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Pope Benedict XVI Vatican City, Apr 17, 2009 / 10:53 am (CNA).- Wednesday, April 15 saw an unusual meeting take place as the Ambassador of Belgium to the Holy See delivered an official condemnation of the Pope's remarks on the use of condoms to prevent AIDS in Africa from his country's House of Representatives.Ambassador Frank de Coninck was ordered by the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs to lodge the official condemnation with Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican's Secretary for Relations with States.In reaction to the move, the Vatican Secretariat of State said it "notes with regret this action, unusual...

PELL RIDES PAPAL BANDWAGON OF DEATH claims the Sydney Morning Herald's David Marr, registering his displeasure with the Cardinal's endorsement of Catholic teaching. "That's one hell of an Easter message," he adds, in a sniff. It would appear that Marr's paschal theology owes more to the Easter Bunny than to Saint Paul: It's hardly news but in the face of this ridicule it has to be said again: Australia waged the world's most effective war on AIDS by ignoring the Catholic Church. We did not heed the demands of John Paul II and his successor, Benedict XVI. We encouraged...

Do condom ads reflect the mind-sets of nations? In the U.S., we get faux-patriotism and soft-core porn, while the French have safe sex on the beach. Now, from Germany, comes a dour dose of angst via Grey in a campaign for Doc Morris Pharmacies. The message: Use a condom, and be sure you're not bringing the next Osama bin Laden, Adolf Hitler or Mao Zedong into the world. Of course, you'd have to sleep with one of those three to risk that—and I imagine most would abstain, especially in the case of Hitler, since he's been dead for almost 65...

[Some time ago, your PP promised to weigh in on the flap regarding the Pope's comments on condoms which have been widely condemned as backward and stupid by just about everyone in every country. Instead, I'm going to let someone much more personally involved to do so. But before reading, consider the plight of the Holy Father. His job is to eludidate the teaching of Christ and his Church. It is not in his job description to acomodate the teaching of Christ to the sensibilities of the modern world. At some point, those of us who are Christians have...

Tuesday, March 17, 2009 Do Condom Corporations Kill You for Your Money "When used consistently and correctly"... Abstinence = 0% Chance of Infection / 100% safe Condoms = 20% Chance of Infection / 80% safe "In one study, condoms failed to prevent HIV transmission 17% of the time (ref. 51). A review of several studies found that HIV infection rates for couples using condoms ranged from 13-27%" http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+barrier+performance+of+latex+rubber-a014089514 "...experts estimate that consistent condom use reduces the risk of HIV transmission by about 80 to 90 percent. We are unable to quantify this protective effect more precisely..." http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/354/25/2642 "...no barrier method...

Father Federico Lombardi Vatican City, Apr 3, 2009 / 01:42 pm (CNA).- In response to Belgium’s diplomatic protest against Pope Benedict’s comments that condoms could potentially "increase the problem" of AIDS being spread in Africa, Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See newsroom questioned whether the lawmakers had considered the Popes words and scientific research, or whether they received their information "through the non-objective, imbalanced filter of the echoes in the western media."According to Reuters, the Belgium House of Deputies called the Pope’s comments "unacceptable" and instructed their government to "react strongly against any state or organization that...

The Institute on Religion & Democracy is blasting the religious denomination of President Barack Obama for its recent stance on condom distribution inside houses of worship. Recently, the HIV and AIDS Network of the United Church of Christ (UCC) said condoms should be handed out at places of worship. The statement was issued during a presentation to the denomination's Wider Church Ministries Board and also advocated making condoms available at faith-based educational settings. A UCC executive said that condom distribution is a matter of life and death and that condoms should be made available to save the lives of young...

ROME (CNS) -- While a top medical journal criticized Pope Benedict XVI's remarks that condoms increase the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, a Harvard-based researcher said the pope's comments are supported by scientific evidence. An editorial prepared for the March 28 edition of the British medical journal The Lancet said the pope made "an outrageous and wildly inaccurate statement about HIV/AIDS" during an interview with journalists on a flight to Cameroon March 17. "The pope has publicly distorted scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine on this issue," said The Lancet editorial posted online before the publication date....

The facts show church's policy on Aids is right Wed, Mar 25, 2009OPINION: ON HIS flight to Youndé, Pope Benedict XVI answered questions put to him by international journalists. Only a selective quote from one of his answers made the headlines around the world. A French journalist asked him about the Catholic Church’s attitude to the fight against Aids, writes VINCENT TWOMEY . Defending the church’s commitment to the fight against Aids and the care of its victims, the pope also affirmed that the scourge cannot be resolved with the distribution of condoms: on the contrary, there is a risk of increasing...

