Pope Benedict’s trip to Africa has been fraught with outrage from gay rights groups, health care professionals, government officials across the globe, Catholics and, well, just plain decent, balanced people the world over. The Washington Post ran an Op-Ed yesterday entitled, “Impeach the Pope“. In a struggling continent that is literally plagued with HIV/AIDS, the Pope declared condoms not only don’t help prevent transmission of the AIDS virus, but actually increase transmission.
Last night and today, I asked on Twitter if anyone could explain to me why the Church does not allow birth control. I got very few responses. So, a lot of folks just don’t know. The answers I got ranged from “Onanism”, to sex being only for reproduction. I had assumed it was because of the “You shall not kill” commandment. Only one person was able to explain the Church’s views on birth control and condoms to me. Obviously, the Church is not doing a good job getting its message out.
Regardless, here’s the deal: The Pope is considered by his followers, well over a billion people around the world, to be the voice of God on Earth. So, in theory, what he says, goes. Consider the breath and depth of that much power. Africa is a continent with a huge percentage of its population infected with HIV, and is one of the few areas in the world where Christianity is growing. If their leader, their “God on Earth” tells them that they are not allowed to use birth control, that condoms are “illegal” according to the church’s law, what do you think will happen? Then, he goes way over the line and lies by saying,
“You can’t resolve [the AIDS epidemic] with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, it increases the problem.”
Bullshit. That’s the only acceptable response to such a lie. This is where people get the mistaken notion that teenagers who see a condom will get excited. Trust me, almost no one is excited about using condoms.Â
But it is a proven fact that the use of condoms reduces the transmission of HIV. It’s a fact.Â
“The Church’s case has not been helped in the past when senior figures – including the president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo – have insisted that HIV inevitably passes through holes in the latex from which condoms are made, a claim dismissed by the World Health Organization.”
My point, about the “why” of Church anti-contraception dogma, is made well later in the same BBC piece:
“Father Gerry O’Collins, Emeritus Professor at the Gregorian University in Rome, said the commandment ‘thou shalt not kill’, “trumps other issues”.”
More facts, via Wikipedia:
In 2005, two million people in Africa died from HIV/AIDS, and 24.5 million people were infected.
“Africa is without doubt the region most affected by the virus. Inhabited by just over 12% of the world’s population, Africa is estimated to have more than 60% of the AIDS-infected population.”
So, back to my argument. If “God on Earth” says use of condoms is illegal and in fact doesn’t work, and says it to millions of people infected with HIV, by the law of “depraved indifference“, isn’t the Pope guilty of murder? How many people will get HIV/AIDS, and infect their partners?
HIV still kills. The Pope telling people to not use condoms and that they do not work, I think meets the definition of an act of depraved indifference to life. Isn’t he, therefore, complicit in the death of untold millions who will get infected, infect their partners, their unborn children, and die?
photo credit: Beyond Forgetting