I can smell rubber burning...

As many of you who know me would no doubt be aware, I am quite critical and skeptical of organised religion. At the same time, though, I pride myself upon my openmindedness; I have Catholic, Anglican, Muslim and Buddhist friends, and I respect and accept their customs and views without consigning them to the "inferior" pile. In my view, regardless of whether or not I agree with one's religious beliefs, one is well within one's rights to hold those beliefs; no religion or culture is either superior or inferior to another. Having said that, I cannot but marvel at the latest (although thoroughly unsurprising) directive of the new pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI. The pope recently addressed a congregations of bishops from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland, who brought up their continued concerns over the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Despite the Vatican's spirited resistance against the use of contraception, many of these bishops have openly claimed that widespread use of condoms on the continent could drastically slash the number of HIV infections, and therefore also HIV-related deaths. Benedict responded: "The traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only failsafe way to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4081276.stm Now, please excuse me for being naive, but how can the pope possibly claim this, in the face of such overwhelming counter-evidence? The pope, much like he predecessor, seems to believe that abstinence and faithfulness are the only true solutions in the fight against AIDS. Pope John Paul II advocated this too. Let's see how this idea fared: Of the estimated 40,000,000 people worldwide who suffer from HIV/AIDS, it is believed that at least 60% of these live in sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa leads the vanguard of the African fight against AIDS, due to its status as a developed and modern state. Despite this, between 600 and 1,000 people die every day due to AIDS. There are two conclusions we can draw from this. Either: 1. Africans are adhering to the teachings of the Catholic Church and not using contraception and anti-HIV medicines, but it doesn't make a blind bit of difference. 2. Africans, regardless of whether they are staunch Catholics or not, are ignoring Church teachings. Either way, it seems redundant for Benedict to advocate something that clearly, for one reason or another, is not working. But wait, there's more! Benedict's reason for denying the opportunity to stymie the spread of AIDS, by not advocating the widespread distribution and use of condoms, is, by his own admission, because contraception leads to the "breakdown of sexual morality." Now, I am going to assume for just a second that he's hit the nail on the head here, although this is patently not what I believe. Surely, the Vatican must see that, while it is all well and good to have a certain set of morals, a prerequisite for being able to impose these morals is for there to be a living population which can be imbued with them. At the rate that it's going in Africa, this might well not be the case: "The UN estimates that without new initiatives...more than 80 million Africans may die from Aids by 2025 and HIV infections could reach 90 million, or 10% of the continent's population." AIDS is spreading exponentially, like the proverbial wildfire, through Africa, and the pope refuses to give his blessing to something which could literally save tens of millions of lives, because it is morally questionable. A note to the pontiff, if I may: at some point, morality must yield to pragmatism. This is that point, sir. Do not pass it by. At the other end of the spectrum is this man: The young man being carried in the photograph is Mzokonah Malevu, an African man in his twenties who contracted HIV/AIDS. He allowed photographer Gideon Mendel to provide photographic witness to his struggle. Upon his death in December 2000, his final wish was for his funeral to serve as an event for education about AIDS. Malevu's spirit, even on his deathbed, was strong enough for him to think first of others before himself, and even in death he took a fundamental step in a profoundly moving attempt to halt the spread of this deadly virus. He is a martyr, one among thousands, millions maybe... ...and yet Pope Benedict XVI would deny the possibility that more young men and women like Mzokonah Malevu do not need to die. My last treatise to the Vatican Basilica: do not let your outdated concepts of sexual morality blind you from reality. People are dying. You can help stop this needless destruction of life. Do something useful. Words are not useful. Condoms are.