downturn.
He said that while the church does not propose specific economic solutions, it can give “spiritual and moral” suggestions.
Describing the current crisis as the consequence of “a deficit of ethics in economic structures,” the pope said, “It is here that the church can make a contribution.”
Benedict’s seven-day pilgrimage will take him to Cameroon and Angola.
Africa is the fastest-growing region for the Roman Catholic Church.
As one who has been educated in Catholic schools, and as one whose family traditions are called ‘Irish-Catholic’, I continue to be embarrassed by Church leadership.
This Pope is so NOT infallible!
From his early days in the Hitler Jugend, to this utter nonsense about condoms…I see future generations looking back on history and judging such men as contemptible.
To my Gay brethren, do you all need any further proof that this brand of “faith” has no morality, has little relevance, and has even less dignity?
‘Put away these childish things’ – organised religion is taking itself out to the trash-heap of history.
Condoms don’t help in the fight against AIDS? Really? The Pope and his followers are pure evil as far as I am concerned. If there is a God then this Pope will burn forever for what he has said and one. It is time for humans to evolve past this irrational need for religion especially when some of these religions are being fronted by hateful, fearmongering hypocrites like this vile Pope.
NO Pope is “infallible” – what a ridiculous concept.
Heir Rantinzger is at it again, running his mouth like verbal diarrhea – complete and utter B.S. for all his brainwashed “faithful” (whose connection to reality is tenuous at best).
Makes you just want to grab a megaphone at one of his gatherings and shout out “SHUT THE F@CK UP!”
Africa is the “fastest growing region for the Roman Catholic Church” beause it has one of the lowest levels of formal education. Once people get an education, they rapidly outgrow this nonsense.
Some priests and nuns working with victims of the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa question the church’s opposition to condoms.
From small seeds of doubt, grow great revolutions of change.
I notice that he makes no effort to “dip into the coffers of the Church” and make a contribution to the poor of Africa to help ease their level of poverty. One of the richest organizations in the world, and their hierarchy will continue to live in luxury while the poor have to fend for themselves in an attempt to obtain a crust of bread. Even with vows of poverty, has anyone ever seen a malnourished priest?
1. Verbal diarrhea = logorrhea. 2. Most priests don’t take vows of poverty. only those belonging to orders like the Franciscans are obliged to. All other priests just take.
It would almost be laughable to listen to one of the swishiest popes in history talking about “safe” sex if it weren’t for the gullible sods who actually believe him. He only builds his own profile by evoking reactions from people. We should shun him with silence.
The Pope also believes in an invisible friend with magical powers.
‘Nuff said.
That CRIMINAL in a white dress (!) has just condemned MILLIONS of INNOCENT men, women and children to a lingering, painful death. He SHOULD be brought before the International Court in The Hague for CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY!
I am African and it’s unfortunate to see that the church is still pushing it’s no sex before marriage message, which is good in an ideal world but sadly the world is not ideal and even during marriage fidelity? really?!!! alot od African Heterosexuals cant keep it in one place, so now the wives are getting it. He is not faithful but she is, or vice-versa, either way someone suffers. That’s the reality. Whethe you want to or not, Condoms are about taking control of your own sexual health, and that has nothing to do with abstinence once ur playing the game. In Africa everyone is playing this game.
Is this man nuts? Condoms actually exsacerbate the problem?
I look forward to the day when the headline reads: “Newsflash: the Roman Catholic Church is not the right answer for ANYTHING.”
The Pope is the biggest queen ever, wearing red Prada shoes, fancy robes and “dress”.
If you don’t play the game don’t make the rules
and you think we can argue with these nuts about gay marriage? They can’t even get this right! He is truly a murderer.
It is really unfortunate, to say the least, that ex-Cardinal Ratzinger, the out-of-touch head of an out-of-touch church, is also proposing abstinence AFTER marriage, or, alternatively, condemning the innocent wives and children of men who have HIV to lives of sickness themselves.