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Pope Says Condoms "Not the Answer" in Fight Against AIDS in Africa: Emperor Popetine apparently of the opinion that if you're having recreational sex you deserve to die, also, religious aid workers ask what His Holiness is smoking

Benedict had never directly addressed condom use. He has said 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, where he will begin a seven-day pilgrimage on the continent. "On the contrary, it increases the problem."

What.

WHAT.

Seriously, WHAT THE FUCKING HELL IS THIS BULLSHIT.

Some priests and nuns working with those living with HIV/AIDS question the church's opposition to condoms amid the pandemic ravaging Africa.

"Excuse us, sir, but people are dying horribly. Can we pleeeease pass out condoms now, seeing as they're the only thing that makes a serious dent in the transmission rates of STDs?"
"No. Tell them to stop having sex."
"Sir, that's not really going to--"
"SILENCE! I AM THE POPE! THAT MEANS I WIN!"

This 'don't use condoms, use abstinence' thing is, like all abstinence-based programs, utterly worthless and bordering on criminally negligent. A lot of women in certain regions of Africa don't get to turn to men who want to have sex with them and go, "I'm sorry, but I'm saving myself for a mutually monogamous relationship." And hell, completely monogamous marriages are rare enough in cultures that glorify it, much less in cultures that say a man isn't a man unless he's getting some booty on the side.

THIS IS GOING TO KILL PEOPLE. AND OTHER PEOPLE WILL SAY IT'S OKAY, BECAUSE THEY WERE OBVIOUSLY SINNERS AND DESERVED TO DIE.

ARG ARG ARG ARG *froth flail chew carpet*

ETA: France, Germany, UN AIDS Task Force Reaction to Pope's Comments Best Summed Up as "WTH, Benedict, WTH."

"Condoms save lives, in Europe as well as on other continents," the ministers said. "Modern assistance to the developing world today must make access to family planning available to the poorest of the poor — especially the use of condoms. Anything else would be irresponsible."