The Pope: Condoms Make AIDS Worse

Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet at 10:17 AM on March 17, 2009.

Here’s a shining testament to the relevance of organized religion in modern life: en route to Africa (the place with the highest rate of HIV transmission in the world) the Pope (the guy who only recently caught flak for lifting the excommunication of a Holocaust denier) said the following:

"You can't resolve [AIDS] with the distribution of condoms ... On the contrary, it increases the problem."

I get that the Catholic Church wants people to breed (or abstain) and that condoms stand in the way of that. It’s not surprising that Church leaders wouldn’t be the most vocal proponents of condom use and distribution (though they should be). But seriously? To produce such a qoutable, memorable sound-bite on the issue? In a place where gender inequities and social stigma and a lack of resources already stack the deck against condom use, and put people at the highest risk of HIV transmission in the world????

The AP notes that many nuns and priests who actually work with people living with AIDS “question the church’s opposition to condoms amid the pandemic ravaging Africa.”

But, those guys actually spend time with people who have the disease, instead of traipsing around the world doing photo ops and saying insane things. What do they know?

Tagged as: aids, pope, catholics, condom