The Pope arrives and it starts.
You know I really thought there might be something positive come out of the Pope’s visit to Cameroon – however already, all is lost:
Benedict has never before spoken explicitly on condom use although he has stressed that the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against AIDS. The Vatican encourages sexual abstinence to fight the spread of the disease.
“You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde, Cameroon. “On the contrary, it increases the problem.”
And with that simple statement – thousands more will die. People will lose family members. Millions of pounds of NGO money is wasted and years of hard work by Cameroonians and visitors alike is wasted.
I am so angry but cannot find anything to write that is not stating the obvious. I hope these misguided words are seen for what they are and serve only to showcase the ignorance of the Vatican and further lessen the power they hold over people.
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our man in cameroon 
March 17, 2009 at 12:33 pm
which is more insulting to africans – what the pope said, or that you think thousands will die because they can’t think for themselves and make their own spiritual decisions
March 17, 2009 at 1:17 pm
My post about this will pop up tomorrow – written and scheduled.
NN – thousands *will* die. OurMan’s not insulting Africans, he’s simply stating that people follow the heads of their respective religions. Regardless of how stupid, ignorant and jammed up their own backsides those heads may be. There are countless African Catholics and many are recent converts, the “victims” of missionaries sent over there. Recent converts are the most likely to follow every bit of instruction they’re given – and some muppet in a glittery robe has just told them not to use condoms.
March 17, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Recent converts are the most likely to follow every bit of instruction they’re given – and some muppet in a glittery robe has just told them not to use condoms.
what i meant is that they can choose their faith. cameroon isn’t a theocracy. and what you just wrote here is an insult to the intelligence of believers and members of the Catholic church everywhere. but most importantly – it’s not something new. the church has been saying this about birth control since its invention.
March 17, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Yes, they can choose their faith. But the various churches (the Catholics primarily) are investing a lot of time and effort into ensuring it’s their church that people choose. They wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t successful.
And, yup. If I happen to insult the entire Catholic church then I reckon they’re big enough to take it. I have Catholic relatives and I’m sure they accept my right to insult the Pope as much as I accept their decision whether to use condoms or not.
The thing to note is that people in the west are more likely to make their own decision about condoms and “defy” the church. People from poorer countries with no access to alternative information are far more likely to swallow whatever they’re fed – especially by people who claim they’re there to help them – and thus ditch the contraceptives that people like OurMan are doing their best to encourage them to use.
Frankly I feel justified in insulting anyone who can put a person like the Pope on a pedestal when he’s prepared to make statements as the ones today. And, yes, they’ve been saying this for a long time but it doesn’t help when their head idiot bellows it across the airwaves as he heads for a country rife with AIDS.
March 17, 2009 at 6:21 pm
So how does The Pope propose to deal with the problem – beetroot and potato, perhaps like Tabo Mbeki?
March 17, 2009 at 11:12 pm
The visit was reported in celebratory way on Radio 4 this morning, it’s a trip to promote reconciliation and justice they said. I immediately thought about the reports on your blog of traders having their livelihoods and homes demolished in preparation for the visit. The BBC should have covered that in as much detail!
Plus the condom position is unforgivable, I saw a TV doc on Africa recently where a priest was telling the interviewer that it’s gods will that all these children will die of AIDS, some kind of divine retribution. The sort of ethics that haven’t been in fashion since before the age of reason.
March 17, 2009 at 11:16 pm
I’d watch it, Will. You’re insulting the entire Catholic church, all the priests, the Pope, everyone in Africa and the entire staff off the BBC – not to mention those nice people who sent out the bulldozers to clear the streets 😉
Other than that, I agree with you totally. I thought the conspiracy theorists say that all of the media is run by the Jews? In which case wouldn’t they jump at the chance to report the truth and knock the Pope down a peg or three? So we either have a non-Jewish media or simply poor, weak-kneed reporting. Hmmm.
March 18, 2009 at 11:44 am
Remember this – progress has been made in spite of all religions.
Its just so frsutrating that so many have to go through so much because of religion.
March 18, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I just read this great comment on the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7948653.stm
Nice one Ourman! (if it was you of course).
March 18, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Will – Guilty as charged – although it is a drastically cut down comment from what I originally wrote.
March 19, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Mosh says: “Recent converts are the most likely to follow every bit of instruction they’re given” By your logic, that people will follow everything they are told, they will turn to God, enter into commited relationships, and refrain from widespread casual, dangerous sexual activity. Morality works. It has worked in Uganda. Look it up.
The meassage is not simply “do not use condoms” it is “turn to God, do not be promiscuous.” Did you miss that?
Furthermore, Catholic Relief Services and Caritas Internationalis are leaders in distributing antiretroviral drugs, and in so doing have saved thousands of lives.
March 21, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Oh dear. If it wasn’t all so serious in the `real world’ it would be quite silly.
The Papal position – not the Missionary position – is quite sincere and TOTALLY logical within the to-date `established orthodoxy’ of the Roman Catholic church.
The fact that logic has no place in a metaphysical discussion should escape no-one. i.e. an internally consistent (system-consistent) piece of `logic’ doesn’t mean that in a wider, more embracing `system’ ( non-metaphysical, real world), that same logic might be paraded and derided for what it is: bullshit.
The Papal position should be directly contrasted to the recent South Africa Presidential position: one misinformed by `his’ nonsensical version of `God’, the other by his similarly nonsensical misinterpretation of `scientific’ data.
The RC church is just one of many retarded subcultures. Islam is another, lest any one forget.
Condoms and Hell? Or stoning to death? Take your pick?
But then, no Ayatollah is likely due in Africa for some time?
[Fight back against the idiocy, but respect the less-informed ‘idiots’ en route.]
TimTim: define `God’. And don’t say you can’t.