The Pope today triggered off a controversy which seemed to have died some time back : This was over the Catholic church’s stance on condom use. The Pope was making as yet his first trip to Africa.

The pontiff clearly said that condoms were not the answer to Africa’s fight against HIV and Aids. He added for good measure that the condoms could actually make the problem worse.

The Pope Benedict XVI’s timing of remarks really evoked very strong reaction from the health agencies which are doing their best to stop HIV and Aids from spreading in the continent. In Africa, an estimated 22 million people have been infected with AIDS / HIV.

The Roman Catholic church encourages sexual abstinence and fidelity rather than condoms as a better way of preventing the disease from spreading. The argument is simple : getting people to use condoms is similar to addressing the symptoms. The actual problem is that of unrestrained sex – which needs to be curtailed. That is the root cause – which needs to be tackled. Instead of that, if we encourate use of condoms, as the Church sees it, we will also end up encouraging unrestrained sex. We may end up containing HIV and AIDS. But, something else might erupt tomorrow for which we may have no answers.

Any takers for the religious – non condom approach to combating AIDS?