Stance makes Catholic church a major global public health problem The Guardian, Saturday 11 September 2010 Condoms do not immunise against infection but they are an effective barrier against the HIV virus. Photograph: Digital Vision / Alamy/Alamy This week the pope is in London. You will have your own views on the discrimination against women, the homophobia, and the international criminal conspiracy to cover up for mass child rape. My special interest is his role in the 2 million people who die of Aids each year. In May 2005, shortly after taking office, the pope made his first pronouncement on Aids, and came out against condoms. He was addressing bishops from South Africa, where somebody dies of Aids every two minutes; Botswana, where 23.9% of adults between 15 and 49 are HIV positive; Swaziland, where 26.1% of adults have HIV; Namibia (a trifling 15%); and Lesotho, 23%. This is continuing. In March 2009, on his flight to Cameroon (where 540,000 people have HIV), Pope Benedict XVI explained that Aids is a tragedy “that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”. In May 2009, the Congolese bishops conference made a happy announcement: “In all truth, the pope's message which we received with joy has confirmed us in our fight against HIV/Aids. We say no to condoms!” His stance has been supported, in the past year alone, by Cardinal George Pell of Sydney and Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster. “It is quite ridiculous to go on about Aids in Africa and condoms, and the Catholic Church,” says O'Connor. “I talk to priests who say, 'My diocese is flooded with condoms and there is more Aids because of them.'” Some have been more imaginative in their quest to spread the message against condoms. In 2007, Archbishop Francisco Chimoio of Mozambique announced that European condom manufacturers are deliberately infecting condoms with HIV to spread Aids in Africa. Out of every 8 people in Mozambique, one has HIV. It was Cardinal Alfonso L
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