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Pope: Condoms 'Increase' AIDS Epidemic in Africa
foxnews.com ^ | March 17, 2009 | staff

Posted on 03/17/2009 7:35:41 AM PDT by kellynla

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE —

Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday that the distribution of condoms is not the answer in the fight against AIDS in Africa.

Benedict has never before spoken explicitly on condom use although he has stressed that the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against AIDS. The Vatican encourages sexual abstinence to fight the spread of the disease.

"You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms," the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde, Cameroon. "On the contrary, it increases the problem."

Some priests and nuns working with victims of the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa question the church's opposition to condoms.

The pope also said that he intends to make an appeal for "international solidarity" for Africa in the face of the global economic downturn.

He said that while the church does not propose specific economic solutions, it can give "spiritual and moral" suggestions.

Describing the current crisis as the consequence of "a deficit of ethics in economic structures," the pope said, "It is here that the church can make a contribution."

Benedict's seven-day pilgrimage will take him to Cameroon and Angola.

Africa is the fastest-growing region for the Roman Catholic Church.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: africa; aids; condoms
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To: Iscool
"You can tell them not to have sex because it is morally wrong...They will laugh at you...And they do...
You can tell them not to have sex because they will get AIDS...Look how well that has worked...

Ignorance is rampant in Africa. Very few actually recieve any education about aids at all.

They aren't "laughing" at anyone telling them not to have sex.
Christian Missionary's aren't able to give much moral instruction via preaching the gospel at all, especially when trying to deliver food aid in predominantly muslim areas.

Don't go thinking that they are having sex because they want to. There is a culture of rape in many parts of Africa. Muslim rape gangs prey on Christian villages, raping in hopes of impregnating as many women young girls as possible.

Young girls are forced into marriage before they are physically mature enough to have sex, often they end up pregnant but are too small to have a baby. They are badly damaged trying, and often die, or end up terribly disfigured, then abandoned by their "husbands". Other women are abandoned by their husbands, and have to turn to prostitution to survive. They aren't laughing either.

61 posted on 03/17/2009 9:02:57 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: rangeryder

So, because he supposedly has a “genius IQ” and is fluent in 9 languages makes him correct in everything he says and does? Faulty logic at best...but there is little to be found in the rest of your post, so it does not surprise me.

1. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Africa has increased since distribution of condoms started. Your point? The prevalence of HIV/AIDS has also increased since the time video games, internet, and Starbucks became mainstream. By using your ‘logic’, they must be responsible for it.

2. Whoever said condoms are 100% foolproof? They may not work 100% of the time, but if used correctly they greatly reduce the chances of people contracting a sexually transmitted disease or experiencing an unwanted pregnancy. You have mountains of independent, peer-reviewed research to argue against if you were to say otherwise.

And your whole ‘argument’ about condoms leading to an increase in AIDS due to a “false sense of security” is laughable at best.

Since Africa is filled to the brim with uneducated, backward people with absurd religious and cultural beliefs, you could bury the entire continent with condoms, and they still would most likely not use them.

It’s not the condoms that are the problem, it’s the lack of education these people have. And, unfortunately, there are far too many roadblocks and obstacles to overcome to probably ever fix it - despite how many billions of dollars we throw down the drain over there.


62 posted on 03/17/2009 9:04:13 AM PDT by vivalaoink
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To: Markos33

Ah yes, an ‘article’ containing outdated medical information from 20+ years ago to further a backward agenda.

Question for you.

Say your spouse contracted HIV or Hepatitis C from a blood transfusion. Would you prefer to have sex with them with or without a condom? You also have two small children who would prefer to have at least on parent around when they get older.


63 posted on 03/17/2009 9:09:14 AM PDT by vivalaoink
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To: B Knotts
You’re wrong, and the Pope is right. Uganda’s success with its ABC program, which uses condoms only as a last resort, proves it:

A Wikipedia article proves it??? Oh c'mon...But why didn't you mention this part (and others) of the same article???

The scope of Uganda's success has come under scrutiny from new research. Research published in The Lancet medical journal in 2002 questions the dramatic decline reported. It is claimed statistics have been distorted through the inaccurate extrapolation of data from small urban clinics to the entire population, nearly 90 per cent of whom live in rural areas.[7] Also, recent trials of the HIV drug nevirapine have come under intense scrutiny and criticism.

64 posted on 03/17/2009 9:09:24 AM PDT by Iscool (I don't understand all that I know...)
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To: Antoninus
Why do I feel like I'm talking to liberal house-frau who gets all her talking points from Oprah?

Could be you're reality challanged...

65 posted on 03/17/2009 9:11:29 AM PDT by Iscool (I don't understand all that I know...)
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To: Iscool
So, what this all really boils down to, is aids, starvation, poverty isn't just a "problem" in africa that can be solved simply by sending money and food aid to Africa from the "evil rich Western world".

Aids, starvation and poverty are SYMPTOMS of another, bigger problem, lawlessness and Islamic Jihad which is sweeping across Africa.

None of those problems can be fixed until the source causing those problems is addressed by these UN morons and real action is taken to eliminate it.

This isn't likely however, because the UN is full of Islamic members who refuse to adress it. Time and time again we have seen the UN's leaders, like Kofee Anan, and now this new one, Key Moon Bat, refusing to admit that their is genocide, mass murder, rape, slavery etc even going on, sometimes by the Muslim UN guard sent there to "help".

