A Pale Horseman? Pope Benedict XVI Tells Africa Condoms Wont Stop AIDS

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him…. Revelation 6:8

Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday said the Roman Catholic Church is at the forefront of the battle against AIDS, he also said condoms are not the answer to preventing the disease.

Benedict and the Vatican advocate fidelity in marriage and abstinence from premarital sex as key weapons in the fight against AIDS, but even some priests and nuns working with those living with HIV/AIDS question the church’s opposition to condoms amid the pandemic ravaging Africa. Inhabited by just over 12% of the world’s population, Africa is estimated to have more than 60% of the world’s AIDS-infected population.

AIDS, Benedict told an reporter AP on the flight to Cameroon, “is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems.”

Benedict is on a seven-day trip to Africa, which will take him to Cameroon and Angola.

This is his first trip to the continent as pontiff.

The Catholic Church has an estimated 185 million members in Africa, just over 20 percent of the continent’s population and is the only part of the world that is not seeing a decline in church membership.

Benedict has recently been facing increasing criticism from the worlds press, and opposition within his own church, particularly after a speech last December where he said the human race needs to be saved from the scourge of gays and his outreach to anti-Semitic ultraconservatives in the church that led to his lifting the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop. His trip to Africa is viewed by many as a way to shore up his image.

The pope was warmly welcomed on his arrival yesterday in Cameroon by that country’s, President Paul Biya and last week Biya ordered his security forces to bulldoze the street stalls, where thousands of people earn a living, so he could give the capital a face-lift for the visit by Pope Benedict.

A  blogger in Cameroon said…

“All small shops, houses, vendor’s stalls that don’t look nice enough are being destroyed with a large caterpillar. The truck comes by, looks at your stall/house/whatever and if the driver doesn’t like, he just destroys it with all its content. It all started about a week ago in the city centre. Suddenly the streets did not house street vendors anymore, all the local shops at the post office disappeared etc. Now it’s been extended all the way to the airport.
The road to the airport has brand new streetlights. But then ONLY the way from the airport to the town centre.
Tuesday (for sure, other days to be confirmed) the road between airport and town centre will be blocked. Note: the pope arrives in the evening, but the road needs to be blocked from EARLY MORNING. Hence nobody can get to/from work, school etc.”

Biya has ruled Cameroon with an iron fist since 1982 and in the past his government has been criticized by several human rights organizations for abuses in crushing political opponents and for allowing widespread government corruption that has systematically looted Cameroon over the decades. Some also accuse the government of using Benedict’s visit to try to sanction the status quo and legitimize Biya’s rule.

The pope made no specific reference to that situation in Cameroon, but he did say in general remarks on Africa that “a Christian can never remain silent” in the face of violence, poverty, hunger, corruption or abuse of power.

Family Store in Cameroon Demolished in Honor of Pope Benedict XVI Visit-Sander, Elke & Milan

Benedict is schedule for more meetings with Biya and other of Cameroon leaders later in his visit. However, so far Benedict has remained pretty silent on the “sprucing-up” of Cameroon’s capitol for his visit.

“Pope Benedict XVI will not know when he visits Yaounde that beyond the thousands of smiling faces welcoming him are millions of destitute Cameroonians who wish he did not come,” said one resident of Cameroon’s capital Yaounde.

The Vatican has said Benedict will conduct masses for some of Cameroon’s large Catholic population while he is in that country… so that should take the sting out of thousands in this already impoverished country losing their livelihood caused by his visit.

AIDS is now pandemic in Cameroon; it is estimated that over 650,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS in Cameroon and there are nearly 60,000 deaths a year caused by the disease in that country.

The majority of HIV infections are acquired through unprotected sexual relations between partners, one of who has HIV. The primary mode of HIV infection in Cameroon is through sexual contact between members of the opposite sex and the main driver of infection in the region is commercial sex by women who find themselves in grinding poverty.

A spokeswoman with Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa said if the pope is serious about preventing HIV infections, he should focus on promoting wide access to condoms and spreading information on how to use them.

Most governments in the region have established AIDS education programs in partnership with the World Health Organization and other international NGOs like Treatment Action Campaign that commonly teach the ‘ABC’ of HIV prevention: a combination of abstinence (A), fidelity to your partner (Be faithful) and condom use (C).

One civil servant working in the ministry of urban development in Cameroon said, “What the pope says is an ideal for the Catholic Church. But he needs to look at the realities on the ground. One should be aware of these realities. In the case of Cameroon and Africa as a whole, condoms are very necessary … You need condoms to prevent AIDS.”

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/03/17/the-pope-in-cameroon-1-yaounde-clean-up-controversy/