It’s almost surreal. Did the Pope actually suggest that the use of condoms to prevent the transmission of HIV is the lesser of two evils, even if their use prevents a pregnancy?
Wow! I feel like we have entered into a new era. This is a whole paradigm shift. Now that he has said this priests around the world can be in the forefront of advocating for condoms as part of an HIV prevention strategy. Not that I believe that condoms are the end all – be all solution to our epidemic of AIDS…but it helps.
Now for those of us of the faith who take the Pope’s words as the Gospel and the Vatican stance as the Word of God hopefully this message lends credibility to the use of condoms in everyday life.
But this really begs the question. If we start to see a sharp decline in HIV infection rates world-wide, especially in parts of the world that are heavily populated with people of the Catholic faith, do we hold the Vatican accountable for all those who have acquired HIV infection in the past just because they were denied on religious grounds the use of barrier protection?
Ah, there I go closing the gates of Heaven to myself for my blasphemy.
Dear lady – the parts in Africa ravaged with AIDS are not those with overwhelming Catholic population. I live in Africa. The countries ravaged by AIDS, like Botswana and South Africa are overwhelmingly Protestant countries where a condom can be plucked almost from every bush.The POpe and the Catholic Church – PLEASE DO GET THIS IN YOUR HEAD – did not cause or kill millions with their view on contraception. Even atheist thinkers and REAL intellectuals get angry at this myth. You can work out for yourself WHY.
I am not a Catholic by the way.
Dear Anonymous, your anger is displaced. Where in this post have I targeted Africa? If the people in Botswana cannot pluck condoms from the bushes they readily grow from then that underlies my point in my blog that a magic pill or a magic rubber is not the answer for our HIV epidemic … our being Homo sapiens.
For those believers who have not wanted to use a condom because it is wrong based on their faith, the Pope's words help to decrease the guilt and negative feelings towards them.
Thanks for reading.