When considering contraceptive choices the first person most of us think of to ask for expert advice is probably, of course, the Pope. Who better than a lifetime celibate cleric to make pronouncements on human procreation and reproductive rights?
Pope Benedict's added bonus is that his counsel is guaranteed to be correct because, to top it off, he's infallible. You can believe that because a Pope said it, and he ought to know. I mean, on the Pontiff, pontificating looks good. That's what he does. It's the way he rolls, and he's got the Popemobile to prove it.
So when Pope Benedict says, as he recently did in the African nation of Cameroon, that condom usage exacerbates the AIDS problem, it might be considered a bit ungrateful (not to mention doubting Thomas of us), to go looking for anything so prosaic, disinterested and worldly as facts. Still, if one were so tempted (and what's the point of being Catholic if you can't be tempted) one might go in search of such numbers as might fortify the Pope's position on one of his many known areas of expertise: human sexuality. (We certainly wouldn't be so disagreeable as to go looking for evidence with which to contradict him. That would be un-charitable, and charity is one of the three Virtues.)
When he spoke in Cameroon, the Pope began well enough, maintaining that "a Christian can never remain silent" in the face of violence, poverty, hunger, corruption or abuse of power." A strong, promising start, to be sure. Would it be spiteful of us to add here that "The pope was greeted by Cameroon's President Paul Biya, who has ruled since 1982 and whose government has been accused by Amnesty International of abuses in crushing political opponents."? Greet a dictator and rail against condoms. Perhaps we should move on to the numbers now.
First of all, do condoms even work?
from Position statement by UNAIDS, UNFPA and WHO
19 March 2009
Conclusive evidence from extensive research among heterosexual couples in which one partner is infected with HIV shows that correct and consistent condom use significantly reduces the risk of HIV transmission from both men to women, and also from women to men(2)....
Condoms have played a decisive role in HIV prevention efforts in many countries.
Condoms have helped to reduce HIV infection rates where AIDS has already taken hold, curtailing the broader spread of HIV in settings where the epidemic is still concentrated in specific populations.
Condoms have also encouraged safer sexual behaviour more generally. Recent analysis of the AIDS epidemic in Uganda has confirmed that increased condom use, in conjunction with delay in age of first sexual intercourse and reduction of sexual partners was an important factor in the decline of HIV prevalence in the 1990s(5). Thailand’s efforts to de-stigmatize condoms and its targeted condom promotion for sex workers and their clients dramatically reduced HIV infections in these populations and helped reduce the spread of the epidemic to the general population. A similar policy in Cambodia has helped stabilize national prevalence, while substantially decreasing prevalence among sex workers. In addition, Brazil’s early and vigorous condom promotion among the general population and vulnerable groups has successfully contributed to sustained control of the epidemic.
This seems suspiciously secular.
But aren't patients dying out, and AIDS is a problem only of older infected people?
from UNAIDS 2008 Report on the global AIDS epidemic
In the countries most heavily affected, HIV has reduced life expectancy by more than 20 years, slowed economic growth, and deepened household poverty. In sub-Saharan Africa aloe, the epidemic has orphaned1 nearly 12 million children aged under 18 years...
In 2007, an estimated 2.7 million people became newly infected with HIV. About 45% of them were young people from 15 to 24 years old, with young girls at greater risk of infection than boys.
Okay, that is distasteful.
But isn't the problem small, and diminishing?
from UNAIDS 2008 Report on the global AIDS epidemic
In 2007 alone, 33 million [30 million–36 million] people were living with HIV, 2.7 million [2.2 million–3.2 million] people became infected with the virus, and 2 million [1.8 million–2.3 million] people died of HIV related causes.
Three-quarters of all AIDS deaths worldwide in 2007 were in sub-Saharan Africa, where some 22 million people are infected with HIV.
Now this is both distasteful and secular.
So a very brief trip through the world of reality (which we encourage the Vatican to try, some day), brings us back to the Pope's statement, which does not reconcile with the suffering that human beings are experiencing in this world. I truly believe that the Pope looks at the world and sees not people, but luminous, immortal souls. This has horrific consequences for simple mortal flesh. Because selectively removing yourself from the world in this way is precisely what enables one to make ex cathedra pronouncements that aggravate disasters.
If he could only acknowledge it, the Pope's preoccupation with human sexuality evinces an agenda that is ironically, dare we say, secular, despite the insistence that his province is the saving of eternal souls. If he weren't so infallible, and if I were able to worry about anything beyond the world I know, I'd worry for his soul.