Pope claims condoms 'could make African AIDS crisis worse'

It could be argued that hundreds of thousands, if not millions have died of AIDS as a result of the Catholic church's stand on contraception.

So, what is the Pope's response to the problem I hear you ask. On a recent trip to Cameroon the Pope was quoted as saying that the condition was "a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems". (Source Pink News)

I find such flawed logic completely incomprehensible. It is estimated that AIDS has caused 25 million deaths since its appearance in the early 1980s. (Source UN 2008 Report on the global AIDS epidemic). Such an irresponsible approach from any religion is unacceptable. I doubt however that Gordon Brown will take the opportunity to raise the issue with him if he visits the UK and will take the same sycophantic approach as our previous PM.

The Catholic church in Brazil

If up early enough on a Sunday morning I sometimes listen to Sunday on Radio 4. It is a religious magazine programme which covers religious stories from all religions, although not religious myself I find it an interesting programme.

This morning I was shocked to hear the story of a 9 year Brazilian girl who became pregnant as a result of her father's sexual abuse, who subsequently had an abortion, which is only legal under Brazilian law in cases of rape or when the mother's life is at risk which was clearly the case for both these reasons.

As a result of this the child's mother and the doctors who treated her have been ex-communicated by the Catholic church, were as the abusive father is allowed to remain in the church.

This once again shows how out of touch the Catholic church has become in the 21st century. Surely such immoral behaviour will push yet more of its congregation away. If the church wants to be seen as the voice of morality it needs a reality check as to what is morally acceptable behaviour in the 21st century.