Vatican City — Critics of the Catholic Church’s social teachings are trying to intimidate Pope Benedict XVI into silence, the Vatican charged Friday in responding to attacks on the pontiff’s remarks about AIDS and condom use.
In a strongly worded statement, the Vatican defended the pope’s view that condoms aren’t the answer to Africa’s AIDS epidemic and could make it worse. On his way to Africa last month, he said the best strategy is the church’s effort to promote sexual responsibility through abstinence and monogamy.
France, Germany, the United Nations’ AIDS-fighting agency and the British medical journal The Lancet called the remarks irresponsible and dangerous. The Belgian parliament passed a resolution calling them “unacceptable” and demanded Belgium’s government officially protest.
Belgium’s ambassador to the Holy See lodged the formal protest Wednesday, prompting the Vatican Secretariat to issue its tough statement denouncing the Belgian vote.
The Vatican deplored “the fact that a parliamentary assembly should have thought it appropriate to criticize the Holy Father on the basis of an isolated extract from an interview, separated from its context.”
It said Benedict’s remarks to reporters had been “used by some groups with a clear intent to intimidate, as if to dissuade the pope from expressing himself on certain themes of obvious moral relevance and from teaching the church’s doctrine.”
The Vatican said the criticism of the pontiff was followed by an “unprecedented media campaign” in Europe extolling the value of condoms in fighting AIDS while ignoring Benedict’s message about the need for responsible sexuality and to care for those suffering from AIDS.
The statement was the latest sign of the Vatican’s increasing defensiveness and frustration as it tries to get Benedict’s message out. It follows a maelstrom of criticism — including from within the church itself — after the pope lifted the excommunication of a bishop who denied the Holocaust.
Vatican officials said they acted so forcefully this time because the Belgian criticism required a formal, diplomatic response.
Comments
Leslie Swearingen 4 years, 2 months ago
The Pope can say anything he wants. You are not obligated to agree with him or understand him. I think he should just give up on the world on certain matters and let it go. As a bishop in the Catholic Church he preaches to Catholics, which is the province of the bishop. He should not apologize, he should not retreat from anything he has said.
viewfromahill 4 years, 2 months ago
abstinence, obstinate monogamy, the hegemony
none2 4 years, 2 months ago
Irish (Irish Swearingen) says…
The Pope can say anything he wants. You are not obligated to agree with him or understand him. I think he should just give up on the world on certain matters and let it go. As a bishop in the Catholic Church he preaches to Catholics, which is the province of the bishop. He should not apologize, he should not retreat from anything he has said. ==========================================
Sure he should continue to spew backwards and ignorant comments that could result in more needless death due to this disease.
Imagine if there were a disease where transmission could be curtailed if people wore gloves while shaking hands. Then imagine some religious leader said that it was a sin to wear gloves, and that only reserving handshakes for life long friends was the solution. Most of us would realize just how stupid such a comment would be. There would always be some people who would still want to shake hands without gloves, and to tell them wearing gloves is a sin would be stupid.
Nevertheless, this pope will continue to make such backward statements On the bright side, some pope 400 years in the future will have a grandeur purpose. That pope will be able to reflect on just how backwards and ignorant the comments of this pope were. 400 years is about how long it took for the church to pardon Galileo Galilei for the grave sin of using his head to think.
grammaddy 4 years, 2 months ago
The Pope is infallible, don'tcha know.
viewfromahill 4 years, 2 months ago
Help... I've infallen, and I can't get up....
AjiDeGallina 4 years, 2 months ago
The Pope is making his church dwindle rapidly.
Strontius 4 years, 2 months ago
Does anyone else find it odd that it took so long for the Vatican to respond to weeks old criticism from government and scientific groups from around the world?
A lot of people might not realize this, but for France to come out and criticize the Pope, it's a huge deal. The Catholic Church is rapidly losing influence and being repudiated; a natural consequence of losing their monopoly on education and ability to punish people for disagreement.
No one should be surprised that the last bastion of Medieval authoritarianism is vanishing from the world.
Gina Bailey-Carbaugh 4 years, 2 months ago
none2, your argument is without merit. How can you equate hand-holding with sex? While both exchanges can transfer microorganisms, there is much more to sex than that. Or, let's say there should be more. Sex today is reduced to an activity between two people. I guess if they make that choice, then they also must accept the consequences. The Pope's statements are meant to get people to see sex as an intimate act of commitment and love, not just an exchange of pleasant sensations. Afterall, if mankind had made better choices, such as monogomy and responsible sexuality, these diseases would not be as widespread.
none2 4 years, 2 months ago
Gina (Gina Bailey-Carbaugh) says…
none2, your argument is without merit. How can you equate hand-holding with sex? While both exchanges can transfer microorganisms, there is much more to sex than that. Or, let's say there should be more. Sex today is reduced to an activity between two people. I guess if they make that choice, then they also must accept the consequences. The Pope's statements are meant to get people to see sex as an intimate act of commitment and love, not just an exchange of pleasant sensations. Afterall, if mankind had made better choices, such as monogomy and responsible sexuality, these diseases would not be as widespread.
You are so full of yourself. You want people to accept the consequences due to YOUR medieval views on life. That is pretty pathetic. It is like saying you want people to get burned when they pick up a hot pan because you and your kind want to say it is immoral to have a pot holder. I believe in monogamy. However, it would be BS to think that other people deserve to die because they shouldn't have been cooking in the first place?
Sure the body is a temple of God. However, would the pope ban filters on cigarettes because people who want to abuse their lungs should suffer more because they should have known better than to abuse their lungs? When my dad and a great aunt were alive, my dad used to water down her alcohol to try to cut back on her problem with booze. I suppose that must have been a sin also as she deserved to experience the full brunt of her addiction to this chemical. If the pope religious view led him to a vegetarian lifestyle because we are caretakers of nature and should not kill, should the pope condemn cooking of meat to prevent diseases because they shouldn't be eating meat in the first place? Should the pope be against seat belts because if people don't go very fast in the first place there is nothing little to worry about?
The fact of the matter is your argument is baseless. You want to play to people's lowest emotional fears -- fear of eternal damnation and death -- for one reason: CONTROL.
God is a loving God -- regardless of whether you and/or the pope are able to comprehend that.
Plenty of people realize that there is more to sex than pleasant sensations. However, for those that haven't realized that yet or tend to see things differently than others, they don't deserve to die. No one deserves to die due to a preventable disease because they didn't use YOUR method of preventing it.
Gina Bailey-Carbaugh 4 years, 2 months ago
none2, wow, you sure do read a lot between the lines. Me thinks it is you who is full of BS. I said nothing about hell and damnation. Merely pointed out the fact that unsafe sex is the leading cause of STDs. Period. Nuff said.
whats_going_on 3 years, 1 month ago
yes, because abstinence education has worked so well in the past....
AjiDeGallina (anonymous) says… "The Pope is making his church dwindle rapidly."
One can only hope, but you and I both know that his sheep will follow him no matter what.
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