Catholic condom ban helping AIDS

[beckers]

Catholic condom ban helping AIDS spread in Latam: U.N.

news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071023/hl_nm/honduras_aids_dc

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The rapid spread in Latin America of the virus that causes AIDS is made worse by the Roman Catholic Church’s stand against using condoms, a U.N. official said on Monday.

Some 1.7 million people across Latin America are infected with the HIV virus or full-blown AIDS, and the epidemic is spreading swiftly with up to 410,000 new cases in 2006, up from as many as 320,000 new cases in 2004, according the UN AIDS program, UNAIDS.

“In Latin America the use of condoms has been demonized, but if they were used in every relation I guarantee the epidemic would be resolved in the region,” said Alberto Stella, the UNAIDS Coordinator for Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

The Catholic Church, which holds sway in Latin America despite the rise in evangelical churches, opposes all forms of contraception and instead promotes abstinence as a way to avoid spreading AIDS.

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Always have to blame someone so it might as well be the church. You couldn’t possible blame those who’s behaviors have led to the increase in HIV and AIDS? Condoms only mask the greater problem with society which is the loss of respect for the human body and the dignity that God gave it. We freely throw it way through premarital sex and other forms of instant gratification. When will we learn?

 

[rlg94086]

Catholic condom ban helping AIDS spread in Latam: U.N.

news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071023/hl_nm/honduras_aids_dc

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The rapid spread in Latin America of the virus that causes AIDS is made worse by the Roman Catholic Church’s stand against using condoms, a U.N. official said on Monday.

Some 1.7 million people across Latin America are infected with the HIV virus or full-blown AIDS, and the epidemic is spreading swiftly with up to 410,000 new cases in 2006, up from as many as 320,000 new cases in 2004, according the UN AIDS program, UNAIDS.

“In Latin America the use of condoms has been demonized, but if they were used in every relation I guarantee the epidemic would be resolved in the region,” said Alberto Stella, the UNAIDS Coordinator for Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

The Catholic Church, which holds sway in Latin America despite the rise in evangelical churches, opposes all forms of contraception and instead promotes abstinence as a way to avoid spreading AIDS.

---

Always have to blame someone so it might as well be the church. You couldn’t possible blame those who’s behaviors have led to the increase in HIV and AIDS? Condoms only mask the greater problem with society which is the loss of respect for the human body and the dignity that God gave it. We freely throw it way through premarital sex and other forms of instant gratification. When will we learn?

Exactly. Sin is “helping AIDS,” not a lack of condoms. If everyone followed Church teaching, AIDS would not be spread.

 

[Bubble]

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The rapid spread in Latin America of the virus that causes AIDS is made worse by the Roman Catholic Church’s stand against using condoms, a U.N. official said on Monday.

The person who wrote this article is obviously very confused.

The article seeks to blame the Church as if people have become infected with AIDS because they dutifully adhered to the teaching against artificial contraception. If these people were following the Church’s teachings then they wouldn’t be having sex outside of marriage and spreading the virus to begin with.

“In Latin America the use of condoms has been demonized, but if they were used in every relation I guarantee the epidemic would be resolved in the region,” said Alberto Stella, the UNAIDS Coordinator for Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

What’s this reporter smoking? AIDS is going to be resolved by the use of condoms? Reality shows otherwise. There are non-Catholic countries, where condoms have not been ‘demonized’ suffering from AIDS epidemics as well.

Saying condoms are will stop AIDS from spreading is a niave position. Artificial contraception increases sexual activity in the population and thus, increases the risk of exposure to AIDS and other sexually related problems. Contraception is counterproductive to society. Since, the pill, condoms and other forms of birth control – people are more inclined to risk sex outside of marriage. The result is a huge increase in teenage pregnancy, more children living in poverty, the spread of STD’s and AIDS.

It’s sad how so many people turn to the mainstream as their moral compass in life. The media potrays sex as something recreational and not a sacred union shared between a husand and wife.

Following God’s laws, reserving sex for within marriage only, is the only real cure.

 

[yugnok]

So these people are such good Catholics that they don’t use condoms, but they go out and have extramarital sex.

Is there anything else that we can blame the Catholic church for while we are on the topic?

Maybe there is some way we can blame the Church for the death of the dinosaurs. Oh that evil Catholic church!

