Harvard AIDS Expert Says Pope is Correct on Condom Distribution Making AIDS Worse

Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, has said that the evidence confirms that the Pope is correct in his assessment that condom distribution exacerbates the problem of AIDS.

"The pope is correct," Green told National Review Online Wednesday, "or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope's comments."

"There is," Green added, "a consistent association shown by our best studies, including the U.S.-funded 'Demographic Health Surveys,' between greater availability and use of condoms and higher (not lower) HIV-infection rates."

Green said that the Pope was right and that the best evidence that we have supports his comments because condoms have not proved effective. Greater availability and use of condoms leads to higher, not lower HIV-infection rates. He explains:

This may be due in part to a phenomenon known as risk compensation, meaning that when one uses a risk-reduction ‘technology’ such as condoms, one often loses the benefit (reduction in risk) by ‘compensating’ or taking greater chances than one would take without the risk-reduction technology.”

Or, as we might put it simply, the promotion of condoms leads to promiscuity. Green also said,

I also noticed that the pope said ‘monogamy’ was the best single answer to African AIDS, rather than ‘abstinence.’ The best and latest empirical evidence indeed shows that reduction in multiple and concurrent sexual partners is the most important single behavior change associated with reduction in HIV-infection rates

Source: March 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)

Russian Patriarchate support Pope on condoms stance

The Russian Orthodox Church supports the position of Pope Benedict XVI rejecting condoms including in order to prevent HIV infection.

"It is incorrect to consider condoms as a panacea for AIDS," the deputy chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin told a round table in Moscow on Friday, commenting on the international row concerned with the pope's statement in Africa.

AIDS can be prevented not by contraceptives but by education and a righteous life, the priest said.

"If a person lives a sinful, aimless and senseless life, uses drugs and is lewd, some disease will kill him one day, neither a condom nor medicine will save him," Fr. Vsevolod added.

Currently some organizations speaking on AIDS are seeking to simultaneously preserve the ideal of sexual freedom and the fight against AIDS, he said. It is impossible to reconcile these things, he said.

Virtual Josephite schism in Austria coming under Papal scrutiny

Anti-Papal Austrian bishops resurrect the Josephite heresy

Heresies are like fashions: wait long enough and an old heterodoxy will become modish again.
The Catholic bishops of Austria have just resurrected Josephism, 219 years after the death of its instigator, Emperor Joseph II, who seized control of the Church, imposing 6,200 religious laws and even dictating the size of candles.

When the Pope recently selected Father Gerhard Maria Wagner as auxiliary bishop of Linz, shock waves ran through the episcopal ranks. Wagner is a doctrinal and liturgical conservative - in shorthand, a Catholic - and that is an automatic disqualification for wearing a mitre in trendy Austria.

The temper of the Austrian hierarchy can be gauged from the example of Bishop Reinhold Stecher who, on his retirement a decade ago, published a letter denouncing the then Pope John Paul II's insistence on clerical celibacy and ban on ordaining priestesses (an infallibly declared doctrine of faith).

What made the bishops so nervous about Father Wagner's appointment was the fact that the Austrian hierarchy is on the verge of a generational handover, with four bishops nearing retirement, and the faded 1960s trendies dread being succeeded by younger, more orthodox prelates.

So the screws were put on Father Wagner, who announced his renunciation of the post he had just accepted. He has since made a statement that his resignation was not voluntary.

The Austrian Bishops' Conference then issued an egregious pastoral letter that amounted to collective defiance of the Holy See.

Regarding episcopal appointments it stated that "before the Holy Father takes the final decision, reliable and thoroughly tested basic information must be provided on which he can rely".

That is barely coded language for a right of veto on appointments - as exercised historically by Joseph II.

The bishops want to eliminate any candidate with a whiff of orthodoxy about him or - horror of horrors - a penchant for the Latin Tridentine Mass.

The pastoral said: "This can ensure that bishops are appointed who are not 'against' but 'for' a local church." What is that supposed to mean?

So outrageous was the blatant defiance expressed in this pastoral letter and so profound the shock it is beginning to provoke among Catholics around the world for its impertinence towards the Pope that some of the bishops are beginning to backtrack and criticise the proceedings against Father Wagner.

Bishop Ludwig Schwarz of Linz has been summoned to Rome and the Linz Priests' Circle has said that forcing Wagner's withdrawal showed how anti-Roman forces and forces from outside the Church are rebelling against the Pope's God-given authority.

The bishops' concern to protect the modern liturgy is understandable: of Austria's 5.6 million Catholics, it now attracts a magnificent 13 per cent to Mass on Sundays.

The mindset betrayed by the pastoral was schismatic: a return to the Josephite concept of a self-contained Austrian Church, on the Gallican model.

It is difficult to regard the Austrian hierarchy as in full communion with Rome, in the light of its conduct.

Austria, like so many other countries, needs a complete change of personnel among its bishops.
(Source: TTUK)

Pope calls Bishop of Linz, Austria in for a little talk

The Austrian bishops thought they were simply going to bully the pope into submission by moving against his appointees. Hopefully this latest move will mean the Pope shall restore order and unity with the Church Universal in Austria. I've had enough of virtual national schisms.

Bishop of Linz summoned to Rome at short notice!

Linz (kath.net)
Peace and quiet seems unlikely to return too soon to the Diocese of Linz. kath.net was able to ascertain that Bishop Ludwig Schwarz traveled to Rome at short notice on Friday. He cancelled the youth catechesis that was scheduled for Friday evening in Linz. Schwarz has an appointment with the Congregation of Bishops in Rome.

