"No matter how overwhelming the evidence, there are always a few true believers who just won't admit they're wrong. To have Pope Benedict leading the flat-earth anti-condom chorus while flying to a place where 22 million people are infected with HIV boggles the mind."
Campaigners battling to stem the avalanche of deaths from AIDS in Africa last night blasted Pope Benedict XVI for saying the use of condoms made the crisis worse.
As he prepared for his first trip to Africa as pope, Benedict said AIDS “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.”
But Rebecca Hodes, of South Africa’s Treatment Action Campaign said last night: “His opposition to condoms conveys that religious dogma is more important to him than the lives of Africans.”
With the number of practicing Catholics dwindling in the developed world, Africa is seen as vital to the Church’s future. The pontiff started his visit in Cameroon yesterday and will visit Angola.
In 2003, a Vatican official wrongly said the AIDS virus could escape through tiny holes in condoms.
Medical workers advocate the use of condoms to help prevent the spread of AIDS, which has killed more than 25 million people on the African continent since the early 1980s.
25M Number of AIDS-related deaths on the African continent since the early 1980s.