Duty Bound

Dear Pope,

I’m not going to pretend I know the minutiae of your existence. I am simply going to present this gauntlet to you for your consideration with the knowledge that I am but a human being.

I must get some things out of the way before I begin on the true reason for this gauntlet. First of all, I am concerned that you may be somewhat evil. Is your public relations department aware of this? If so, they should be fired immediately. And if not, or in the unlikely and erroneous case that you do not in fact, have a public relations department (which I fear may be the case), then might I suggest that you look at employing one?

In my expansive and detailed points of conflict with you, one stands out as being most frustrating. This is your stance on condom use.

You apparently stated that condoms, when used to fight the spread of AIDS, can ‘aggravate the problem’. This was edited after leaving your mouth to be in relation to a growing emphasis on condom distribution as opposed to a focus on sexual conduct. As to what a ‘focus on sexual conduct’ entails, I can only imagine. It clearly has nothing to do with hundreds of cases of abused children at the hands (and other organs, unmentionable, I’m sure, in a letter penned to yourself) of people who report at various stages of the Catholic hierarchy.

But I digress and I shall return to the matter at hand. AIDS (or HIV), as I’m sure you’re aware is a blood-borne virus. As such, it is passed on in a number of ways. Sex (which you seem to understand not in the slightest) is one manner of transmission. As is reproduction (which is a by-product of sex) and child-rearing. All three of these forms of transmission could be significantly lowered, if not stopped altogether, by the simple use of a piece of latex that you seem to find abhorrent. There is no need to back this up with useless statistics, as it is simple logic.

Running with this gauntlet, so to speak, I’d like to point out the very basics of poverty. It costs money to raise a child. It costs significantly more money to care for a child with HIV. As almost 2 million children living with HIV are living in Africa, which is a poverty-stricken continent, care is not affordable by their families. As such, one third of the infected African children die before they reach one year old. The remaining two thirds will die before they reach the age of five. Two million children alive right now will not be alive in five years because their families do not have money and did not have access to a condom. You may be thinking now that this is flawed logic. That advocating the use of condoms to prevent the birth of short-lived children is worse than a life of one to five years. That it is tantamount to murder. All the old arguments against abortion. But I am not advocating or condemning abortion. I am not suggesting that all these children should have never have been born. I am suggesting that there is no need to bring more HIV infected children into a world in which they do not have the proper care to live normal lives.

I am of the impression, Pope, that you oppose this view and so I would like to offer a solution. We are no longer living in the dark ages (arguably your prime). We have the medical technology (if latex can be included under the term ‘technology’) to prevent and hopefully cure HIV. I suggest, if you are serious about not aggravating the spread of HIV, that you pour money into funding to prevent and cure HIV because, and I’m sure your public relations department would agree with me here (if they exist), at the moment, as a figurehead and spokesperson for the Catholic faith, you are responsible for those children. You are responsible for everyone who follows you, so instead of being narrow-minded and foolish, I suggest that you use the precious few years you have left to advocate safe sex, condom use and planned parenting and actually make a difference to this world.

Adrik