Oh, Benny! #2

His Popefulness said something today that made me completely go "Huh"? again. And then I seriously contemplated the possibility that maybe the Vatican is actually another planet (from a galaxy far, far away) which somehow landed on mine, because although they speak the same language as I do, what they're saying completely confounds me.

Eggs Benedict (how juvenile of me, calling him names!) told the African Bishops that "the traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only fail-safe way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS" and then implored "fidelity in marriage and the safeguard which chastity gives must always be presented to the faithful, especially to the young." And the only way to get rid of cancer is by dying from it...

I cannot even begin without risking excommunication... But let's just say you're in the 3rd world with no TV, no air conditioner, sometimes not even food on your table: your brain somehow doesn't contemplate the virtues of spirituality and celibacy. Instead, your survival instinct supercedes any epistemological aspirations - hierarcy of values, plain and simple. Prophylactics cost so much less than Western-supplied drugs! How can you be the shepherd of your flock when you've let all the sheep die? Damn those sheep, I told them not to jump off the cliff but they did anyway!!! First, you build a fence around that cliff, then you teach your sheep why the cliff is bad for them.

The women... the mothers and wives who have no choice. They are the ones who will suffer, and their children will suffer, and for what? You tell a drunk husband that you'd rather abstain from sex because he shouldn't wear a condom... let's see how much beating you'd take. They are the disenfranchised ones, and who is on their side?

I am deeply saddened, really, by the seeming callousness and detachment His Popefulness has shown so far. Mercy, not sacrifice... please don't ever forget that.

I have to work again this weekend, with lots and lots and lots of numbers and Greek letters to look at. But here's a sight for sore eyes: