Huh? Are you joking?

I will preface this post by saying I have a lot of Catholic friends and I respect each and everyone of them, but this makes me scratch my head.

I just read an article about the Pope. Not the kind of thing I normally choose to read but the headline did what a headline is supposed to do -- it made me read the story. He visited Africa for the first time as Pope. To fully understand the head scratching that went on you need to understand that Sub-Saharan Africa is more heavily affected by HIV and AIDS than any other region of the world. An estimated 22 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2007 and approximately 1.9 million additional people were infected with HIV during that year. In just the past year, the AIDS epidemic in Africa has claimed the lives of an estimated 1.5 million people in this region. More than eleven million children have been orphaned by AIDS. The infection rate is over 20%.

Interesting info, Dee, but what is the point. The story that I read was titled: Pope visits Africa, reaffirms ban on condoms. You read that correctly. The Catholic Church is so set in it's 19th Century teachings that it does not condone the use of condoms even to prevent the spread of AIDS in Africa. Huh? Really? The story went on the say that the Catholic Church has a "moral prohibition" on the use of artificial contraception. From my point of view that thought is inhumane. Don't think of it as contraception, but preserving life. Not as contraception, but compassion.

The Catholic Church goes on to explain that they have "long been on the front line of HIV care..." Adding that it is probably the largest private provider of HIV care in the world. That reminds be of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas. BCBS doesn't pay for wellness programs for people who are predisposed to say, Diabetes. They would rather pay for the treatment 20 years down the road than pay for preventive care and education now. The Catholic Church would rather help people die, leaving millions of children orphaned, than end a terrible epidemic and suffering and dying of millions of people. How is that showing compassion in God's name? After all, it's just a condom!

Sorry... I'm off my soapbox now.

D