I agree with this completely.smiley_cow wrote:I've already read about this here but I assume the two articles aren't too different.
I can't say this is the first time I've found Pope Benedict to be misinformed. Studies show that people who are educated about sex and have access to contraceptives are much less likely to have sex until they are older or to catch an STI. Not to mention that AIDS and HIV are a major epidemic in Africa right now, anything that can be done to prevent this spread of AIDS/HIV there really should be done, and if the answer to that is more condoms so be it. Remember, Africa isn't in the same position we are in the Western world, people are dying by the thousands over there. And all that the pope is going to accomplish by saying that is making an already terrible situation even worse. My two cents anyways.
I think the other thing that isn't taken into consideration is the fact that much of the sex going on in Africa is nonconsensual. It is the norm for women and young girls to be raped. They, obviously, are not going to be able to choose to have less sex. Also, adultery is the norm as well, for men, and women cannot opt to not have sex with their adulterous husband. In both of these cases, the only chance women have is to convince their partner to use a condom (or to have the partner already educated on the dangers and decide to use a condom) or to use some of the newly developed gels (which only casually seem to have any relation to preventing the spread of HIV).