Pope is right - Condoms aren't working

News.com.au - ......This morning Cardinal Pell, head of the Catholic Church in Australia, said he agreed with Pope Benedict XVI that condoms were aggravating the African AIDS epidemic by encouraging promiscuity. “The idea that you can solve a great spiritual and health crisis like AIDS with a few mechanical contraptions like condoms is ridiculous,” Cardinal Pell said.

......Cardinal Pell said a non-Catholic health worker in Africa had told him condoms were not an effective solution to Africa's AIDS problem. “He made the point that the people in remote areas are too poor to afford condoms and the ones that are available are often of very poor quality and weren't used effectively,” he said.

The AIDS infection rate in the Philippines, a Catholic country, was much lower than in nearby Thailand, Cardinal Pell said. “If you look at the Philippines you'll see the incidence of AIDS is much lower than it is in Thailand which is awash with condoms,” he said. “There are condoms everywhere and the rate of infection is enormous. “That's what the Pope is talking about.”
Apparently these statements are causing much controversy, one wonders why this controversy, is it because the Pope dares to speak, is it because the Pope is right, is it because those pushing condoms and trying to push the church and Christian values aside got it wrong but won't admit to it? You can make up your own mind, but note the evidence, even the odd Liberal is daring to go against the tide.
Washington Post - When Pope Benedict XVI commented this month that condom distribution isn't helping, and may be worsening, the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, he set off a firestorm of protest. Most non-Catholic commentary has been highly critical of the pope. A cartoon in the Philadelphia Inquirer, reprinted in The Post, showed the pope somewhat ghoulishly praising a throng of sick and dying Africans: "Blessed are the sick, for they have not used condoms."

Yet, in truth, current empirical evidence supports him. We liberals who work in the fields of global HIV/AIDS and family planning take terrible professional risks if we side with the pope on a divisive topic such as this. ......My comments are only about the question of condoms working to stem the spread of AIDS in Africa's generalized epidemics -- nowhere else.

In 2003, Norman Hearst and Sanny Chen of the University of California conducted a condom effectiveness study for the United Nations' AIDS program and found no evidence of condoms working as a primary HIV-prevention measure in Africa. UNAIDS quietly disowned the study. (The authors eventually managed to publish their findings in the quarterly Studies in Family Planning.)
Funny how those diverse liberals are so intolerant of evidence that gets in the way of their pathological hatred of the Pope. How dare he not throw his full support behind consequence-free fornication! There is little room for those who can't stick with the party line because of actual evidence.
Since then, major articles in other peer-reviewed journals such as the Lancet, Science and BMJ have confirmed that condoms have not worked as a primary intervention in the population-wide epidemics of Africa. In a 2008 article in Science called "Reassessing HIV Prevention" 10 AIDS experts concluded that "consistent condom use has not reached a sufficiently high level, even after many years of widespread and often aggressive promotion, to produce a measurable slowing of new infections in the generalized epidemics of Sub-Saharan Africa."

......So what has worked in Africa? Strategies that break up these multiple and concurrent sexual networks -- or, in plain language, faithful mutual monogamy or at least reduction in numbers of partners, especially concurrent ones. "Closed" or faithful polygamy can work as well. In Uganda's early, largely home-grown AIDS program, which began in 1986, the focus was on "Sticking to One Partner" or "Zero Grazing" (which meant remaining faithful within a polygamous marriage) and "Loving Faithfully." These simple messages worked.
Why it's like..... can't quite put my finger on it..... are they saying that promoting the institution of faithful marriage works against HIV and AIDS? Isn't that what Christianity and the hated Pope are saying? Amazing, who would have thought of that, never in a million years! Oh my godless, what next, keeping your legs closed lowers the chance of getting a STD! Heavens above, next people will be telling us the best way to have a shot at a successful life, avoid single parenthood, raise children in a stable environment etc, is waiting until you're married to have sex.

Yeah, I can see why they loath the Pope and his supporters. And given the above evidence, one wonders if these folks really want to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.

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