Pope Ratzinger, apparently, knows better than the majority of medical and health professionals counseling an audience in Africa that condom use “increases the problem” of AIDs.
This puts the Vatican firmly in the camp of the witch doctors and ‘traditional’ medicine practitioners in Africa, and directly opposed to all of science based medicine. Why is it that anyone listens to a priest when it comes to public health policy?
To make it worse, in the face of international outrage, the vatican doesn’t retract or correct Ratzinger’s irresponsible statement. They attempt to spin it. Well, even their spin is still wrong. Condoms in no way increase the problem aids, they do not aggravate the problem and they do not ‘risk’ aggravating the problem. They improve the situation of people in a country where AIDs affects millions and millions.
OK, so while I can be very frustrated with Ratzinger and ruling body of the Catholic church, the Vatican, but they have a job to do and it isn’t protecting people from sexually transmitted disease. It is all about pushing their dogma on more and more people.
What could be worse, is if there was an organized effort to willfully discourage people from safe health practices that could save lives. Who would possibly do that?
“Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.”
— Thomas Szasz, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, State University of New York