After a statement by Gerhard Maria Wagner saying that his resignation was not voluntary, the bishop of Linz now finds himself under considerable pressure. Even some of his Austrian fellow-bishops are now unofficially expressing criticism of the proceedings. A letter from Gerhard Maria Wagner asking the Pope to reverse his appointment as auxiliary bishop has been received by the Congregation of Bishops. Church sources in the Vatican told kath.net that Pope Benedict XVI has assigned top priority to the issue and will deal with it personally. It is not known when the Pope will make a decision. The Friday bulletin of the Vatican Press Office once again made no mention of the Wagner affair.

An increasing number of people within the Vatican itself are speaking quite openly about an Apostolic Visitation for the Diocese of Linz. kath.net was informed by sources within the Austrian Church that several Austrian bishops have already commented favourably on the prospect of an Apostolic Visitation in the Diocese of Linz. Given the crisis in the diocese, Rome is not excluding the possibility that a coadjutor bishop could be nominated.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass

Who is the fluffy teddy bear - the Pope or Dalai Lama?

Bit of fun: Trendy Lefty Liberals are aghast ...

Australian TV host John Safran playing a little game of who said this? The big, bad, authoritarian Pope or the cute and cudly Dalai Lama.
The Pope is a huge bugbear because he's soooooo dogmatic and dictatorial and, well, censorious! The Liberal lefties who read the Guardian and its ilk much prefer trendy gurus such as the Dalai Lama... unless they actually read what he says........H/T here

Some Italian Jews and Catholic Liberals gang up to criticise Pope Benedict XVI

As Sandro Magister has shown a number of prominent Italian Jewish leaders have ganged up with some liberal Churchmen in Italy to attack the teaching of the Catholic Church about its prayer for the conversion of the Jews.

Giorgio Israel, an Italian Jewish commentator (and Math professor at the University of Rome - La Sapienza), writes in Il Foglio about the attacks of the Italian rabbinate against Pope Benedict XVI. Liberal Judaism, he says, have acted together with the leaders of the "Progressive" Italian Church (especially those in the Archdiocese of Milan) to undermine the reputation of Pope Benedict XVI.

According to Damian Thompson and CNS, the Vatican has called on the Italian Jewish leaders to calm down a bit and see sense.

A large part of the dispute centers around the Good Friday prayers of the Traditional Latin Mass.

The post 1955 text of the Good Friday Prayers can be found here. The later version correctly translates perfidius as faithless.

Oremus et pro perfidis Iudaeis: ut Deus et Dominus noster auferat velamen de cordibus eorum; ut et ipsi agnoscant Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum.

Let us pray also for the faithless Jews: that our God and Lord would remove the veil from their hearts: that they also may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ.

S. Oremus. Priest: Let us pray.
V. Flectamus genua. Deacon: Let us kneel.
R. Levate. Subdeacon: Arise.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui etiam iudaicam perfidiam a tua misericordia non repellis: exaudi preces nostras, quas pro illius populi obcaecatione deferimus; ut, agnita veritatis tuae luce, quae Christus est, a suis tenebris eruantur. Per Dominum nostrum, Iesum Christum, filium tuum, qui tecum vivat et regnat in unitate Spiritu Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. R. Amen.

Almighty and everlasting God, who drivest not away from Thy mercy even the faithless Jews: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people: that, acknowledging the light of Thy truth, which is Christ, they may be rescued from their darkness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. R. Amen.

Some Jewish leaders have attacked Benedict XVI for his approval of TLM and its attendant Good Friday Prayers.
This is a bit selective, because the Novus Ordo Mass repeatedly calls for the conversion of Jews, but no-one says a thing.
One can also note the 1962 breviary speaks about the Jews on Ember Wednesday in Lent. Compared to 'Judaeorum plebe damnata' a prayer for their conversion is positively benign.

As we get started, please understand I don't think Jews are in a worse position that anyone else, and believe the Church should pray for the conversion of all to faith in Jesus Christ and their entry into His Church. To be Catholic is to preach the Gospel to all people in all places at all times, as Jesus Himself commanded us to do. (see Mark 16:15)

There have been a number of changes to prayers for conversions of Jews on Good Friday. This is a scholarly critique by someone whose views of the papacy I don't share - but this exposition of facts on this issue seems essentially accurate.

Most interesting he points out that the reference to the veil on their hearts is directly from St. Paul (2 Cor. 3: 13-16 NIV):

13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away.
14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.
15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

Pope Benedict asked that the 1962 Prayers on Good Friday be slightly amended. [ I don't agree with this particular apologists views on a number of issues - just on issue of Good Friday prayers.]

It is as plain as day that there is a battle going on among Catholic theologians about the status of the Old Testament Covenant and the Church's relationship with the Jewish people.
Though I don't agree with him on many important issues this American apologist points out important issues and even managed to get the American bishops to change and correct their adult catechism: here The following sentence had to be expunged from the book's text: "Thus the covenant that God made with the Jewish people through Moses remains eternally valid for them."
In a round about way we return to the essential point that if the Catholic Church wishes to call itself apostolic it must continue to preach and pray for the conversion of all non-Catholics into the Catholic Church and a flowering of faith in Jesus in their hearts. For the Church to do otherwise would be to declare itself not Catholic, and throw away its duty of mission given by Jesus Christ the Saviour.
The Catholic Church, as the commissioned herald of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is the New Israel which fulfills and supersedes the Old Covenant with the the New Covenant. This is sometimes called supersessionism or Replacement Theology.