 

[manualman]

Researchers and bureaucrats have for years made this fundamental mistake. All studies on this issue make the same underlying erroneous assumption: They ASSUME that the behavior of people is the same whether or not condoms have been accepted in the culture. But this is a MAJOR assumption.

As a former teenage male myself, I assert that the presence of a condom in the wallet (and the mindset that it makes one invulnerable in the mind) of a single male actually changes the BEHAVIOR of a good percentage of people.

This is similar to the use of levees in flood control in my profession (civil engineer). As a profession, we once subscribed to levees as a grand way to decrease the risk of flood deaths and property damage. But a strange thing happened: the presence of the levee actually ENCOURAGED development in the flood prone areas. People believed the levee protected them and that they no longer needed to keep their homes out of the floodplain. But levees, like condoms, are made by men and are not foolproof. Eventually, a storm comes up that is large enough that the levee fails and MORE people die and more property is destroyed than if the levee were never built in the first place (the largely unlearned lesson of Katrina).

Civil Engineers have learned not to implement programs that embolden foolish human behavior. I hope the medical community learns that lesson someday in regards to pushing condoms as a means to do what you want without risk. People ARE dying from AIDS in areas where there are no condoms and no knowledge of their function. Betcha they will die FASTER when the UN starts hauling in truckloads of Trojans.

 

[AngelRose81]

Exactly. Sin is “helping AIDS,” not a lack of condoms. If everyone followed Church teaching, AIDS would not be spread.

[SIGN]Amen![/SIGN]

Sometimes I think that people (the media, really) just gets the biggest thrill out of blaming the Catholic church for everything…or even blaming Christianity in general for everything.

 

[jmcrae]

Civil Engineers have learned not to implement programs that embolden foolish human behavior. I hope the medical community learns that lesson someday in regards to pushing condoms as a means to do what you want without risk. People ARE dying from AIDS in areas where there are no condoms and no knowledge of their function. Betcha they will die FASTER when the UN starts hauling in truckloads of Trojans.

I agree.

Interesting article: Condoms Aren’t Working

 

[Gerry_Hunter]

Oh good grief, them again! The UN – a place where anti-Catholic is tres chic.

As noted, the teachings of the Church would work to combat AIDS: condoms haven’t, and that’s not the Church’s fault.

Blessings,

Gerry

 

[Sarabande]

I just loved this quote “…but the Church’s position on premarital sex and contraception often clashes with modern values.”

Although I’m a professional musician, I also have a degree in journalism. We were taught to be as unbiased as possible in our writing. The entire article, especially this one quote, screams bias. The writer is obviously trying to sway public opinion into thinking the Church is “behind the times”. “Her values are soooo medieval and backward compared to our society’s ‘values’. No one else thinks like that anymore.”

If the writer wanted to be fair and equal, he/she could have substituted “modern” with a more neutral word. He/She could have even used “…often clashes with the ‘UN’s’ values” or “with the values of secular society.” In that case you are not making the Church look outdated and bad and are just demonstrating that two different ways of thought are at odds. The Catholic Church is “modern”. If we weren’t, I think the Church would be dead by now.

Sorry… even though I no longer write for a paper, I still get wriled up by the way stories like this are worded.

 

[JFonseka]

Of course much of the secular world and believe in the ‘end determines the means’ so because condom use would hold AIDS at bay it automatically means condom use is good.

NO.

I bet most of those cases are from sex acts committed OUTSIDE of marriage anyways. The best way to tackle problems like this is SEX EDUCATION in latin america, but they don’t want to spend resources on that. They want to increase the contraception industry by promoting the use of ****.

 

[NewUlm1976_2000]

So these people are such good Catholics that they don’t use condoms, but they go out and have extramarital sex.

Is there anything else that we can blame the Catholic church for while we are on the topic?

Maybe there is some way we can blame the Church for the death of the dinosaurs. Oh that evil Catholic church!

This happens no matter what the prevailing theology. This is also a life issue. If the condom rule was changed, it would help push along the “pro-life” theology in helping to protect people from diseases.

Someone mentioned that sin is the ultimate cause. Well, you can confess sins pretty easy, but not get rid of HIV. It is a life changing thing that confession will not fix.

In this case, if it is going to happen anyways in society, proper use of modern technology should happen for protection of the people involved.

 

[jmcrae]

This happens no matter what the prevailing theology. This is also a life issue. If the condom rule was changed, it would help push along the “pro-life” theology in helping to protect people from diseases.

