AmericanPapist Comments
Huh?
Since there is an alternative (abstinence) to condom use, PDE wouldnt apply.
Second off, PDE doesn't work in this case because you can't do an objective and intrinsic evil to achieve good ends...ever.
As far as AIDS goes, I think of it this way. In a population you will always have people who will have sex no matter what. You will also have people who won't have sex no matter what. Then, you will have a large population of people who might or might not have sex, depending on the circumstances. If you tell people that a condom will prevent certain consequences (aids, pregnancy, etc.) the people in the large middle category will have more sex. Condoms aren't 100% effective. With more people involved in sex, more people will get AIDS. It only takes one condom to break one time to infect someone with AIDS. Will condoms work to prevent AIDS? Drawn out over time...NO! Its like throwing Gasoline on a fire. If you have AIDS, the loving thing to do would be to NOT have sex with your spouse.
At my seminary, there are several men from Uganda. AIDS is a big problem there, but the AIDS population is going down because their president has programs teaching people not to have sex before marriage.
Of course it is once more this totally ridicule stance that the church and the Curia should prescribe us what to do. Furtunately we have all been created with our own conscience, and we may praise the Lord that there are priests and prelates who support the ordinary people in applying reason and using their conschience. If they are faithful, they will pray a lot, and their Lord will provide them personal guidance. It's just silly to assume someone could involuntarily lead a life of complete abstinence, as suggested above ...
Sarcasm should be used carefully in real life, and not at all online.
This might be a facetious comment, but with modern drugs, HIV is no longer a death sentence. Cancer has a much higher and quicker mortality.
I know the fact that HIV/AIDS is increasingly becoming treatable is not a reason to stop preventing its transmission; but comparing condom use to homicide is a little far, considering HAART's efficacy.
It would better for this Cardinal to discuss ways in which the drugs we enjoy in the developed world could be made available to those in the developing world, without stunting research and development by expecting pharm companies to give them away for nothing.
This is the real crux of the issue.
As is vertical transmission (from mother to baby) - in the developed world we agressively treat pregnant women and prevent transmission. Again, how to extend those therapies to the developing world?
I might be too cynical about this, but handing out condoms, while a seemingly costeffective solution, is merely a politically corret bandaid for our conscience as opposed to an evidence based aspiration for actually dealing with those who have HIV/AIDS in the developing world.
I am not aware of this Belgain cardinal but vaguely remember him saying something like this before.
As a reader from Europe, I can tell you that Cardinal Danneels has quite a record for being a Liberal Catholic. My brother (who is in seminary in southern Germany) told me that, before last year's conclave, Cardinal Danneels published a wish list of what the next pope should be like. All in all it read like the opposite of Cardinal Ratzinger - he should allow married priesthood, female ordination, reconsider the Church's stance on homosexuality a.s.o. I think you get the gist... So it doesn't surprise me at all to hear this about him.
Concerning the topic in question, I think the whole thing is futile. AIDS is still a STD (let's just let out those who get infected via blood transfusions and during their own pregnancy). So, a husband who has HIV has probably been unfaithful to his wife. Let's again let out those who did it only once - is such a husband who disregards his wife so much probable to even care about whether his wife gets AIDS or not? Or care about what the Church says about condom use?
I do not want to deny Cardinal Danneels his best intentions, but in fact, if put into general practise, this opinion would just be the first step in weakening the Church's morale, which will, therefore, never happen. And thanks be to the Lord.
Hi, I'm Belgian
Cardinaal Danneels is the only cardinal in Belgium (Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels) and therefore the highest ranked Belgian in the Catholic church.
He has quite 'liberal' views on such issues, which is logical I think as he represents a very liberal country (same-sex marriage is legal, abortion and euthanasia are legal, use of canabis is somewhat legal etc).
I don't think this will put him in a bad daylight as he has made such comments for many years allready ( see for example http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/
s...1121962,00.html )So I don't know why it would be any different now.
(he was cited by many international newspapers as a possible next pope in the event that it would be a liberal pope)
I many people within the chruch think as he does, but he is simply in such an influential position within the church that he doesn't have to care about how other people see him and therefore he can speak more freely.
Thanks for the thoughts and information, gentleman. Very helpful
I hope you weren't refering to me as a gentleman.......
(I'm a lady!)
I know nothing about this Cardinal, but if you do have, say, a man who contracts HIV via a blood transfusion (we had a very sad case of this here in the city where I live some years ago--people treated this poor man terribly, and he did eventually die), it seems to me equally unreasonable to say that he can no longer have any marital relations with his wife, nor can he protect her from becoming ill also. Yes, HIV can be controlled, but not always--and, eventually, most cases will turn into AIDS and the victims will die.
We'll have to wait to see what the Vatican says about this, but it seems to me that condom use in this situation would be acceptable. Destroying a life with illness is bad enough; destroying a marriage on top of it is surely not to be recommended.
(And as a long-married woman, I do have some experience of the sort of trials mooted here, so this is greying wisdom speaking! Ha!)
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