Reminiscing about my time spent at the AIDS 2010 conference, I recall one poster and a campaign in particular that caught my attention. This campaign consisted of Catholics protesting against the Pope's anti-condom protest. Being somewhat a Catholic myself I know that we, as religious peoples, are required to acknowledge the infallibility of the Pope, regardless of how outrageous and outlandish his claims and protests appear to be to the average person.
Now because we are required to believe the Pope is infallible, it creates a huge rift between what Catholics really think and what the Pope thinks. Because of the rigid tradition and the strict hierarchy that appears to reign over the Catholic faith, the majority of us remain silent and the average non-Catholic usually then tend to believe we all assume the Pope's somewhat outdated beliefs and thus occasionally come to the conclusion that the lot of us are a little 'loony'.
One of the topics in which papal and public opinion seem to clash is the use of contraceptives and condoms. A while back the Pope condemned the use of condoms and preached abstinence instead. The result of this decreased use of condoms in several African regions, which then resulted in an increased number of HIV infections. Grounds for the intolerance of condom use may be based on its hinderance in procreation and that it may promote premarital sexual activity and promiscuity. Would the non-use of condoms actually decrease premarital sexual activity/promiscuity? I personally don't think so. Do condoms dampen procreation? Well we still are having babies aren't we?
But today in the face of all the controversies the Vatican is entangled in - pedophilia, sexism etc. - more and more Catholics are letting their cries be heard. This movement claims that using condoms does not make you a bad Catholic, but rather stresses that good Catholics use condoms. This again brings back the unanswerable question of what constitutes a good Catholic? Is it exclusively based on serving the organised hierarchy installed by man? What's your opinion?
Well written! :)
ReplyDeleteI personally think that it would be those fairly liberal and down to earth christians which would be open to contraception as opposed to those which are more strict and 'religious' which claim that one may only reproduce in order to form offspring and continue the human life chain.
so therefore, I would suppose that depending on which type of catholic person you are a liberal or strictly 'religious' one.. contraception may be good or bad.