Pope Benedict XVI what possessed you to say that using condoms increases the AIDS problem?

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I actually didn’t believe this when I first heard it because it seemed so outrageous like something the Onion would make up as a spoof but turns out it is real. I find this very discouraging.

Pope Benedict XVI according to all accounts when visiting of all places Africa where AIDS is a huge problem rejected the distribution of condoms as a means of fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS. According to msnbc Benedict said that “distributing condoms “increases the AIDS problem.” This is simply irresponsible coming from the official leader of the Catholic Church. Either life is sacred or it isn’t, you can’t pick and choose who lives and dies. So how dies the pro-life 81 year old pope make a statement that may condemn millions to illness and death while passing the disease on to others along the way?

According to Times online Benedict said the “traditional teaching of the Church” on chastity outside marriage and fidelity within it had proved to be “the only sure way of preventing the spread of HIV and Aids”.
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So those that have sex outside of marriage or are raped deserve to be condemned to HIV infection because the church thinks abstinence is the answer instead of protection? Because birth control is a no-no to the church? When a condom is being used to prevent a deadly disease from being spread to a partner or to prevent an innocent child that might be born with HIV doesn’t that trump the stance against condoms as birth control alone? Apparently not.

I’m not Catholic and I’m not religious though I was brought up Christian. I do not practice any organized religion. I do not rule out a God but no one religion can be proven to be the “right” one. Pope Benedict’s proclamation is an irresponsible, downright dangerous, uninformed stance that could condemn people to a disease that they might otherwise have prevented by using a condom. The Catholic Church has never been able to admit that every time even a married couple have sex they aren’t trying to conceive a child. This is outdated and irrational thinking. It’s simple not true, condoms used right can do a lot to prevent the spread of HIV. Sir this is a fact. This is the church that says they put the innocent children’s lives before anything?


Yes, Pope Benedict if only people practiced abstinence there would be less HIV infection but in the real world abstinence doesn’t happen that often. How many marriages has your church performed on all ready pregnant women because of the anti-birth control stance you advocate? How many have contracted HIV because condoms are not sanctioned by the Vatican and you actually actively discourage their use at all?

Unbelievable. Unconscionable. Is there such a thing as unintentional genocide? I can’t understand saying “AIDS is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”. Let me get this straight: you can be absolved of your sins by going to confession and every thing’s fine but you can’t use a condom because you say so?

This saddens me that such a powerful man of the cloth would make such a callous mistake. I don’t remember any commandments saying Thou shall not have safe sex…
I must have missed it.

G’night,

Laura
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