Pope says condoms are sort of alright

[Rath]

neerdowell said:

You know what else prevents the spread of AIDS, abstinence. In fact, it's the only 100% method of prevention (barring accidental exposure/drug use). Now I couldn't care less about the AIDS epidemic, however, people need to quit trying to blame a system that is entirely irrelevant and face up to their own contributions to their issues. The Catholic church may have issues, and the non-support of contraception may be one of them (i'm not going to take a stance either way since it doesn't concern me), however, it is unrelated to the spread of AIDS.

If they were following the teachings of the church then they wouldn't be having sex outside of marriage, and if they married a carrier of HIV and had sex with them, well that's their own stupidity. Now if they married them not knowing they had HIV, that's not something the church's teachings really account for, and that still wouldn't be solved by the use of contraception. Also, what type of husband would have sex with their wife knowing they could put them at risk for HIV; how is that a practice of love?

Now as far as being realistic and facing the realization that people are going to be promiscuous, well then, that's still on them. The church didn't put a gun to their head and force them to make the decisions which led to their exposure; in fact, it does everything it can to promote the only form on control that actually works.

The lack of condom use in Africa has undeniably hugely contributed to the AIDs pandemic in Africa. The lack of condom use is quite largely down to the opposition of the Catholic church. Therefore a decision by the Catholic church has contributed to the AIDs pandemic in Africa.

Sure, you can say that they shouldn't have been having sex. It doesn't change the fact that the Vaticans position on condoms has cost many lives.