the holy see seems to be blind as a bat

for a virgin, the pope has plenty to say about how we should conduct our sex lives. i don't agree with a lot of what he and his minions say about these matters. but yesterday was a big what the fuck!!!!

during the pope's first visit to africa, he stated that condoms are not the answer to the AIDS epidemic and in fact they may be fueling the epidemic. WRONG WRONG WRONG. condoms can reduce the transmission of the AIDS virus by 80 percent. they are one of very few proven interventions and the most successful. certainly more "answers" are needed, but as of right now, condoms are the best one we have.

in the US (and in the vatican), it may be easy to forget how devastating and widespread HIV/AIDS is in africa. in 2006 within sub-saharan africa 2.1 million adults and children died of AIDS, 2.8 million were newly infected with HIV and in some countries the adult prevalence was higher than 20%.

the ignorance of the pope's statement wouldn't matter if he was just regarded as a crazy old man by the people that he is visiting, but actually catholicism is on the rise in africa.

put it all together:
(up to 20% adult prevalence of AIDS)+(40% rise in catholicism in africa in the last 2 decades) + (recommendation by the pope to stop handing out condoms, which prevent 80% of AIDS transmission)

what does that equal? a whole lot of WTF

nyt article on pope's statement
london times editorial: the pope looks ill educated or ill intentioned
the daily mash: put a bible over your penis, the popes says