Pope Ratzinger reckons condoms are not the answer to preventing AIDS. Well, he’s right. They’re not the answer.
However, they are part of the answer.
Sexual abstinence, which is what he preaches, will of course prevent sexually transmitted illnesses, but people are people, and will conjoin or otherwise exchange body fluids as part of whatever they get up to.
His remarks have led to quite a debate, as you can well imagine.
Kevin Osborne, HIV adviser at the International Planned Parenthood Federation, is quoted in the (London) Times story linked to above as saying, “All the evidence is that preaching sexual abstinence and fidelity will not solve the problems. We need to work with the reality of where people are, especially in countries he is visiting such as Angola, which is hard-hit by the epidemic.
“The Pope’s message will alienate everybody. It is scary. It spreads stigma and creates a fertile breeding ground for the spread of HIV.”
But Ratzo has an agenda: no sex outside marriage – heterosexual marriage, of course. God says so. Inevitably, Ratzinger will say anything to get people to go along with that.
Does he actually believe he’s telling the truth, or is he telling lies? Who knows? As with so many things he says, he’s talking bullshit.
