
The Vatican has once again proved to the world that it lives in an Ivory Tower devoid of reality. While the world tries to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS,
Pope Benedict XVI told reporters, en route to Cameroon, that HIV/AIDS "is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems".
Aloys Rigaut, President of European Liberal Youth (LYMEC), reacted: "Such statements are totally irresponsible. More than two-thirds of the world's HIV/AIDS-infected people live in sub-Saharan Africa and the pandemic risks are destabilising the whole continent. Preaching abstinence is the right of the Catholic Church, but this goes too far. The distribution of condoms is part of the solution and certainly not part of the problem"