A Different Order Entirely

Fr Ray Blake writes:

"Am I a wet liberal or plain naive? Because I have always understood the Church taught that sin was always linked to intentionality. Thus, a condom used to frustrate the Divine intentions for marriage is always sinful, whereas a condom used to prevent the passing on of a infectious disease, especially where the sexual act is taking place outside of a loving relationship, is of a different order entirely."

The facts have not changed, any more than has the Teaching of the Church (which cannot), hence the tiny coverage given to this in L'Osservatore Romano. Certain people might consider applying some journalistic or scientific objectivity to the question of where in Africa the condom use relentlessly promoted by Western NGOs and compliant governments has ever arrested, never mind reversed, the rate of HIV infection. There is nowhere.

However, such a reversal is under way in Uganda, where the government's message is the same as the Catholic Church's: "Change Your Behaviour". Huge numbers of condoms have been distributed in Botswana, and the result has been for President Festus Mogae to declare, "Abstain or die". Who, exactly, is incapable of fidelity within a monogamous marriage and abstinence outside such a marriage? Women? Black people? Poor people? Developing-world people? Or just poor black women in the developing world?

And then there is our own country, where condoms are practically thrown even at very young children as part of their publicly funded grooming during compulsory schooling, yet the rates of underage pregnancy and of STIs among teenagers are now such that the true figures are not even disclosed, with abortions, miscarriages, the clap and so on routinely recorded as other things.