One of the most oft-repeated canards during the interregnum period of 2005 was that John Paul’s Vatican “brought us the spectacle of suffering and death” (as the New Yorker put it) in the Third World. Media personalities, including certain priest commentators, suggested that the successor pontiff could end this reign of terror by promoting the use of condoms in AIDS-ridden Africa, and the use of birth control in the favelas and shantytowns of Central and South America. One Brazilian priest told the New York Times , “if I were pope, I would start a condom factory right in the Vatican.” Charges that the Church is responsible for the suffering of millions in Africa were repeated over and over in hopes that the new Pope, whoever he might be, would buy into the fallacious logic and change the teachings of the Church to accommodate sexual license. Contraception, especially the use of condoms, was given priority.

When the conclave elected Cardinal Ratzinger, commentators promptly shifted their ire onto the new pontiff. Pope Benedict XVI, they knew, would not fancy accommodationist solutions. Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, for example, lashed out: “Benedict is a rigid conservative, who is out of step with the times. I had hoped for someone with a more reasonable position regarding condoms and HIV/AIDS.” Although Tutu’s assessment of Benedict is skewed, he is correct to believe that the papal tradition of “insistent orthodoxy” will reign on. After his election, Pope Benedict made it clear that every pontiff must resist all attempts to “water down” Catholic teaching, but must rather link themselves and the Church to obedience to the word of God. Joseph Ratzinger recognized the hackneyed condom solution for what it is: the furtherance of moral relativism, cultural imperialism, sexual libertinism and a surefire way to prolong the unfortunate suffering of entire continents. Nevertheless, the fallacy still remains, and the Pope forthrightly addressed the issue again in his introductory remarks to reporters on his recent trip to Cameroon :

I would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome with advertising slogans. If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem. The solution can only come through a twofold commitment: firstly, the humanization of sexuality, in other words a spiritual and human renewal bringing a new way of behaving towards one another; and secondly, true friendship, above all with those who are suffering, a readiness — even through personal sacrifice — to be present with those who suffer. And these are the factors that help and bring visible progress.

These simple comments, believe it or not, have seemingly the entire western world in a tizzy. Critics go so far as to contend that if the Church were to sanction the morality of contraception, millions — it’s always “millions” — of lives would be saved in Africa. One salient point critics misunderstand is that the use of artificial contraception is not immoral because the Pope says so. The Church pronounces contraception immoral because it is objectively sinful. In the case of AIDS in Africa, even if Pope Benedict were to somehow “repeal” the Church’s teaching on contraception in the hope that persons infected by HIV could have “safe-sex” with uninfected partners, as many or more Africans would die from the disease. The fact is that, thanks to Western “family planning” organizations, condoms are already being distributed — and presumably used — by the millions throughout African nations.

Nevertheless, condoms have not been working to stem the AIDS epidemic on the continent. The opposite is true: Condoms have been a significant factor contributing to the spread of the disease for the simple reason that condoms are, at most hopeful estimates, only 90% effective against the transmission of the HIV virus. According to a four year study conducted by the Presidential AIDS Commission, the use of condoms resulted in a 24% failure rate. In another study reported by Dr. Margaret Fishel to the International Conference on AIDS, married couples with one HIV-free partner, using condoms for protection, tested HIV+ in 17% of the cases after only one and one half years. With a false sense of security many African men and women engage in unsafe sex practices precisely because they believe that they are protected against the disease by the use of condoms. This is nothing new. 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 its country. Uganda once had the highest rate of AIDS prevalence in the world. Starting in the late 1980’s, 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 after 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% to 5%. Compare that to the countries that focused on condom distribution: Botswana rose to 38% and Zimbabwe to 32% by 2001 and has risen even higher since then. Though very few people seem to realize it, it’s obvious that the Church, and especially the Pope, have been set up as the bogeyman in this affair.

Benedict's measure of truth is not the misplaced compassion of condomadvocates; it is Christ and the Gospel. The Pope's action plan is grounded in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, which must become part of the renewed identity of Christian nations of the Western world if they are going to be able to assist the poorer countries of the developing world.