"I Believe in One Condom for the Prevention of A.I.D.S."

The French First "Lady" shows that she has uncritically given assent the above article of the secularist creed with her "scathing attack on Pope Benedict XVI saying that she has allowed her Catholic faith to lapse because of his approach to contraception in Africa" — Carla Bruni criticises Pope Benedict XVI. Should we be surprised that a mistress turns out to be a sex Jacobin?

First, saying that she "has allowed her Catholic faith" is a lie used to dramatize her rather trivial remarks, as she says very clearly, "I was born Catholic, I was baptised, but in my life I feel profoundly secular." She suggests that "the Church should evolve on this issue," saying, "It presents the condom as a contraceptive which, incidentally, it forbids, although it is the only existing protection."

While the article doesn't examine her claim (this post will momentarily), it does mention her "depart[ure] from her post's traditional religious neutrality" and quotes a constitutional historian's opinion that "there is a certain obligation to keep counsel when one is the wife of a head of state, such comments are not opportune." Now, onto her claims.

An article published today sheds much light — Condom Worshippers & Their Perennial Bogeymen. The article notes that "condoms are, at most hopeful estimates, only 90 percent effective against the transmission of the HIV virus." It also cites a study that found "the use of condoms resulted in a 24 percent failure rate." Average those out and we get odds slightly better than Russian roulette. The article continues:

With a false sense of security many African men and women engage in unsafe sex practices precisely because they believe they are protected against the disease by the use of condoms. Statistics bear this out. In fact, according to statistics examined over the previous decade, the nations with the highest rate of condom availability -- South Africa, Kenya, Botswana and Zimbabwe -- have the highest rates of HIV infection.

By the same token, Uganda, the country with the lowest rate of condom availability has by far the lowest incidence of AIDS in the region. Uganda once had the highest rate of AIDS in the world. Starting in the late 1980s, however, the Ugandan government chose to follow a different approach to the disease than that of other African nations. Instead of handing out condoms and encouraging HIV/AIDS patients to use them, Uganda promoted abstinence before marriage and fidelity during marriage. In this country that chose the path recommended by the Catholic Church, from 1991 to 2001 the incidence of AIDS in the population dropped from 15 percent to 5 percent. Compare this to the countries that focused on condom distribution: Botswana rose to 38 percent and Zimbabwe to 32 percent by 2001; both have risen even higher since then. Though very few people seem to realize it, it's obvious that the Church, and especially the Pope, has been set up as the perennial bogeyman in this affair.

(Here in Asia, the same trend was recently documented by the Catholic Association of Doctors, Nurses and Health Professionals in Asia (ACIM-Asia) — Tell truth about the dangers of condoms, Catholic health workers say; the group's secretary reminded us that "about 10 years after the implementation of the World Health Organization's (WHO) '100 percent condom use program' in Thailand," "Thailand had the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases in Asia with 570,000 sufferers compared to 9,000 in the Philippines.")

The article reminds the reader of the papal comments "that drove the frenzy: 'One cannot overcome the problem [of AIDS] with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, they increase the problem.'" Immediately before these words, the Vicar of Christ said, "The traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only failsafe way to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids" — Pope rejects condoms for Africa. These are affirmed by the facts detailed above.

They are also affirmed by Dr. Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, a self-described liberal and "condom heretic," who said of the Pope's comments, "Yet, in truth, current empirical evidence supports him" — The Pope May Be Right. He went on to say that "what has worked in Africa" is, "in plain language, faithful mutual monogamy or at least reduction in numbers of partners, especially concurrent ones."