The reason why the Pope is WRONG on condoms

[Għafas hawn għall-verżjoni bil-Malti.]

19.5.9 By Dr Ing. Patrick Attard

The Catholic Church teaches that any form of sex which is not within a marriage with the intention of procreation is a grave sin against chastity. Thus the use of condoms, sex between unmarried cohabitating couples, oral sex, anal sex, masturbation and sex between people of the same gender all fall within this category. Thus the Catholic Church cannot approve the use of condoms without a thorough revision of its teachings on sexuality.

Whilst it is understandable that Pope Benedict XVI would disapprove the use of condoms for the above reasons he should refrain from spreading inaccurate information about this life-saving aid [Video in Italian; English Audio Translation]. In fact his comments even drew strong opposition from the Lancet Medical Journal and the Belgian Parliament which passed a motion of protest on the Pope’s remarks.

But what is the fuss about?
If one were to look at the issue from a mathematical point of view, if a seat belt would be 90 to 95% efficient, one would be a fool not to wear one in the car. However if someone forgot to wear a seatbelt once last week, this would have no effect on its prevention of reducing injuries in the event of an accident next week. However, since the condom deals with contagious diseases the matter is completely different since if someone didn’t use one last month, it can have strong re-percussions on the future.

It is best to explain this with an example. Consider in the pyramid above where one man has sex with 10 woman in 5 years (numbers are used to clarify the example). In the next 5 years each woman has sex with 10 men, leading to a total of 100 men. If this pattern is repeated in the same way, in 35 years there will be 10,000,000 people in the bottom tier of the pyramid.

Now consider that the person at the top of the pyramid was infected with HIV which leads to AIDS. He used a condom which is for example 90% efficient and thus one of the 10 women was infected. The ten women in the second tier of the pyramid all had sex with 10 men, and each had a condom failure but since 9 of the women were not infected, they did not pass the virus. The 10th woman however was infected and even though she did not pass the virus to 9 of the men, the 10th man was infected when the condom failed. In this way by continuing the same pattern, a total of 8 people would be infected in 35 years.

Now in the case where no condoms where used, the infected man infected the 10 women with whom they had sexual relationships. They in turn infected the 100 men they had sex with in the next five years who in turn infected the 1000 women they had sex with in the years after that. In a 35 year span, one infection would lead to 11,111,111 infections i.e. more than 11 million infections. This is a huge difference from the 8 people infected when condoms where used.

The numbers of the pyramids above were used to illustrate the example. The pyramid would be very narrow or non-existent in case of monogamous relationships, but on the other hand it would be very wide if sex-workers get infected.

Whilst believers can repent and confess and their sins absolved, the issue is not so simple for the person infected with the virus and the health-care system of the country could be in jeaopardy if no cheap cure is found for the illness.

The Pope’s message, when he talked about the case that condoms actually increase the spread of the disease on the flight on his way to Cameroon must have been along the same reasoning that people who wear seat-belts might tend to drive more recklessly due to the added safety factor and an added sense of security. However, in the light of contagious diseases where millions of people can be infected through mis-information, it would irresponsible for a leader of such huge community not to inform himself properly before talking on such a delicate subject.

---

If you disagree with the Pope, write him a letter or email with your opinion:

Pope Benedict XVI

Prefettura della Casa Pontificia
00120 Città del Vaticano

email: benoitxvi@vatican.va

---

Related articles:

Times: 'Stop misquoting Pope on condoms' – Mgr Anton Gouder
Times: Interview with Mgr Gouder: We're a soft target

Times: Condom use in Africa and elsewhere

Interesting Comment in the first article above:

George M Sant
It would be instructive to learn the source of the research that allegedly supports the Pope's contentions about condoms and HIV. It seems so contrary to research published in scientific journals. The WHO bluntly considered "These incorrect statements...are dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic, which has already killed more than 20 million people". A leading editorial in The Lancet, one of the world's leading medical journals, questioned whether the Pope's "error" was "due to ignorance or a deliberate attempt to manipulate science to support Catholic ideology", and called for a retraction. The director of the WHO's HIV department asserted "there is no scientific evidence showing that condom use spurs people to take more sexual risks....condoms are highly (effective) to prevent the transmission of HIV". Quentin Sattentau, Professor of Immunology at Oxford summarised the "large body of published evidence demonstrating that condom use reduces the risk of acquiring HIV infection, but does not lead to increased sexual activity". If there is evidence to the contrary, that is scientific, factual, objective and verifiable, as opposed to indoctrinated opinion, then it should be published so that a balanced picture can be obtained and any erroneous course corrected.

---
Further Reading:

- Truth and Consequence: A LOOK BEHIND THE VATICAN’S BAN ON CONTRACEPTION

- African Times: Infallible and Incorrigible - On his first Africa visit, Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed the Vatican’s disastrous AIDS policy – By Bartholomäus Grill