Someone mentioned that sin is the ultimate cause. Well, you can confess sins pretty easy, but not get rid of HIV. It is a life changing thing that confession will not fix.

In this case, if it is going to happen anyways in society, proper use of modern technology should happen for protection of the people involved.

The means do not justify the ends - we cannot recommend that people sin more grievously than they are already.

Catholic leaders have to look to their own souls, as well - Jesus told us that it would be better to hang a millstone around your neck and jump into the sea, than to lead anyone astray, or recommend to anyone that they should sin, indicating that suicides without the mitigating circumstance of mental illness experience less pain and suffering in Hell than bad teachers.

 

[NewUlm1976_2000]

The means do not justify the ends - we cannot recommend that people sin more grievously than they are already.

Catholic leaders have to look to their own souls, as well - Jesus told us that it would be better to hang a millstone around your neck and jump into the sea, than to lead anyone astray, or recommend to anyone that they should sin, indicating that suicides without the mitigating circumstance of mental illness experience less pain and suffering in Hell than bad teachers.

Even if the end is Death? We can present it as a weighing of two “evils”. Affirming a stance on paper should not be a literal death sentence for some. That is ignoring the teachings on compassion.

 

[manualman]

So New Ulm, you contend that sometimes the ends DO justify the means? You realize that idea is antithetical to 2,000 years of catholicism, right?

 

[estesbob]

Exactly. Sin is “helping AIDS,” not a lack of condoms. If everyone followed Church teaching, AIDS would not be spread.

I’m always amazed at the ignorance shown by people who make this contention, that Catholic teachings on contraception helps to spread AIDS. If people follow Catholic teaching no one would get AIDS or any other STD.

 

[Genesis315]

the article:

the use of condoms has been demonized

So is fornication, rape, adultery, sodomy and promiscuity. How come people will abstain from contraception at the urging of the Church, but will do all this other stuff that is also condemned?

 

[jmcrae]

Even if the end is Death? We can present it as a weighing of two “evils”. Affirming a stance on paper should not be a literal death sentence for some. That is ignoring the teachings on compassion.

They make their own choices - we teach them not to have sex outside of the bond of marriage, and they do it anyway - yes, they will experience the natural consequences of their behaviour.

We don’t line every bridge with acrobatic netting just in case people violate the law against jumping off bridges, and we don’t tell people to go ahead and drive drunk, just as long as they wear their seat belts - why should we promote the use of condoms in case people violate the laws against sexual promiscuity? People are warned in advance of the consequences, and they make their own choices.

They could violate Church law and wear condoms, for that matter - in for a penny, in for a pound. But the Church is never going to tell them that condoms are okay, for the same reason it’s never going to tell them that promiscuous sex is okay.

 

[estesbob]

This happens no matter what the prevailing theology. This is also a life issue. If the condom rule was changed, it would help push along the “pro-life” theology in helping to protect people from diseases.

Someone mentioned that sin is the ultimate cause. Well, you can confess sins pretty easy, but not get rid of HIV. It is a life changing thing that confession will not fix.

In this case, if it is going to happen anyways in society, proper use of modern technology should happen for protection of the people involved.

So tell me why would a person accept the Church’s teaching on condoms butreject its teachings on promiscuous sex? I really don’t think someone who is engaging in premarital sex or adultery is going really care what the church’s teachings on condoms is. Blaming the church’s policy on condoms for the spread of AIDS is just another example of how the secular culture tries to shift the blame for rampant abortion, promiscuity and STDs away from immoral acts that causes problems in the first place

 

[mlchance]

Even if the end is Death? We can present it as a weighing of two “evils”. Affirming a stance on paper should not be a literal death sentence for some. That is ignoring the teachings on compassion.

And you’re ignoring the teachings on contraception and sexual morality, which is also ignoring “the teachings on compassion.” Right? I mean, after all, you’re advocating violating natural law and divine law, which leads to soul-threatening mortal sin. In your rush to not ignore “the teachings on compassion,” you’re urging people to send their souls to hell.

A lack of condoms is not causing HIV/AIDS to spread. A lack of proper chastity is causing HIV/AIDS to spread. Condoms won’t stop this spread, and they won’t cure someone already infected.

– Mark L. Chance.

 

[avpadriga]

Exactly. Sin is “helping AIDS,” not a lack of condoms. If everyone followed Church teaching, AIDS would not be spread.

Saint Benidect’s medal, does anyone can explain the full meaning of each letter and how to use it?