Pope: Condoms Sometimes 'Justified' in Disease Protection - Voice of America

Sabina Castelfranco | Rome 21 November 2010

Pope Benedict XVI (file photo)

Pope Benedict has opened the door on the previously taboo subject of the use of condoms in certain limited cases. In a significant departure from what the Catholic Church has always maintained, the pope now says that, in some cases, using condoms may not always be wrong.

Male prostitutes, for example, could be justified in using them to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Just last year, Pope Benedict angered many around the world when, on a trip to Africa, he said the AIDS problem there could not be resolved by distributing condoms. At that time, he said their use exacerbates the problem.

AIDS prevention advocates welcomed the pope's stance on the issue.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe called it a "significant and positive step forward."

Rebecca Hodes, deputy director of the AIDS and society research unit in South Africa, says this change of heart could save many lives.

"It will give people more space to protect themselves and to protect their partners, if they are able to use condoms without feeling morally fraught."

The Pope's comments are part of a series of interviews to a German journalist to be published in a new book this Tuesday.

But because he maintains the church's ban on the use of artificial contraception is not in question, Catholic reform groups and AIDS activists want the pope to clarify his comments, and elaborate on exactly which 'exceptional circumstances' would make it okay to use condoms.

On Sunday, Pope Benedict celebrated mass for the new cardinals that have joined the elite group that one day will name his successor.

During the ceremony the pope presented each of the 24 new cardinals from Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the U.S. with their rings.

In his homily, the pope told the cardinals their ministry is a difficult one, and that their service is one of faith that transforms one's whole life.

Cardinals are the pope's closest advisers. It is an elite all-male body with members from every continent in the world. The College of Cardinals now numbers 203, with 121 under the age of 80 and with the right to vote for a future pope.

21-11-2010 subramanian (india)

Every decision taken should be in accordance with the Biblical way of life and the moral lessons inculcated and imbued in us by persons who uphold the Bible and the tenets therein.

21-11-2010 subramanian (india)

Every decision taken should be in accordance with the Biblical way of life and the moral lessons inculcated and imbued in us by persons who uphold the Bible and the tenets therein.

21-11-2010

Do I understand that the pope recoginzes prostitution as a profession ?

21-11-2010 Mr Pradip Swarnakar (India)

For the welfare of the mankind, use of condoms is definitly a safe and hygenic way in the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases mostly HIV. It's quite obvious that not only prostitution regards but condoms play a vital role in prevention of AIDS among married couples who secretly enjoy sex with other partners. So, Pope Benedict should religiously and morally legalise using condoms to protect the mankind from STDs!

21-11-2010 Mr Pradip Swarnakar (India)

For the welfare of the mankind, use of condoms is definitly a safe and hygenic way in the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases mostly HIV. It's quite obvious that not only prostitution regards but condoms play a vital role in prevention of AIDS among married couples who secretly enjoy sex with other partners. So, Pope Benedict should religiously and morally legalise using condoms to protect the mankind from STDs!

21-11-2010 alan (usa)

the pope should stretch a condom over his head

21-11-2010 melts

Saves alot of lives not souls.

21-11-2010

Papa Benedict has made an important decision in the hard reality of The scourge of HIV.The basic position of the Church of abstainence is in reality although unacceptable by many is the only way out of the world's spiral towards disaster

21-11-2010 ToBeOne (USA)

To understand AIDS and condoms one should look at AIDS in condom nations: http://theologyofthebody.blogspot.com/2009/03/will-condoms-really-stop-aids-in-africa.html

21-11-2010 John Frum (Vanuatu)

So the pope is ok with the use of condoms for prostitution, but not for birth control?

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Steve Jobs to launch iPad newspaper with Rupert Murdoch? - CNET

Will they both appear on stage, Steve Jobs in a suit, Rupert Murdoch in Levi's and a black turtleneck?

This magical image might, um, flash before your eyes when you hear that Apple is reportedly helping Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. launch a new--is there another word for newspaper these days?--news entity exclusively for the iPad.

Women's Wear Daily offers a report that this iPad-o-newsthingy, which has been in covert development for several months, will be called "The Daily." It will, apparently, have as its pulsating spirit "a tabloid sensibility with a broadsheet intelligence."