The Obama administration has decided to buy cheap Chinese condoms instead of the U.S. made products it had been distributing for its efforts to spread condoms around the world by the U.S. Agency for International Development. So much for Obama's "Buy American" promise. Condom makers in Alabama will likely lose this business and perhaps as many as 300 American jobs. USAID plans to stimulate new contracts with a South Korean condom manufacturer and a Chinese company instead of Alatech, the Alabama manufacturer. So, while Obama talks about American stimulus, USAID is deflating one American company in favor of causing foreign...

A senior Harvard research scientist confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI, who endured heavy criticism for declaring that condom distribution programs worsen the AIDS epidemic in Africa, was actually correct. Dr. Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, told National Review Online last week that despite AIDS activists and media outlets pounding the pope for downplaying the effectiveness of condoms, the science actually supports the Catholic leader's claim. "The pope is correct," Green told NRO, "or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope's...

The story arc of every papal trip is the same. First, journalists try to invent a controversy that they find more interesting than the true purpose of the trip. Then, the Pope wins people over in ways no one expected. Finally, surprised journalists file stories about how the Pope isn’t such a bad guy after all.In the story of Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to Africa — a trip that is ongoing as we go to press — that story is playing itself out. This time, the controversy is over the Holy Father’s remarks about condoms and AIDS.Pope Benedict addressed the...

The U.S. Agency for International Development, (USAID) distributes close to 10 billion condoms in poor countries around the world, and until now distributed condoms made in the United States. When Congress dropped the “buy American” language from the recent stimulus bill, USAID got a rise and decided to head to South Korea and China for their condoms. They cite the cost difference as their motive. Korean and Chinese condoms cost 3 cents less each. The net effect will be placed squarely on one firm, Alabama-based Alatech. The company expects to layoff 300 workers as a result of losing the contract....

Call it a condom conundrum. At a time when the federal government is spending billions of stimulus dollars to stem the tide of U.S. layoffs, should that same government put even more Americans out of work by buying cheaper foreign products? In this case, Chinese condoms. That’s the dilemma for the folks at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has distributed an estimated 10 billion U.S.-made AIDS-preventing condoms in poor countries around the world. But not anymore. In a move expected to cost 300 American jobs, the government is switching to cheaper off-shore condoms, including some made in China.

COMMENTARY: Pope Benedict XVI is under fire for reiterating the Catholic Church's opposition to condom use while on his first pilgrimage to Africa. The pontiff told reporters that condoms are not the solution to the AIDS epidemic ravaging the continent; rather, they “aggravate” the problem. His comments sparked a firestorm. “My reaction is that this represents a major step backward in terms of global health education, is entirely counterproductive, and is likely to lead to increases in HIV infection in Africa and elsewhere,” said Quentin Sattentau, a professor of immunology at Britain's Oxford University. Even the French government got involved....

AFP - Far-right youths clashed with left-wing activists who had gathered outside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on Sunday to protest against Pope Benedict's opposition to condoms, a police source said. About 30 ecologists and Communists threw condoms on the ground outside the cathedral, where worshippers were leaving Sunday mass. One person was injured and three were arrested after clashes between the protesters and about 20 youths who the police source said were associated with the far-right and who were carrying placards saying "Leave my Pope alone". Benedict said in Africa on Tuesday that the use of condoms was complicating the...

Thursday March 19, 2009 Harvard AIDS Expert Says Pope is Correct on Condom Distribution Making AIDS Worse By John-Henry Westen   March 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, has said that the evidence confirms that the Pope is correct in his assessment that condom distribution exacerbates the problem of AIDS.  "The pope is correct," Green told National Review Online Wednesday, "or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope's comments."  "There is," Green added, "a consistent association...

<p>It's payback time for Pope Benedict XVI's most dedicated enemies, who are not militant secularists, hate-crazed Muslims, diehard Protestants or the liberal media. The people who most dislike the Pope are Catholics, or people who have the nerve to describe themselves as such.</p>

Pope Benedict XVI Yaounde, Cameroon, Mar 20, 2009 / 10:37 am (CNA).- On Thursday afternoon, after having celebrated Mass with 70,000 people, Pope Benedict traveled to a home for young people with disabilities or suffering from traumatic experiences. The Holy Father told the young people that they are not alone in their pain as he elaborated on the Church’s commitment to accompany those suffering, including AIDS patients. The visit to Yaounde's Cardinal Leger National Rehabilitation Centre began at four in the afternoon and saw the Holy Father meet with the center’s youth as well as 200 sick people, who...

When he says "don't use condoms - even to prevent the spread of Aids" it has a significant impact among tens, even hundreds of millions of people. Getting on for a fifth of Africans are Roman Catholic. The Church has been growing more quickly in Africa than anywhere else, and this is the Pope's first visit there in the four years he has been the spiritual leader of the world's approximately one billion Catholics. With Africans - 22 million of whom are infected with HIV - hanging on his every word, that made his statement aboard the plane heading to...