Avoiding 'condom-gate' in Africa [and engaging Vodun]

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Ahimsa

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In two weeks Pope Benedict XVI will make his second visit to Africa, spending Nov. 18-20 in the West African nation of Benin. No one from the Vatican has asked me for advice on the trip, but I’m going to offer some here anyway.
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Benedict’s presence in Benin also presents an opportunity to examine how Catholicism engages other belief systems, including some with vast footprints which normally don’t command much Catholic attention, either from the church’s caste of experts in inter-religious dialogue or from ecclesiastical officialdom.

For one thing, the Vodun faith – better known in the West as “voodoo” – originated in this part of Africa, with some experts seeing Benin as a primary crucible. In Benin today, an estimated 18 percent of the population, which translates into 1.6 million people, are practitioners of voodoo, making it the third largest religious group in the country after Catholics and Muslims … and many of those Catholics and Muslims hold on to a sizeable share of beliefs and customs which have their origin in voodoo.

So what? Well, consider this.

Today, there are 75 million Methodists in the world, and that number is in steady decline. Though accurate counts are harder to come by for voodoo, estimates range from 30 to 60 million, and rising – in other words, a comparable pool of people. Over the centuries Catholicism has invested far more time and treasure understanding Methodism than voodoo, and you could make a good argument that it’s time to balance the scales.

If you’re the kind of Catholic inclined to dialogue, the argument would be that we need to reach out to this long-neglected religious group. If you’re more concerned with apologetics and Catholic identity, then the case would be that the church needs to understand voodoo better in order to protect Catholics from being seduced by it. Either way, surely it merits as much thought as we’re giving the Methodists.
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The Roman Catholic Church spends far too much time trying to be liked than just telling the critics to shut up.
 
The same sorts of critics who pan B16 now for conddmning condom use and theorizing that they actually increase risky behavior and subsequently increase disease rates will be the sort of critics who will pan him 100 years from now for failing to adequately denounce the fallacy of condom theory after history discovers incontrovertably how faulty it is.

This is the same sort of rubbish critical hypocrisy Pius XII faced both during the 1930’s and today. A certain kind of person will simply attempt to place blame on others rather than having a good look in the mirror before casting stones. Unfortunately, that’s most of us these days…
 
Church teaching, as well as Orthodox Judaism, prohibits the use of artificial barriers to prevent life giving, God’s prerogative, not ours. It’s about time men be given a swift kick in the back side for not controlling their urges".

I know men that like to fight. By fighting, I mean they get a high off of hurting people so bad they end up in hospitals. So, should we require them to carry defibrillators, med kits, cell phones to insure their counterparts receive seficient medical aid… dumb analogy comparing it to condomns. But it’s proven already that condoms are unreliable - particularly on people that don’t care anyway. … I suggest that we initiate a world sterilization group run by third world [developing nations] leaders and their doctors that attend their medical schools. 😃 In fact, we ought to give rape victims first dibs at performing the operations. Bobbit comes to mind. Side note: I heard they were getting back together.

Let’s be real, many of the diseases are being passed around by men who don’t care and women that are victim to their abuse. I just don’t get it. In my view, if the men were “responsible” enough to use a condom, they’d most likely be responsible enough not to abuse women this way. Pope Benedict doesn’t answer to anyone except God, but he is also not supposed to Lord over his flock.
 
seeker57 said:
Citing a Catholic news source is hardly objective evidence.

If Benedict wants to prove his point, he should cite a reliable source, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization.

Peace,

Seeker
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Um… do you understand how newspapers work? The “source” in the link above is Dr. Edward C. Green, the director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. That’s the source that Tomek, and LifeNews are quoting.

Quoting. As in “a word-for-word transcription of what someone said.” In this case, that someone happens to be the director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. And that someone happens to be responding directly to a question regarding the Pope’s comments about condom use and AIDS prevention in Africa. And the quote is “The Pope is correct. Or, to put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the Pope’s comments,” said Dr. Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.

Honestly, did you even open the link? Or, you know, read the headline? The headline isn’t “We Pro-Lifers Say Pope Is Correct.” The headline is “Harvard AIDS Expert Says Pope Is Correct.” The “Harvard AIDS Expert” is clearly the source in this case.

Or is it your contention that the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies is not a reliable source? Are they are a well-known pro-Vatican institution who’s main interest is reinforcing the magisterium of the Catholic Church? I’d verrrrrrrry much like to see you make that case.
 
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