Reflections, Reflections

And a very interesting questioning of the mantra Catholicism-causes-AIDS-specially-in -Africa:

The AIDS Libel: Among the (admittedly small) group of serious Pope-bashers, the running line has been to cite "the millions who will die needlessly from AIDS," as Christopher Hitchens put it in his tub-thumping way, because of John Paul II's teaching about contraception. (This line has been particularly popular with the British press.) Now Brendan O'Neill, who is neither anti-contraception nor pro-Pope, points out some obvious problems with the Catholicism-causes-AIDS narrative:

The most striking thing about these articles claiming the Vatican makes Africans die from AIDS is the dearth of factual material . . .
[read more]

The two worst-hit countries (not only in Africa, but the world) are Swaziland, where the rate is 38.8 per cent, and Botswana, where it is 37.3 per cent. Yet these countries have low numbers of practising Catholics: in Swaziland, between 10 and 20 per cent of the population is Catholic . . . in Botswana fewer than 5 per cent are Catholic, with 85 per cent of the population subscribing to ancient indigenous beliefs.

I remember reading that in countless rural, uneducated communities, men force women/teenagers to be promiscuous and have sex with no protection available, such as condoms, this being cited as one of the greatest structural problems of AIDS in Africa.

Ross adds:

I'd only add this: Whatever you think about the ethics of birth control, there's no question that widespread use of condoms can help slow the spread of HIV, and the occasional remarks to the contrary by Church officials are idiotic. But there are a host of other factors at play in the African AIDS epidemic -- economic underdevelopment, societal and familial breakdown, political instability, a lack of basic medical care, and so on. And on every single one of these issues, the Catholic Church is doing more than any Western journalist could imagine to improve the lot of Africans -- running hospitals and clinics, working to shore up marriages and discourage promiscuity, pushing for political reform, and encouraging Western governments to share their wealth (and their retroviral drugs) with the developing world.

Very good points, I agree.

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