“You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, it increases the problem,” he told reporters on board a papal flight to Africa, where he is to tour Cameroon and Angola.
Speaking en route to Cameroon, he said distribution of condoms “increases the problem”.
Words can not express the jaw-dropping stupidity of these pronouncements. But then if you are stupid enough to believe birth-control is evil you end up trying the most unbelievable arguments to defend it.
A nine year old is repeatedly abused by her step-father, and becomes pregnant. When it is discovered she is given an abortion. I’ll say that again- NINE YEARS OLD. What is the Vatican’s response? To excommunicate the mother and doctors.
Oh fer fucks sake. Personally I believe there may be a valid debate to happen around the latest date for a termination. BUT this happened at 4 months (?18 weeks), inside the limit for many countries. This is what happens when you wed your world view to a mythology, and one that considers a foetus a human at the point of conception.
There is no happy ending to this story, but the idea that a nine year old could give birth to twins with no ongoing negative effects beggars belief. Her life is screwed up as it is. Why is the Pope giving her a kicking?
The Pope says in his Christmas message that ‘Teh evul Gays’ (This may not be a direct quote) are as big a threat to the world as the destruction of the environment
When the Roman Catholic Church defends God’s Creation, “it does not only defend the earth, water and the air… but (it) also protects man from his own destruction,”
It is not “outmoded metaphysics” to urge respect for the “nature of the human being as man and woman,” he told scores of prelates gathered in the Vatican’s sumptuous Clementine Hall.
The Catholic Church opposes gay marriage. It teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are.
from this BBC article. The problem of course it feels that we need protecting from loving someonewho happens to have the same plumbing as us. Because if you are looking for understanding about Gay issues, sex and other such topics, then who wouldn’t go to an ex-Nazi who’s been celebate most his life?
The Pope (Benedict XVI) today re-affirmed the Vatican’s opposition to artificial birth control.
Contraception “means negating the intimate truth of conjugal love, with which the divine gift (of life) is communicated”. He went on to say he had no opposition to ‘natural” birth control- which either means abstenance, or hoping the woman’s period is regular enough that you can work out when she’s ’safe’ (though this isn’t a given). I’m not sure about the “John Wayne Method”- a fast draw before shooting (though how many men really have that much self control at orgasm?)
I’m not sure what he hopes to achieve. It won’t stop casual sex – “Do me big boy, but no jonnies- his Holiness doesn’t like them used while I’m fornicating” – if you are shagging around the ‘no jonnies rule’ is really not a major worry. The poor will have two choices- no sex in a marriage or risk another mouth to feed. All that he can hope is to drive more people in the developed world away from the Church.
Religeous leaders bemoan the fact that liberal countries are opposed to religeon. Could it be that liberal countries also tend to be somewhat educated as well?
