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Loading ...Vatican accuses AIDS groups of intimidation
04.17.2009 2:22pm EDT
(Vatican City) The Vatican on Friday denounced the criticisms of the pope’s comments about condoms and AIDS during his trip to Africa, saying they marked an unprecedented attempt to intimidate him into silence.
Pope Benedict XVI said last month that condoms weren’t the answer to Africa’s AIDS epidemic and could make the problem worse.France, Germany, the U.N. AIDS-fighting agency as well as the British medical journal The Lancet criticized the comments as irresponsible and dangerous. The Belgian parliament passed a resolution calling them “unacceptable” and demanding that the government officially protest.
Belgium’s ambassador to the Holy See lodged the formal protest April 15, prompting the strongly worded Vatican statement Friday.
Criticizing the Belgian vote, the Vatican said it deplored “the fact that a parliamentary assembly should have thought it appropriate to criticize the Holy Father on the basis of an isolated extract from an interview, separated from its context.”
It said the remarks had been “used by some groups with a clear intent to intimidate, as if to dissuade the Pope from expressing himself on certain themes of obvious moral relevance and from teaching the Church’s doctrine.”
It wasn’t immediately clear which groups the Vatican was referring to. The Belgian resolution, which passed April 2, said Benedict’s comments ran against numerous international declarations and actions taken by the United Nations and others who have been fighting AIDS and other transmittable diseases such as malaria.
It said they were “unacceptable” and that the Belgian government didn’t share them.
A similar resolution is under consideration by the Belgian Senate.
In its statement, the Vatican decried what it said was an “unprecedented media campaign” in Europe that was unleashed by the pope’s remarks about condoms, while ignoring Benedict’s fuller message about the need to care for those suffering from AIDS.
The Vatican said it was consoled that Africans and “the true friends of Africa” had praised and appreciated the pontiff’s remarks.
The 82-year-old pope, who marks his fourth anniversary as pontiff on Sunday, has faced enormous criticism recently. In addition to the uproar over his condom comments, his decision to remove the excommunication of a bishop who denied the Holocaust sparked outcry, even within his own church.
I hear she has signed up to be a contestant on Ru Paul’s Drag Race. She’s packed her lame gowns and jewels and she is ready to lipsynch for her life.
The same pope who travels in a bullet-proof popemobile thinks this is ‘unprecedented way to silence him’?
This is so foolish. The pope is pooped and need to goretire. there are no authorities, monarchies, etc. greater is he or she than any illusive powers in the world! Joey Toledo
If you guys think you have it bad to hear the evil and sinister pope comment every once and a while, here in Italy we actually have to pay a state television tax of aproximatly $148 USD per year and along with that get the previlige of seeing the popes every appearance and speach on all the major networks.
The vatican also gets the privilage of 1000 x 7 which means that for every 1000 cents of a workers earnings on Italian income tax returns they can claim and donate that amount from the tax they owe to the vatican.
@Gene,
In some African cultures the way to prevent unwanted pregnancy is to have anal sex. No way to fertilize an egg there but it creates some tears in the tissue. That of course is a giant door to let HIV through to the blood stream.
While having just one partner and being faithful can prevent the spread of AIDS the problem is that not everyone is faithful, we know that all too well here in the US and other countries as well.
So while it may not be the “ideal” way to deal with AIDS in the population in the churches eyes it still can be one hell of a way to prevent the spread of AIDS.
Crap and lies that the pope is saying is wrong in the eyes of any one with a scientific brain. Just like some asshole in South Africa that AIDS didn’t exist and now they have one hell of an infection rate.
Science always trumps a lie.
The Nazi-Pope needs to stay in his country and stop spreading his lies.
@Michelle
– The HIV problem in Africa cannot be solved with abstinence either. –
As a point of clarification, the study I cited was not referring to abstinence education, it was referring to monogamy education in the heterosexual community. This study, and another one conducted by the U.N. but never officially published concluded that the most efficacious programs to slow the spread of infection were culturally-attuned monogamy programs.
I haven’t seen the text of the U.N. study, but the problem seems to be that nobody has yet come up with an effective way to integrate condom education into existing cultural practices. It’s been successful in Thailand because most of the disease was being spread by commercial sex workers, which the government regulated to great effect.
Pope Pompous can blow me!
The things the pope said recently will cause thousands of people to die. Some people say that is irresponsible. He serves the wealthiest institution in the world, and is unwilling to give a dime to save a life. In my opinion, Pope Benedict is just a greedy, evil person. He serves wealth, not God.
But then, we knew that long before he said any of those things.
Good! One could only hope that they were more successful in silencing him! He is doing so much damage to the effort seeking to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. Good grief, lmfao. He’s ridiculous on this issue.
Hmmm. Who would have thought a bunch of gays combating HIV/AIDS would be able to intimidate the poop even if we wanted to do so. I guess when you were a Hitler Youth but then decided to put on a dress, you become mouthy but timid.
Well, if anyone would know about intimidation, it would be the Vatican. *sigh*
Pope Maledict XVI needs all the intimidation we can give him.
@ Gene
The HIV problem in Africa cannot be solved with abstinence either. Though I do agree with your comments about education. There are many regions in Africa where there is little or no information about HIV/Aids.
That’s why we cannot excuse the Pope’s statement. Without that education, abstinence can fail when a condom might have prevented the spread of the virus.
Not to mention, historically speaking, abstinence has been ineffective in preventing sex.
Intimidation? Umm… no. Just world politics. If the Pope can’t handle it, why is he head of state for the Vatican?