A classic example of how religious fanaticism can become dangerous. The pope is against the use of condoms. Of course, that applies to religious fanaticism of any denomination. It just happens that in this case, it came from the pope.
The Roman Catholic Church says marital fidelity and sexual abstinence are the best ways to prevent the spread of HIV.
So, according to the pope, abstinence is the way to go, while they reject the use of condoms.
The French government had the courage to react:
"While it is not up to us to pass judgment on Church doctrine, we consider that such comments are a threat to public health policies and the duty to protect human life," foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said.
And, of course, such comments are a threat to public health policies as the French foreign ministry pointed out. How dangerous is such a mentality? Very dangerous. The problem is that there are really people around the world who believe such things.
In my opinion, religion in general is a defense mechanism. In fact, many religious ideas would be considered totally delusional if a non-religious person expressed them. But what the pope argues has a negative impact on the HIV epidemic. It is a case where delusions can affect reality.