Reply #5: Yes. He is killing people

[beam me up scottie]

by not changing the policies on condom use and by lying to people in third world countries.

He just stated that the church will not change its policy on the use of condoms to stop the spread of aids.

His "advice" to the millions of people in third world countries to abstain from having sex.

When you are able to save lives and do not, it is the same as killing them.

Lying to them about the ability of condoms to prevent the spread of aids is the same as killing them.

Telling them that condoms transmit the aids virus is the same as killing them.

These people believe in the church and it is LYING to them.
I cannot think of a worse betrayal.

It is beyond morally bankrupt, it is EVIL to allow people to die when you can save them.

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Vatican: condoms don't stop Aids

Steve Bradshaw
Thursday October 9, 2003
The Guardian

"The Catholic Church is telling people in countries stricken by Aids not to use condoms because they have tiny holes in them through which HIV can pass - potentially exposing thousands of people to risk.
The church is making the claims across four continents despite a widespread scientific consensus that condoms are impermeable to HIV.
A senior Vatican spokesman backs the claims about permeable condoms, despite assurances by the World Health Organisation that they are untrue."

"The president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, told the programme: "The Aids virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom."

"The WHO has condemned the Vatican's views, saying: "These incorrect statements about condoms and HIV are dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people, and currently affects at least 42 million."

"In Lwak, near Lake Victoria, the director of an Aids testing centre says he cannot distribute condoms because of church opposition. Gordon Wambi told the programme: "Some priests have even been saying that condoms are laced with HIV/Aids.
Panorama found the claims about permeable condoms repeated by Catholics as far apart as Asia and Latin America."

source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,7369,1059068,00....

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The Lesser Evil
The Catholic Church and the AIDS Epidemic

This article originally appeared in the Autumn 2001 issue of Conscience.

By Patricia Miller, former editor of Conscience and director of writing and research at Catholics for a Free Choice.

In 1997, a doctor who is a member of the Vatican Council for the Family said that using condoms will not prevent HIV infection. Father Jacques Suaudeau wrote in the journal Medicina e Morale,”Using a condom to protect yourself against HIV amounts to playing Russian roulette.”41 A report from the National Institutes of Health in the United States recently confirmed the predominant medical opinion that “consistent and correct condom use prevents...HIV infection.”42 Despite medical opinion confirming the use of condoms to prevent HIV, it seems as if the church’s anti-condom propaganda may be winning converts. A recent survey conducted by the Kenyan Media Institute found that 54% of Kenyans do not believe that condoms are effective in preventing HIV and that “condoms encourage immorality, which exposes people to the risk of contracting the virus.”43

In Africa and around the world the hierarchy of the Catholic church has worked actively to suppress condom use, education and distribution. In 1996, the local Roman Catholic church in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, prevented the distribution of one million condoms by health and election officials at polling stations during a primary election. Honduras has the highest incidence of AIDS in Central America.44 That same year, in Nairobi, Kenya, Cardinal Maurice Otunga, Kenya’s leading Roman Catholic church official, burned boxes of condoms and safe sex literature.45 After Brazil launched an innovative AIDS prevention program that stressed the need for the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS, Brazilian Roman Catholic officials criticized the program for not stressing abstinence. Cardinal Eugenio Sales of Rio de Janeiro said the campaign would stimulate sexual activity, thereby spreading AIDS.46 Just this year in Zambia, health officials withdrew a hard-hitting anti-AIDS campaign that urged safe sex and condom use after the church complained that it promoted promiscuity.47

On the issue of safe sex education, particularly for teenagers and young adults, the church has been even more aggressive, only recognizing the need for sexuality education within the limits of monogamous, heterosexual marriage, impeding the development of much-needed programs that address contraception in any context, including condoms to prevent AIDS. In 1996, the Vatican issued new sexual education guidelines,”The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality: Guidelines for Education within the Family,” which attacks school-based sexual education and says parents should have the primary role in teaching their children about sexuality. It calls on parents to refute teachings about “safe sex” and condemns contraception.48

The Catholic church has persistently opposed efforts to develop a comprehensive sexual education curriculum for schools in Kenya, despite the declarations of international bodies like the UN AIDS conference that sexual education is key to fighting AIDS. When Kenya did develop a comprehensive sexual education curriculum, it was shelved because of vocal opposition from the Catholic church.49 The New York Catholic Conference fought to block a condom-distribution and education program for New York City public school students because it did not give primacy to their message that abstinence is the only way for young adults to protect themselves from AIDS, even as AIDS rates for youth increased dramatically.50 The Peruvian Bishops’ Conference condemned a sexual education program developed for that country’s schools, saying that the “program is centered only in providing biological information and is disconnected from any moral value or sense of responsibility.”51

http://www.condoms4life.org/facts/lesserEvil.htm
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Global Campaign to End Catholic Bishops' Ban on Condoms Launched in Africa
Billboard and Newspaper ads in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya stating "Banning Condoms Kills" are part of global mobilizing effort to change Vatican's condom policy.

The first global campaign to end the Catholic bishops' ban on condoms was launched in Africa today with billboards in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Harare and Nairobi and major newspaper ads carrying the message "Banning Condoms Kills" and "Catholic People Care-Do Our Bishops?" The prominently placed advertisements are part of an unprecedented worldwide public education effort aimed at Catholics and non-Catholics alike to raise public awareness about the devastating effect of the Catholic bishops' ban on condoms in preventing new HIV/AIDS infections. Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) is sponsoring the ad campaign.

CFFC, which launched the campaign in Washington, DC, on World AIDS Day 2001, stated that there is nothing controversial about saving lives by encouraging people who are sexually active to use condoms. However, the ads caused an immediate stir and stimulated public debate about the Catholic hierarchy's position on condoms. The Archdiocese of Washington, DC, tried to get the campaign ads banned from subway stations and bus stops. That attempt failed. In fact, the campaign proved so successful that CFFC extended it for another month on DC bus shelters.

The ads, which will appear in a dozen countries over the next year, invite the public to join a global campaign to end the bishops' ban on condoms - Condoms4Life at www.condoms4life.org. People who join the campaign are asked to contact local policymakers and express support for the availability of condoms and concern that Catholic bishops not undermine responsible public health policy on HIV/AIDS.

"Using condoms and being open about their importance are an essential part of preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS," stated Nathan Geffen of Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, one of the worldwide partners in the campaign. "It is crucial that the Catholic church revisit its stance on condoms, which is inconsistent with the rest of its approach to fighting the epidemic."

http://www.condoms4life.org/campaign/archive/release4.htm
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