1) A nine year old girl in Brazil is repeatedly raped by her stepfather and made pregnant with twins. She gets an abortion. The girl's mother and doctors are excommunicated; the rapist is unpunished by the church. The Vatican's initial response is defending the church. They back peddled only after it became a PR nightmare. 2) The pope says that condoms are not the answer to the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Not only that, he says condoms will make the situation worse. Reality suggests that people are gonna screw no matter what, especially in poor, third world countries. Contraceptives and education actually work. Uganda promotes this and infection rates have gone down. Harvard researchers estimated that over 300,000 needless deaths occurred in South Africa by using the pope's approach. It seems to me that the pope and the Vatican are completely wrong in both cases. They represent the exact opposite of moral judgment. Thoughts?
Religion & Spirituality - 9 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Solution: http://www.cpusa.org/
2 :
The church has been right on only about 3 of every 10000000 decisions.
3 :
In fact one of the world's leading AIDS researchers - at Harvard! - just stated that the Pope was right. Ready availability of condoms with their high failure rate creates a false sense of security which results in increased sexual activity [big surprise], which invariably results in an increase in rates of pregnancy, abortion and venereal disease, including AIDS! The Pope checks his facts before he speaks, rather than just parroting popular opinion.
4 :
>>Contraceptives and education actually work.<< So go distribute condoms and pamphlets. The pope can't stop you.
5 :
In both cases the Church is correct. Abortion is always wrong, no matter what -- even in the extremely rare case of a pregnancy resulting from rape. It may seem harsh, but it's really not -- the Church's regard for the sanctity of human life goes "all the way." The Church is so willing to extend its love for the sanctity of life, in fact, that it is even willing to take the unpopular view that the unborn should not even be killed if the pregnancy came out of a rape. That's how serious the Church is about the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. As for condoms, the truth is that the Church offers the ONLY foolproof way to avoid AIDS and other sexually spread diseases -- which is abstinence prior to marriage, and fidelity within marriage. Imagine you're about to have sex with someone -- but just before you start, he/she says to you, "Here, you should wear this condom because I have AIDS." Are you going to proceed to have sex with that person? I hope the answer to that question is obvious. "300,000 needless deaths occured by using the pope's approach" is ridiculously wrong. That's because abstinence before marriage/fidelity within marriage has never killed even one person -- let alone 300,000. .
6 :
in my opinion the vatican is wrong on almost everything!!! the dear pope was in on the sexual cover up involving the pervert priests. what more do i have to say???!!!
7 :
Well asked. I asked a similar question after hearing a BBC report on the speech the pope made in Cameroon. It's is appalling that the church will choose to sacrifice lives in the blind pursuit of its dogmatic ends. To insist that "condoms will make aids worse" is brutally wrong, a lie, and scientifically baseless. Of course, everyone knows that condoms are not 100% effective. But abstinence is almost totally unreliable. Especially when dealing with the poor, the oppressed, the uneducated and the fearful, superstitious people that these comments are addressed to. I'm not surprised though. This pope like most others is an appalling, loathsome, human being.
8 :
The Vatican doesn't make judgments based on morals. They do what is strategically advantageous for their own agenda. Keeping the population high means more followers, more contributions, more control. Keeping the population riddled with disease means more dependence on religious beliefs and more emphasis on faith, especially in third world countries.
9 :
They are following their own logic, which is grounded in different premises. Your logic (one infers) is grounded in the premise: it is moral to minimize harm and suffering. The logic of Catholic theology is grounded in the premise: it is moral to maximize obedience to God. When you say: "people are going to screw no matter what, so we may as well make screwing safe," the Vatican theologians hear: "people are going to disobey God no matter what, so we may as well mitigate the consequences of their disobedience." Or, to put it more simply: "Why not make it easier to disobey God?". Now, I don't know where the Pope got the suggestion that condoms would make the situation worse, but he probably meant that condoms would increase the general happy feeling: "screw all you want, nothing bad can happen to you" whereas it might be better for individuals to learn control of their passions. There are other consequences of fornication and adultery -- consequences that cause real psychic harm to people -- apart from the medical risks. I don't myself agree with the Vatican positions, but since you raise the question of morality -- they are entirely consistent with the Catholic view of morality. To Catholicism, morality has never been about minimizing bodily suffering. Morality is about seeking and carrying out God's will.
