One thing about blogging is that after you have been in the bear pit of a heavily biased television show, you can later write at length on any of the questions raised and dealt with in a few seconds of live TV.
James Preece has done this in an excellent article:The Pope and Condoms in Africa
6 comments:
What a brilliant article/debate by James Preece, everyone should be given a copy of it it gives such obvious common sense support to the Pope and his stance on condoms
quote
'What the Pope is really saying is that human life has a greater value than sexual pleasure. He's saying it is never acceptable to say "this act might result in my partners death but I will do it anyway because I enjoy it and that's more important than their life'
Thank you James, and thank you Father for the link.
Father, you said:
"you can later write at length on any of the questions raised and dealt with in a few seconds"
What's even more awesome imho is that you can then let the ripples spread out to those who thought they were alone in thinking like this, those who weren't sure, as well as those who up to now have never questioned what gets spewed out as being the perceived wisdom.
Dear Father!
First let me say, I'm against condoms and I'm happy our Holy Father said what he said. But here is a question for you which I find a bit confusing. I'm just trying to fully understand the issue.
I think one can quite easily say that taking a knife to a robbery it is objectively better (and perhaps less evil) than to take a dynamite.
Does this principle apply to condoms as well? Even though sex outside of marriage is gravely evil (one way or the other), would it be somehow less evil to use a condom under certain circumstances?
Here is how I understand it. We were made man and women and it is within the bond of marriage that we are called to be fruitful and multiply. Anything outside of that bond is an abomination and thus using condoms is no longer an issue - after all there is no call from God to be fruitful and multiply outside of marriage (only a call to be abstain). So this logically leads me to conclude that it wouldn't be more sinful have a sex with a prostitute with condom.
Is this correct?
Because if my thinking is correct would it not mean that it would be less evil (while still obviously evil) to have sex with a prostitute without a condom if there was some significant danger involved.
Of course even if this is correct it would not pose a problem against what Pope has said because we cannot hand out knives to criminals so that they stop using dynamites - that would be called formal cooperation with evil, no?
Tom - I think you are right to compare the question to that of whether you should take a knife or dynamite to a robbery. The same logic applies: it might be a lesser evil to take a knife. Even so, a person who is stabbed might have a slower and more painful death than a person who is dynamited. It is not a good area in which to weigh up consequences.
The question of lesser or graver evil in such a situation is not a useful guide to what one should do or advise others to do.
Committing armed robbery, having sex with someone when you are HIV-positive: both threaten the lives of others. Best not to do it at all.
I agree and thank you for answering so quickly.
The thing that troubled me is that I saw a few high-ranking bishops around a world saying that in some cases such use of condoms might be considered a lesser evil. I don't remember the quotes but they made me think and that's why I asked.
I think that it was wrong to say something like that especially after the Holy Father heavily criticized condoms in Africa but perhaps they were pushed into it and were forced to give an answer. So at least they (at least some of them) don't seem to be unorthodox. Perhaps imprudent but not unorthodox.
God bless
I was a volunteeer in a (non-Catholic) mission hospital in Malawi three years ago and th store room had many boxes at the top of a shelf.
The hospital explained that they were full of condoms sent in from western aid organisations and they were useless as the Africans wouldn't use them.
Incidentally there were also posters all over the country with the President on with the words: "My three part plan to reduce HIV infection: abstinence, abstinence, abstinence."
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