Vatican rejects Belgian censure of pope on condoms

Vatican rejects Belgian censure of pope on condoms

www.reuters.com

VATICAN CITY, April 3 (Reuters) - The Vatican on Friday rejected a resolution passed by the Belgian parliament condemning Pope Benedict for saying that the use of condoms could worsen the spread of AIDS.

The pope's controversial remarks last month have provoked widespread criticism in the press and by health officials and politicians in Europe, but the Belgian move was the first time a country had ordered a diplomatic protest against the Vatican. The resolution passed by the Belgian parliament late on Thursday called on the Belgian envoy to the Vatican to lodge a protest over the pontiff's "unacceptable" comments.

It ordered the government to "react strongly against any state or organisation that in the future brings into doubt the benefit of using condoms to prevent transmission of the AIDS virus".

Chief Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said he was shocked.

"(It's) astonishing, given that it appears obvious in any democratic state that the Holy Father and the Church are free to express their own positions," he said.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The pope's comments have angered the Belgian parliament enough that they passed a resolution to "react strongly against any state or organisation that in the future brings into doubt the benefit of using condoms to prevent transmission of the AIDS virus".

A little overboard perhaps, but the comments made by the pope were ridiculus and actually harmful so maybe a response like this is called for.


www.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 4-4-2009 by FreeSpeaker]

I had a discussion about this topic and the Pope's position is joined by researchers at some high profile colleges, who determine that this is what the data shows.

Originally posted by imd12c4funn
I had a discussion about this topic and the Pope's position is joined by researchers at some high profile colleges, who determine that this is what the data shows.

Any links to supporting evidence from high profile collages that condems only aggravate the aids problem would be appreciated.

To be honest, I doubt you will find one.

reply to post by FreeSpeaker


Put my foot in my mouth now.

Guess who says pope was right

There really doesn't seem to be anyone supporting this guy's claims however.

[edit on 4-4-2009 by FreeSpeaker]

Originally posted by FreeSpeaker

Originally posted by imd12c4funn
I had a discussion about this topic and the Pope's position is joined by researchers at some high profile colleges, who determine that this is what the data shows.

Any links to supporting evidence from high profile collages that condems only aggravate the aids problem would be appreciated.

To be honest, I doubt you will find one.

University of California. San Francisco

The results show that condom self-efficacy was lower than the P-value, but the coercion went above P-value substantially more than efficacy or use increase.

This model shows that this results alone increases infection exponentially.

Here

On Table 4, the use of condoms decreases with males, and the condom use is never 100%.

This whole concept of protection and knowledge has evidence of change of habits, but the results do not change.

More promiscuity, riskier behavior.

Originally posted by imd12c4funn
This whole concept of protection and knowledge has evidence of change of habits, but the results do not change.

More promiscuity, riskier behavior.

As I said earlier, I did put my foot in my mouth.

The science does support his claims. I suppose the real issue here then is the pope should have elaborated on his statement. He is the infuential leader of over a billion people and should have supported his statement with reference to a scientific study. That does appear to be where he got his information from.

To most people it sounded like he was implying condems do not work. He could have said the easy availibility of condems creates more promiscuity, but what he said was "You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, it increases the problem.". Not the best way to phrase it to the entire world.

The pope has been backed up by a study showing people are fallible, but luckily he is infallible, whereas the users of condoms are not.

Unintended consequences. But imperfect use of condoms should not detract from legitimate efforts to ensure that sex between people unsure of each other's hiv status involves 100% use of condoms. It may not be infallible but surely the alternative of wholly unprotected sex is far more dangerous.