I found this article and never thought about what it said and then after reading and thinking about it, the author does make sense. Is the church responsible for the amount of people with HIV/AIDS? In same ways, maybe it is. Here is the article, please read it before answering.

http://medsocial.com/blog.aspx?bloga...wblog&show=328

Instead of promoting condom use as a safe sex practice in Africa- the part of the world with the highest Catholic growth rate, the Pope forbade the practice. Rome took steps to actually overrule an African Cardinal who supported the life saving measure.
Another Pope will come along a few generations from now and solemnly declare that his predecessor's decision was a grave error.
They will forgive themselves once again.

source?

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And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

Google it.

I don't believe Catholicism is to blame for this. Pre-Christian African religions were historically more "conservative" on sex issues than even Catholicism. The culture has long been one against sex that cannot lead to conception. And without development and good education, traditional morals dominate along with an ignorance of real world problems.
The Catholic dogma feeds into the problem, but it is not at root.

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"It's never over... BOY!"
The Tall Man, Phantasm III

The problem with that, Java, is by the time condoms came in to wide use, and by the time HIV-AIDS became a huge problem, the ATR (African Traditional Religion) has lost a lot of influence.

South Africa is not a Catholic country, but the RCC has gained a lot of ground the last few decades.

Now, this, as you can imagine, is a huge issue here. I worked for the Counsel of Churches in Namibia on their HIV campaign, and this as a big problem for us. Luckily the Bishop of Namibia was a very open minded person, who 'looked the other way' many times so we can just get on with the job.

It is also not only the RCC which is the problem. Many of the conservative CAlvinist churches have the same views. There is a well known university in SA, a faith based university, where condoms in public places are banned because it will lead to sex amongst students!!!!!

But back to topic. This issue led to a huge fight between the esteemed Anglican ArchbishopDesmond Tutu, and his RCC counterparts here in SA.

It certainly is not the root of the problem, but it defnitly is standing in the way of solving the problem!

AH

PS. A lot of AIDS aid from the US is subject to the NGO's not proclaiming condoms as a view to prevent it. So it is not only the government of the Vatican, but also Washington that has this view

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“The subject no longer has to be mentioned by name. Someone is sick. Someone else is feeling better now. A friend has just gone back into the hospital. Another has died. The unspoken name, of course, is AIDS.”
“From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8, 000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.”

I understand that African traditions are not a major reason for AIDS spreading. I merely used that to refute the idea that Catholicism was. The traditional beliefs came before Catholicism and if religious culture was a primary reason for the spread of AIDS, it would be a culture predating Catholicism.

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"It's never over... BOY!"
The Tall Man, Phantasm III