WAT?!

If we all wore really big hats, no one would get laid.



Soon we'll be getting papal warnings about not sailing too far over the horizon.

It's a shame you cannot convict someone for "saying" things that will hurt a LOT of people...freedom of speech, I guess.

However, saying stuff like that on a continent where the use of condoms is not the most popular way to prevent aids in the first place, it sure is the best way to show you're completely lacking a brain.

Does he not know abstinence is not an option? especially not in Africa? (Actually, nowhere)
And does he not know one of the "ways" some Africans have invented to "cure aids" is to rape young virgin girls?
Does he not know most Africans don't know their hiv-status, because if they have it checked and happen to be infected, they're regarded outcasts in their community?
Does he not know when to shut his stupid mouth?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Condoms are not making the AIDS problem worse, lack of education and resources is...

How about you sell that stuff in the Vatican vault to educate the masses?

No?

I tried...

The only way condoms could make the AID's problem worse is if peeps be turning them inside out and reusing them.

Seriously, the guy's a f**ktard of the highest order.

(Hoping I won't get downvoted into oblivion for having another point of view)

I think his point was that people think that condoms give 100% protection.
So according to the WHO they're 90% effective with "consistent and correct" use. How many people use them consistently and correctly every time? A friend of mine told me that in their sex ed class when they were practising putting condoms on bananas the teachers had to stress that you actually have to put them on the penis, apparently some people didn't get that. Many people in Africa are poorly educated and how many of them know how to use them properly? If they think that raping a virgin will cure them of AIDS what other myths may they have? His point therefore is that gives 100% protection. Obviously this is not happening.

Personally I think if you're not following the chastity outside marriage and fidelity within it rule, there's no point following the no contraceptive rule.

Why is abstinence not an option anywhere? It's a choice you can make and that lots of people do make. Just because most people don't doesn't mean it's not possible.

It's a problem of education that they believe these myths and of crime that they commit rape, both issues need to be addressed. I don't think the rapists will be using condoms whether they're doing it for a 'cure' or just because they feel like it.

Seriously, when does the vatican stop making unscientific claims, and just shut the hell up of how we should live.

No, even when I wouldn't agree with you, that wouldn't be a reason to downvote you either (actually, I like reading contradicting opinions).

Fact is that we mostly agree on everything.
But instead of educating people raping virgins is not a way to cure aids, and educating people how to use a condom, this pope is claiming FALSE things.
How does saying "condoms are making the aids crisis worse" hurt people? Because the people who aren't totally convinced in the first place will be given a reason not to use them ever again.

Not to mention the fact that Africa harbours a lot of people who actually think part of their religion is to listen to their church leader, who is (and I'll repeat) lacking a brain.

The "chastity outside marriage and fidelity within it" rule is cute....are you going to tell all the girls and women who get raped that they aren't allowed to marry or have normal sex ever again in their lives and never have the opportunity to have children, or are you going to advice them to get tested and run the risk of living like outcasts the rest of their lives?

In my opinion, abstinence is not an option. Great thing if it's your choice, but not an option for any other reason.

Just out of curiosity, how old were these kids and what location did they believe would be appropriate for condom use?

They spent a few weeks discussion who was gonna be the new pope...and they came up with THIS guy?

Wonderful.

When people stop listening.

What annoys me is that people don't seam to listen to the rules very well, they refuse to use condoms because of them but don't seam to get the abstinence message. Either chose abstinence or use a condom!
Admittedly, he should have explained why he thinks that condoms are making the AIDS crisis worse rather than making such a comment but he does have a point in that condoms may make people think they are invincible. Ever heard the joke 'Guys who use condoms are often called Daddy'.

Do they have to tell the rest of the community if they're infected?
Wouldn't it be considered pretty risky for a man to sleep with a women who has HIV even with a condom? Congenitally infected children are a problem too, although I think the risk is reduced by not breast feeding.
The chastity/fidelity rule isn't always perfect in practice but how many rules are?

Not sure how old they were, it was in California so whenever they usually have sex ed there. I assumed 12 years old or so but could be wrong. They were putting condoms on bananas before sex and thinking that would protect them.

The 10% is not because condoms are not effective, it comes from other things.
10% of those condom users who have sex regularly with HIV infected people get HIV from not using condom, and mainly for using their partner's needle, etc...

A terrible % of infection is associated with drug abuse. Your point is off the target.
And so is the Pope's.

I was thinking from the point of view of sexually transmitted AIDS in Africa, but I see your point.
I would have assumed that if they were talking about how effective condoms are in preventing HIV infection they wouldn't include infection from reusing needles etc. but I could be wrong.

It wouldn't. HIV has a low risk factor even without condom, just by going from female to male through genital fluids.

There are some other considerations:

1) if someone has HIV, this person has a higher chance having other rare or otherwise light diseases that open the skin with various rashes, bleeding, and oozing sores. These can be in the mouth as well as in vagina or rectum. These are potential sources of infection, condom will not guard against all of them.

2) a condom will not help in case of oral sex.

3) drug abuse is a high risk factor because of sharp reuse and because it affects safe sexual practices (alcohol has this last effect too)

4) SM is a risk factor, condoms will not change this risk either.


============Therefore============

Condom without education will have very little effect.
Condom and effective sex ed will still have little effect if there is an uncontrolled drug problem or alcohol problem present in the population.

How can you tell them apart?
Especially in rural places where needles are reused even by healthcare providers, and there isn't always enough time to properly sterilize them. (nobody will suspect the good doctor)
If high enough % of the population has HIV you have to be an Einstein to figure out infection factors.

Absolutely true, just like eliminating all anger is the only sure way of preventing violence.

1- Does the Pope really think most people in Africa in danger of contracting HIV are going to get access to his message? People don’t have access to clean water, let alone the news.

2- Shouldn't the Vatican - a VERY wealthy state -fund campaigns to educate people about the virus and AIDS locally, i.e., in Africa? Hey, education is the primary problem here, we all agree on that, right? The Catholic Church has always been very generous when it comes to giving advice but, they rarely lift a finger to actually DO something practical.
Have them give more money for research for a cure, rather than occasionally peek out a window and say a handful of stupid things to a bunch of even more stupid people who buy it.

3- Doesn't the Pope realize a large percentage of Africans are of ISLAMIC faith and couldn't care less about what he has to say?

4- Most of us in industrialized countries, probably the Pope as well, don’t know people in Africa don’t rely on what we know as Medicine, but rather trust witchdoctors and traditional local treatments to cure most illnesses. Even today, albinos are being murdered so their body parts can be sold off and used to treat various kinds of diseases or something equally ridiculous as driving away bad luck or pray for better crops. Think of this: people are being murdered, hacked up and sold in parts, hands, feet, eyes because they’re born different and are considered magical.
This makes as much sense to us as the rapes of virgins to cure AIDS, but it happens, and it seems to be extremely difficult to dissuade those who consult these witchdoctors that, what they do just doesn’t work.

There is much more to do than simply say ‘don’t have sex’. Condoms may not be 100% proof, but it’s sure safer to use one than not. And Africans aren’t stupid – we learned it in industrialized countries and it’s demeaning to say Africans won’t.

I thought all of your arguments were very well put, Kitsune.

If you're abstinent, which (unless in cases of rape, where a condom most likely won't get used anyways) is always an option, there's really no need for contraception.

The pope was probably speaking to those who are trying to be good Catholics, by not having sex before marriage. Obviously, if you're not gonna be abstinent (or Catholic, while were on that line of thought), then the pope's statement is moot.

Just like Fijian laws don't apply to all athiests, Catholic laws don't apply to all Africans.

The Pope is making the AIDS crisis worse.