Pope Benedict XVI said on Tuesday, on his first leg of a trip to Africa, that condoms were not the answer in the continent’s fight against H.I.V., his first explicit statement on an issue that has divided even the clergy who work with AIDS patients. (…) Benedict also asserted that the Roman Catholic Church was in the forefront of the battle against AIDS. “You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the pope said aboard his plane to Cameroon. “On the contrary, it increases the problem.” The pope said that a responsible and moral attitude toward sex would help fight the disease.
It’s hard to fathom how the head of a church of millions can come up with such unilluminated statements. It is hard to understand where he is coming from. The fervent belief in restraint and responsibility blends too easily with a blindness to the dangers of ignoring prevention. Benedict would like to think that handing out leaflets urging restraint, self-control and abstention is more of a solution than educating people to use condoms.
The leap from ignorance to stupidity is easy for the human to make. For the spiritual guide of a faith it is a bit less excusable to do so, especially when the stance being taken puts so many lives in danger. The Pope and his spokespersons have remained adamant on this position notwithstanding its having drawn harsh criticism from many quarters including within the church itself.
France’s Foreign Minister expressed deep concern at the Pope’s words on the issue. The Pope is endangering Public Health Policy was the word from the Quai d ‘Orsai. Germany’s Health Minister Ulla Schmidt contradicted Pope Benedict’s assertion and stated quite clearly that condoms have an important role in the battle against the spread of AIDS.
Too many words have been said already about this futile Catholic Crusade on condoms. The Italian Health Ministry slogan from the 80’s becomes as relevant now as it was then: AIDS… se lo conosci lo eviti (the AIDS virus… if you know it, you avoid it). Avoiding AIDS requires education and knowledge – admitting that people can do something with those two resources has never been the forte of theocratic establishments… they are after all beyond their area of expertise.
If Benedict is happy to forge ahead with policies of ignorance then so be it. But it must be made abundantly clear to the world that the battle with the AIDS virus is a very temporal one and has nothing to do with the dogmas of faith.
Se lo conosci… lo eviti… roll down the rubber!
