THE SEX FILES: Pope A Dope
So that wacky Catholic Church is at it again, huh? Last week it was reported that the old Pope-a-nater wrote that condom use is OK among gay male prostitutes. I appreciate the Holy See getting into the fray, but I’m not so sure if his words might be a little too late. I don’t want to see anybody get sick and if just one male prostitute with HIV uses a condom where he normally wouldn’t because his Pope told him to do so, then hooray for the Pope. But I wonder really how responsible the Pope’s message is when there are still an amazing amount of diseases being spread between hetero couples and all the unwanted pregnancies still happening, all that could be lessened through sensible condom use.
Attempting to save face and I guess, grace, the Catholic Church did offer a statement post the Pope’s proclamation stating unequivocally that in no way, shape or form were they championing condom use. The church needed it to be duly noted that they are still against condom use as pregnancy prevention-as if anybody had any doubt-and that they did not condone any birth control. Seeing as the Vatican has all the bucks, with all those cool gold statues etc., I figure they can take on the burden of paying for all the kids born to mothers who can’t afford them, who are raped by family members or made by irresponsible teens.
This is not the place for a soapbox, I am here to entertain more than anything else, but when it comes to religious institutions and sex, things just get super nutty as far as I’m concerned. Sure, the Catholics don’t have a monopoly on ancient texts with zero relevance in the modern world, nor are they the only ones looking to control how and what their followers do with their pee-pees and nay nays. It’s just that this Pope has a lot of juice with peeps who believe him and if he really wanted to say or do something sensible here, he kind of lost his chance with only giving us half the message (actually, like a third of it).
Though absence is the only guaranteed way of halting diseases being contracted by sexual contact and the only sure way not to get pregnant, condoms do aid greatly in decreasing the amount of sexual diseases being spread and unwanted pregnancies.
Now, where is my big white hat?