Condom Calamity

Erin Shaw
pope large.jpg

Last week during a visit to Africa, Pope Benedict XVI sparked  controversy among health and human rights advocates when he said that condoms are not the solution to the AIDS crisis: "You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms. . . On the contrary, it increases the problem." Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the Pope promotes abstinence and strict monogamy as alternatives to safe sex, and the Vatican supports his position. According to Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, "developing an ideology of confidence in condoms is not correct because it fails to focus on personal responsibility." Pope Benedict's first public comments on condoms could have dire consequences since the health programs established under President Bush also painted the AIDS crisis as a moral rather than health issue. Fortunately, Catholic priests and nuns working with AIDS victims are questioning the Church's policy and pressure is mounting on the Vatican to stop speaking out against condom distribution and use. You can join others in support of safe sex and education with this petition.

image: "Pope" by p!o on Flickr courtesy of Creative Commons licensing. 

Comments

He's not the first pope to say this

Submitted by Propaganda Anonymous on Thu, 03/26/2009 - 14:50.

Propaganda Anonymous

The Pope before him said the same thing.This seems to be the official stance of the VaticanRobert Anton Wilson once said that if the World Health Organization had any sense they would declare the Pope a legitimate health risk for sayin such things.

I agree

This is in Africa

Submitted by Propaganda Anonymous on Fri, 03/27/2009 - 04:08.

Propaganda Anonymous

This article is in reference to Africa.

Not America.

You appear to be very ignorant, of other cultures 

Blood for the Blood God?

Submitted by Spiralyst on Fri, 03/27/2009 - 09:33.
It's amazing that even on a site this progressive and well-intentioned, that the comments section still succumbs to this level of communication.

Ugh I know

Submitted by terseword on Fri, 03/27/2009 - 14:48.

I wonder how LordCAG found our lovely electronic community. Sir, if you return to read these subsequent comments, may I suggest you peruse the articles posted herein.  They may catalyze you to question your previous assumptions and outmoded conclusions before you embarrass yourself again.

 

Someone went to a Zen master and said, "The mountains and the hills and the sky, are not all these the body of the Buddha?" The master said, "Yes, but it is a pity to say so."

Religion is not your friend: Christ-fascism

Submitted by Zorro on Tue, 03/31/2009 - 17:57.

Let's remember that Joseph Ratzinger (a.k.a. Pope Benedict XVI) was named on 25 November 1981,by Pope John Paul II,as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly known as the Holy Office, the historical Inquisition.

So it's not surprising, for example, that Ratzinger wanted the neonazi bishop Richard Williamson ( an Holocaust denier )to come back to the Catholic Church.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/24/bishop-richard-williamson_n_160...

Or he says, for example, that homosexuality is "a violation of nature"

So...he is doing the traditional "job" of Inquisition, of religious hierarchies and/or fundamentalisms, in general, in different digrees : Atrocity against Humanity.

When spirituality tries to freeze the Truth,  it becomes deadly serious,  seriously deadly...: As Joseph Campbell said in "The masks of God", "ROMA is the negation of AMOR".

 

 

"Wanderer, there is no road,

the road is made by walking". Antonio Machado

Pasito a pasito,Todo quiere ser querido.

Reporting Unsavory Commentss

Submitted by RS Moderator on Mon, 03/30/2009 - 12:07.

There were a few unsavory comments posted to this article, some with personal attacks, that have now been removed.  Please note that when people post comments in violation of our guidelines, you can simply click on this "report this comment" button in pink and our moderators will take a look at it.

Thanks,

RS Moderator

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you are terrifying.

Submitted by bennyvonskinny on Mon, 03/30/2009 - 12:17.
you are one of the scariest people out in the world today. It seems confused and blinded by a faith that only preaches and supports ideals that are more about control and stagnation of other people their life experiences than anything. Unless this is some sort of sarcasm you are in the wrong place. It is not that i don't value and listen to others opinions, but you are only imposing yours religiously and spreading fire. It does not matter that you have an opinion, but it matters how you deliver it. You are as responsible for the words you speak as much as any of us. maybe its time to start paying more attention to your own words rather than the catholic churches. Then you may actually be able to join and discuss with the more free thinking community regardless of your beliefs... you catchin my drift at all? THINK FOR YOURSELF. i am sure you are capable of compassion, even though it is certainly diluted by religious texts and leaders. Here is an idea... write your own! you don't have to show it to anybody.... just read it. Find out what you really think. you might be shocked at what comes out. Faith is universal.

moderator

Submitted by bennyvonskinny on Mon, 03/30/2009 - 12:26.
well i guess we censor what we dont understand. makes my comment look like banter. I like RS, but being scared of the way the real world is and hiding away on some website will do no good. and i guess i should keep my LETTERS down if i dont want to get kicked out of here. Those of us who live in more of a counter culture would gain more from encouraging free thought rather than shutting up any voice that is challenging. Granted the guy did insult that other dude, but welcome to arguments. Anybody who expects arguments to stay cool all the time is no thinking realistically. Anybody can push delete. Diffusion... thats where the real power is at.

Religious Meltdown....and Rebirthing of Primordial Spirituality

Submitted by Zorro on Tue, 03/31/2009 - 18:01.

We also need a religious meltdown to free humankind from the mind prisons of religion. Perhaps precisely Maledict XVI, doing so many mistakes, is (unconciously)dismantling the Catholic Church.

It would be great to see disappearing an institution that has provoked so much suffering and has become the problem, not the solution... now that we are retrieving prophecies, I remember a famous prophecy by a franciscan monk, telling about three ages, the last one being called " Holy Ghost Age", meaning a time when people connect directly with God,without any intermediary..

I recommend two mind-opening books,"Myth and Ritual in Christianity", by Alan Watts, and  "The Death of Religion and the Rebirth of Spirit",Joseph Chilton Pearce.

There you understand how the mystic archetypal core of Christianity, is not unique to Christianity! Dionysos-Osiris-Shiva-Jesus, the dying-and resurrected god, is a universal archetype, a cosmic expression of a Truth of the Soul of Nature, and cannot be reclaimed by any doctrine...

Chilton Pearce, he himself a mystic, explains the next step in the human evolution, a gnostic human being living from the heart, in direct communion with a multidimensional, ever-flowing and evolving Reality. 

Something so revolutionary, and threatening for any religious power structures, that the mystics of all religions(exceptions: shamanic traditions and tantric branches of eastern religions, taoism,etc.) were tortured, imprisoned, killed...and proclaimed, once dead, a legitimate source of the religion, tragicallly ironic...

Paraphrasing Walt Whitman, it's time for humankind to leave behind the egg-like religions and learning to fly in the sky of Consciousness

 

"Wanderer, there is no road,

the road is made by walking". Antonio Machado

Pasito a pasito,Todo quiere ser querido.

Thank you Zorro

Submitted by Anteros on Wed, 04/01/2009 - 17:51.

for your excellent and illuminating posts. I especially appreciate being reminded of the current name of the Office of the Doctrine of the Faith, e.g. the Inquisition. Most people don't seem aware that the Office of the Holy Inquisition is still around, albeit in a different guise. I hadn't known that Maledict XVI (so I'm not the only person to refer to him by that name!) had been the head of it, but it figures. If I remember correctly, he was replaced by the former Archibishop or some other high mucky-muck from San Francisco: a sorry contribution I'm inclined to think, especially as I hail from that general locale.

Pope Benedict XVI: Can This Leopard Change His Spots?

Submitted by Zorro on Mon, 04/06/2009 - 09:41.
http://www.matthewfox.org/sys-tmpl/htmlpage18/

 

"Wanderer, there is no road,

the road is made by walking". Antonio Machado

Pasito a pasito,Todo quiere ser querido.