66 posted on 03/17/2009 9:12:43 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Iscool

Too many people blinded by fanaticism to come to a rational and logical conclusion on this matter.

Their ‘arguments’ are always the same - condoms do not work 100% of the time, so they should not be used.

Well, neither does washing your hands prevent infection 100% of the time, nor does brushing your teeth prevent cavities 100% of the time, nor do seat belts prevent death 100% of the time - so none of them should ever be used.


67 posted on 03/17/2009 9:14:46 AM PDT by vivalaoink
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To: Nathan Zachary
They aren't "laughing" at anyone telling them not to have sex.

Oh, aren't they??? So when you tell them not to have sex they say a ok, eh???

Christian Missionary's aren't able to give much moral instruction via preaching the gospel at all, especially when trying to deliver food aid in predominantly muslim areas.

Likely not...And I'm sure the vast majority of the population has no contact with missionaries...

Other women are abandoned by their husbands, and have to turn to prostitution to survive. They aren't laughing either.

You tell 'em to stop prostituting and go get a job at Wal-Mart...I'm sure you'll get a chuckle out of a few of them...

68 posted on 03/17/2009 9:16:46 AM PDT by Iscool (I don't understand all that I know...)
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To: vivalaoink
"So, because he supposedly has a “genius IQ” and is fluent in 9 languages makes him correct in everything he says and does?"

No, but it does lift him far above the fool you were trying to make of him. Pope Benedict is nobody's fool, believe me. The Holy Father is absolutely correct when he states that condoms are making the AIDS problem in Africa worse. Apart from his great intelligence and his sincere desire for the welfare of his fellow man, which you tried to assail, the Catholic Church has thousands of missionaries in Africa, many of them doctors and medical personnel helping to fight the AIDS epidemic, to advise and inform him. He knows what he's talking about. You don't.

69 posted on 03/17/2009 9:16:48 AM PDT by rangeryder (If a man says something in the woods, is he still wrong?)
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To: vivalaoink

thanks for the reality check...


70 posted on 03/17/2009 9:18:14 AM PDT by Iscool (I don't understand all that I know...)
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To: Iscool
Under the pope’s plan, all Catholics in Africa will have AIDS...

That's a sick lie.

71 posted on 03/17/2009 9:19:40 AM PDT by Petronski (For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden. -- Cdl. Stafford)
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To: rangeryder

So, the pope is smart and the Catholic Church has missionaries in Africa, therefore he must be right on condoms INCREASING the prevalence of AIDS in Africa.

I fail to see how one has anything to do with the other...


72 posted on 03/17/2009 9:20:54 AM PDT by vivalaoink
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To: bgill
Those orphaned children are a result of many other things, not just because their parents died of aids. They are rape babies, or their parents killed by Islamic raids on villages, killing their parents, or just plain abandoned.

Those TV commercials where you see a group of Africans walking down a dirt road, the adults slowly disappearing do not represent the truth at all. Now if they showed a Muzzie popping up from the side of the road and slicing off the heads of some of them, THAT would be a little more accurate...

73 posted on 03/17/2009 9:20:57 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Antoninus
Consider the possibility that you are talking to an anti-Catholic bigot who is ready to use any argument under the sun--no matter how bizarre or bankrupt--if it somehow carries with it even a faint possibility of disparaging--smearing--the Catholic Church. Again, it's just a possibility.
74 posted on 03/17/2009 9:21:52 AM PDT by Petronski (For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden. -- Cdl. Stafford)
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To: Petronski

With an exploding prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Africa and misinformation on and prohibition of the condoms, it would be safe to say Catholics in Africa, who follow the guidance of the Pope, have a far greater likelihood of being infected than those who do not.


75 posted on 03/17/2009 9:23:16 AM PDT by vivalaoink
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To: vivalaoink

* of the use of


76 posted on 03/17/2009 9:24:27 AM PDT by vivalaoink
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To: vivalaoink

It might be safe to say that, and it is certainly fashionable, but it is not accurate to say that.


77 posted on 03/17/2009 9:24:30 AM PDT by Petronski (For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden. -- Cdl. Stafford)
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To: bgill

And lets not leave out other causes, like UN envirowienies. Preventing something so simple and effective like DDT from being used to wipe out the malaria epidemic that kills so many of their parents. No land ownership. Not allowing Africa countries to develop their own abundant resorces to make electricity so they can pump clean water, are just a few.


78 posted on 03/17/2009 9:25:23 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: vivalaoink
"With an exploding prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Africa and misinformation on and prohibition of the condoms, it would be safe to say Catholics in Africa, who follow the guidance of the Pope, have a far greater likelihood of being infected than those who do not."

"Exploding prevalence of aids" Yea right.

Catholics in Africa, who aren't raped, and have devoted husbands will not get aids following the guidance of the Lord, Jesus Christ. The pope merely preaches the Gospel and sets an example by acting just like Jesus did when he walked the earth.

79 posted on 03/17/2009 9:31:34 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: vivalaoink
“Say your spouse has contracted HIV or Hepatitis C from a blood transfusion”...

“Would you prefer to have sex with them with or without a condom?”

Question for you.

Would you have sex with a full blown AIDS patient who is wearing a condom, or you wearing a condom, which ever the case may be? If you're so secure in your confidence of a condoms protection against sexually transmitted diseases, then you shouldn't have a problem with that.

80 posted on 03/17/2009 9:32:42 AM PDT by Semper Mark (Communism is Socialism with a gun to your head.)
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