At least that's what Pope Benedict XVI had to say at the beginning of his tour of Africa.
(Benedict XVI) also said the Roman Catholic Church was at the forefront of the battle against AIDS.
"You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms," the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane heading to Yaounde. "On the contrary, it increases the problem."
Now this is really an issue near and dear to my heart, and one that we, as Americans, are all deeply involved in. It's been said by many, including Democrats, that one of the few noble endeavors of the Bush administration was trying to help fight global AIDS:
So far, roughly 1.4 million AIDS patients have received lifesaving medicine paid for with American dollars, up from 50,000 before the initiative. Even Mr. Bush’s most ardent foes, among them Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, his 2004 Democratic challenger, find it difficult to argue with the numbers.
However, at the same time we were now supplying expensive drugs to Africans suffering from AIDS, we slashed funding for condoms, which, compared to the drugs, are practically free. Thankfully, President Obama feels the same way, and has changed our policy:
President-elect Barack Obama will reverse U.S. family-planning and AIDS-prevention strategies that have long linked global funding to anti-abortion and abstinence education, a public-health adviser said.
And that leads back to the pope. Like President Bush, Benedict XVI is interested in combating the spread of AIDS through faith and abstinence-only education, a failed policy that goes against human nature. Sex is fun. I love sex. You love sex. Canadians love sex. Japanese love sex. Africans love sex. We're all going to keep on having sex, many regardless as to what sort of protection is available to them. Especially in impoverished areas, where fun is tough to come by, sex is an outlet. I quote Pulp's great song "Common People" (also amazingly covered by William Shatner):
You'll never live like common people
You'll never do what common people do
You'll never fail like common people
You'll never watch your life slide out of view, and dance and drink and screw
Because there's nothing else to do.
It's been proven that through education and availability of contraceptives, safer sex practices will take hold and the spread of AIDS will be cut down. Some in the Catholic church have taken this view to heart:
Even some priests and nuns working with those living with HIV/AIDS question the church's opposition to condoms amid the pandemic ravaging Africa.
Will the pope come around, too? Doubtful. And it is very sad, because the Catholic church, through the infrastructure it's built throughout Africa, could be a huge force in the earnest fighting of the spread of AIDS. Coincidentally, it may not just be Benedict XVI's Catholic upbringing that's led him to be wary of condom use, but also his upbringing in Nazi Germany, where civilian use of condoms was banned in 1941.
Regardless, can you imagine a double-headed monster of the United States and the Catholic church, both working together, with a strong, cost-effective strategy? We could well almost eradicate the virus within my lifetime.
Come on, Pope Benedict XVI! See the light! We can distribute to Africans these condoms: