Up With AIDS!

I think it is absolutley unbelievable that the Catholic Church can seriously claim that condoms don't help protect against HIV. I also can't believe that some people can argue that, because condoms aren't 100% effective in blocking the transmission of HIV, the Catholic Church's statement is defensible.

The bottom line is that AIDS has become a global epidemic, threatening to eliminate almost 2 billion lives over the next 50 years. Though condons aren't 100% effective, they're definitely more effective than not using any protection - over 90% effective by the most conservative studies. The fact that the Catholic Church is issuing any statements that might make people doubt condoms' effectiveness is completely indefensible. For the Vatican, a body with such power to influence the decisions people make in so many countries, to encourage behavior that would put millions of lives at risk is completely mind-boggling to me. I don't care if God is against pre-marital sex (or casual sex, or sex solely for pleasure, or whatever); I'd like to think that He would do whatever was necessary to save the lives of millions of His followers.

The Catholic Church is really on a roll lately - condemning gay marriage, protecting pedophiles, encouraging the spread of AIDS... If the Church is supposed to be such a beacon of morality, I'd hate to see what the heathens are preaching right now.