Africa and in particular sub-Saharan Africa is the continent the most affected by the HIV epidemic. During the last 25 years more than 20 millions people have died of AIDS in Africa. There, the epidemic particularly affects women, HIV transmission is mostly through heterosexual sex, and concurrent relationships have been identified as a force driving the spread of the virus in the population. In Africa, HIV is mostly about sex. Prevention interventions have been difficult, hindered by limited political commitment, if not political denial of the cause of AIDS, religious interference and lack of resources (amongst many other factors).

Today His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI made his first papal visit in Africa and dropped a bomb on an already decimated population.

Speaking in Cameroon, the not-so-holy head of the Catholic Church argued that HIV is “a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem.”

Against all common sense, against all scientific evidences, against a background of one and a half millions death a year, 12 millions of African children orphaned by HIV, 23 millions infected people, Benedict XVI believes that the answer to HIV is to be found in a “spiritual and human awakening” and “friendship for those who suffer.”

The BBC reports that “While in Africa, the pontiff is expected to talk to young people about the Aids epidemic and explain to them why the Catholic Church recommends sexual abstinence as the best way to prevent the spread of the disease.”

Let it be clear, to date there is no scientific evidence to support that condoms have increased the problem of HIV, but there is plenty of evidences supporting that abstinence, or “spiritual and human awakening” as Benedict now calls it, has failed preventing HIV transmission.

Let it also be clear that condom are not the all-in-one solution, as demonstrated -only briefly, in Uganda before Christian pastors start burning condoms in front of Makerere University, but they are not part of the problem as an old age ignorant prelate would like a vulnerable and sometimes desperate people to believe (see H. Epstein God and the Fight Against AIDS)

The pontiff wants young, energetic, hormonally-driven and sexually attractive and curious young people to sacrifice their natural attraction to the opposite sex in favour of spiritual and human awakening. Welcome to Planet Vatican, where sex is the enemy, where it must be controlled by men who know nothing about it, or so we would like to think.»

One can only supports a spiritual and human awakening, an awakening that would lead to evidences-based prevention interventions and discourses, an awakening that would lead to a reduction in HIV transmission. But it is doubtful that this is the kind of awakening the pontiff has in mind.

How can a man with so little legitimacy but so much power on other’s decisions in life be left airing such dangerous ignorance in public without a global outcry? Nobody expects the head of the Church to change his mind or the credo,  but showing a minimum of respect for human life by having the decency to remain silent on issue the pontiff knows nothing about would be a minimum.

Burning condoms literally or metaphorically does not and is not going to help fighting HIV. Burning a backward and irrelevant institution might. By the time you finish reading this post 20 people will have been infected by HIV, 17 of them in Africa. In most case, a condom, properly used could have prevented the infection.

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