Pope visits Africa, reaffirms ban on condoms

[TheCultofAbeLincoln]

(CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI refused Wednesday to soften the Vatican's ban on condom use as he arrived in Africa for his first visit to the continent as pope.

Cameroonian President Paul Biya, left, walks with Pope Benedict XVI at the airport in Yaounde, Tuesday. He landed in Cameroon, the first stop on a trip that will also take him to Angola.

Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit harder by AIDS and HIV than any other region of the world, according to the United Nations and World Health Organization. There has been fierce debate between those who advocate the use of condoms to help stop the spread of the epidemic and those who oppose it.

Here may be one good reason to avoid bashing Catholicism: The Pope can do a better job at it all on his own.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/03/17/cameroon.pope/index.html

[Plagueround]

Not exactly inspiring much faith the catholic church. Then again, almost all the catholics I grew up around just didn't listen to him.

Also relevant:

http://jdoe.fstudio.com/images/emperor.pope.jpg

[TheCultofAbeLincoln]

That is prett hilarious.

Anyway, I am not worried about American catholics , but poor African villagers who may take him seriously.

[GracchusBabeuf]

This is one of the ways the imperialist Pope keeps the disadvantaged in misery. The church has always been a close ally of capitalist and imperialist powers.

[Madvillainy]

The French and German governments were joined by the European Union in taking the unusual step of issuing a direct public rebuke to Pope Benedict XVI, saying his claims that condom use could make the Aids problem worse risked undermining decades of public health policy.

"France voices extremely strong concern over the consequences of Benedict XVI's comments," said a French foreign ministry spokesman. "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." The French spokesman was responding to comments that the Pope made on Tuesday that condoms should not be used to battle the spread of Aids, and that they could instead "aggravate" the epidemic because they encouraged promiscuity.

He made the comments en route to Cameroon, the first stop on a week-long African tour that takes him to Angola tomorrow. Alain Juppe, the former French prime minister, added: "This Pope is starting to be a real problem." A spokesman for the French medical charity Médecins du Monde launched a scathing attack, saying: "Millions of people are going to be contaminated because of these remarks. We are very angry because this undermines years of work." In the Pope's homeland, the health minister and the development minister said in a joint statement that "condoms save lives, as much in Europe as in other countries".

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a German Green MEP, described the Pontiff's remarks as "close to premeditated murder". There were also signs of dissent within the Roman Catholic Church. "Anyone who has Aids and is sexually active, anyone who seeks multiple partners, must protect others and themselves," said Hans-Jochen Jaschke, the auxiliary bishop of Hamburg. In Britain there was an equally angry reaction. "This represents a major step backwards in terms of global health education, is entirely counter-productive, and is likely to lead to increases in HIV infection in Africa and elsewhere," said Prof Quentin Sattentau, Professor of Immunology at Oxford University.

Since Aids was first identified in the early 1980s, an estimated 25 million people have died and 33 million are now infected with HIV, two thirds of them in Africa. Vatican officials defended the Pope. While the Holy See appeared to soften the original statement in an online transcript of the interview, altering the Pontiff's original remark to say that using condoms merely "risked" aggravating the problems, the Vatican stood by the statement that condom distribution was not the best way to combat Aids.

Federico Lombardi, the Pope's official spokesman, maintained that he was simply upholding the position of the Church, which insists that the spread of Aids can be prevented by abstinence or fidelity to one partner. "Benedict XVI reiterated the stance already confirmed by John Paul II," said Fr Lombardi, speaking in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon.
"Don't expect any change of position during this trip. It's not through the power of condoms that one blocks the spread of Aids."

[Jazzratt]

It's distressing that this man has the ear of millions. People who believe religion is not a vile, pernicious force in the world should read this shit.

[Random Precision]

Merged.

[Louise Michel]

I'd qualify Cohn-Bendit's description - "close to pre-meditated murder" - to just pre-meditated murder. Ratzinger claims he was an opponent of the nazis (suprise, surprise) but "resistance was futile," which is the mantra of those who watched and did nothing whilst atrocity after atrocity was committed. Many Germans of course did resist very heroically but not Herr Ratzinger.

An interesting movie that exposes the role of the Catholic Church during the nazi period (and the subsequent attempts of priests to cover up their collaboration) is Michael Verhoeven's "The Nasty Girl" (Das Shreckliche Maedchen) based on the true story of Anna Rosmus.

I wonder what Herr Ratzinger actually did during the war. I guess we'll never know but this atrocity maybe gives us some indication.

[DesertShark]

What's interesting is that Cambodia effectively reversed the effect of HIV/AIDS by approaching the issue realistically (which means a realistic approach worldwide could stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic everywhere). This group, CHEC (http://www.checcambodia.org/), (Cambodia HIV/AIDS Education and Care) was one of the NGOs at the forefront of this effort (I actually got to meet and talk with these people when I was in Cambodia and I was blown away at the noticeable impact they were having). From their website (which you should definitely check out):
Cambodia seriously confronted with HIV/AIDS epidemic in 1997 which resulted in 3% of the total adult population living with HIV/AIDS. However, Cambodia is one of the few countries in the world that are on track to meet the Millennium Goal for HIV/AIDS. According to the National AIDS Centre for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STD (NCHADS), the prevalence rate in Cambodia has been on a steady decline since 1998, and recently at 0.9%. Also, HIV infection among most-at-risk people has been consistently decreasing. Anyhow, there are estimated 67,200 people over the age of 15 living with HIV/AIDS and no one knows quite well how many children have been orphaned as a result of the disease.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

The Pope also summoned the ire of The Lancet (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7967173.stm).

Good going, chump.