These people have feeling, needs - sexual or otherwise, and you can't deny or stop their daily activity when they don't even understand the consequences of HIV or AIDS. Essentially, education is still the core towards fighting this battle against HIV/AIDS, and the usage of condoms IS AND SHOULD be part of the education.
In the case of African Nations, where literacy levels are still relatively low, I'm sure it is very difficult to make these people understand the disease itself. I'm sure many don't even know what a virus or a bacteria is, simply because it can't be seen with the naked eye. Again, how do you educate a person who already don't fathom the meaning of a virus and what it can do to one's body, and tell that person not to have sex because he or she can get sick? Even if you show pictures of AIDS patients (I hate the use of that word victim), how do one explain that you can get sick from having sex? Before long, they will probably just brush it off as probably something to do with bad air or water and resume back to their normal activities.
This is sadly, a very real scenario, unfortunately, not just happening in the African continent, but also within South East Asia. I digress. Back to the article below, I've bold the parts and added my comments which I strongly oppose and feel that this backward mentality of which the Catholic Church needs to seriously reevaluated.
Wednesday March 18, 2009 - THE STAR
Pope in Africa reaffirms "no condoms" against AIDS
By Philip Pullella and David Lewis
YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Tuesday reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to the use of condoms in the fight against AIDS as he started a visit to Africa, where more than 25 million people have died from the disease in recent decades.
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Pope Benedict XVI waves to the crowd from his vehicle as he leaves the airport after his arrival in Yaounde March 17, 2009. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) |
The Pope, who arrived to a tumultuous welcome in the capital of Cameroon, also said the continent's people were suffering disproportionately due to the global challenges of food shortages, financial crises and climate change.
"It (AIDS) cannot be overcome by the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, they increase the problem," he said in response to a question about the Church's widely contested position against the use of condoms.
(Does that mean that the problem will be decreased if they don't use any?)
The disease has killed more than 25 million people since the early 1980s, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, and some 22.5 million Africans are living with HIV.
(This statistics itself speaks for itself, doesn't it?)
His words were some of his most explicit on the use of condoms to stop the spread of AIDS since his election in 2005.
The Church teaches that fidelity within heterosexual marriage, chastity and abstinence are the best ways to stop AIDS. It does not approve condoms but some Church leaders have been calling for allowing their use in rare cases between married heterosexual couples where one partner has the disease.
"The only solution is two-fold: the first is a humanisation of sexuality, a human, spiritual renewal which brings with it a new way of behaving among people and, secondly, a true friendship, especially for those who are suffering, a willingness to make personal sacrifices," he said.
(By "humanising" sexuality, one have to understand what sexuality means. In this case, how can one (The Pope) really understand sexuality, if he himself lives in a controlled condition of celibacy, let alone preaches on this subject?)
He called for "correct behaviour regarding one's body".
(Again, refer to my earlier comment above.)
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