Oh, and there is a price for this melange of the tabloid heart with a broadsheet mind. A ticklingly enticing 99 cents a week.

The Daily will, apparently not enjoy such dated concepts as a print edition or even a Web edition. Instead it will be beamed straight to the iPad (or Galaxy, if you can afford one) from News Corp.'s high pod somewhere in Manhanttan.

Apple's role in this interesting enterprise seems to rest in offering engineering expertise, and, of course, the existence of many millions of iPads waiting to host the new iPado-o-newsthingy.

There will be some, I know, who will already be scoffing at the prospect of an iPad-o-newsthingy, even if, as the Daily will allegedly enjoy, it has not only excellent, but even original content.

Might I suggest, as Chrissie Hynde once almost muttered, they should stop their scoffing? Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch have one very important thing in common: they think quite deeply about what people really want to buy. They actually consider very, very carefully what delights people, as opposed to what they merely consume.

Yes, I hear you scoff, I can see that about Jobs, but Murdoch? Surely he debases everything that goes before him. Look at all those dreadful tabloids he has perpetrated.

Well, it depends on where you find your debasement. Those would be the dreadful tabloids to which many members of intelligentsia rush to (and delight in) well before they read the paper they know they're supposed to be seen reading.

Though his experiments with charging for some of his British online entities, such as the often marvelous News of the World and the sometimes interesting Sunday Times, have proved to be a painful experience, Murdoch is reportedly captivated by the notion that people are far more captivated when clutching an iPad than when they are in possession of any other medium.

There is a love thing going on with the iPad. And you know how lovers like to spend a lot of time with each other.

The question remains, though, as to how this iPad-o-newsthingy will be presented to the world. Will there be some concerted advertising campaign, perhaps prepared in conjunction with Apple? Will there be star writers hired whose mere name will force a significant number of the population to toss their 99 cents into the fray? (The former editor of the New York Post Page 6, Richard Johnson is, for example, already said to be on the team.)

Or will its alleged use of the amazingly investigative Parrot AR.Drone "quadricopter," offering a unique visual perspective on police car chases, be enough to excite the iPad readers?

I am fascinated to see just how much of Apple's engineering intelligence will show in this iPad-o-newsthingy. If Apple's engineers inject enough thinking different into the idea of news consumption on the iPad, 99 cents a week might be quite tempting to a significant portion of users (which doesn't, at first, have to be a large number).

Come on, it's only 99 cents. You know, like a track on iTunes. And, just once in a while, you used to download those for free, didn't you?

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Clinton on Terrorists: I Want to See These Guys Executed or in Prison - Fox News

Published November 21, 2010

| FoxNews.com

The one-count guilty verdict against terror detainee Ahmed Ghailani disappointed many Americans who thought the government had a rock-solid case, but civilian courts are still more successful at getting convictions than military commissions, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday.

And that means more sentences to satisfy Americans looking for justice against plotters of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and other assaults on U.S. interests, Clinton said. 

"I’m well aware, as a former senator from New York on 9/11, how important it is to get this right. I want to see these guys behind prison or executed, whatever is appropriate in the individual cases," Clinton told "Fox News Sunday."

"But when you look at the success record in civilian courts of convicting, sentencing, detaining in maximum security prisons by the civilian courts, it surpasses what yet has been accomplished in the military commissions," she said. 

Ghailani, who had been held in a CIA secret prison and then transferred to Guantanamo, was brought up on 284 counts, including the murder of 224 people at the U.S. embassy complexes in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998. He was convicted of one count of conspiracy.

The verdict shocked many security experts since most court-watchers thought his would be the easiest terror case to prosecute. The ruling led to howls against the use of civilian courts for terror detainees.

But Clinton said the one count earned Ghailani 20 years to life, and the case would have been tried the same way in both the military or civilian courts. 

Clinton acknowledged, however, that for some terror detainees, civilian trials are "not appropriate."

"You will get no argument from this administration on that point," she said, adding that the Obama administration is trying to move toward trials in a way that "maximizes the outcome that is in the best interest of the security of the American people."

"So I don't think you can, as a rule, say, 'Oh, no more civilian trials or no more military commissions.' President Obama's theory of this is that most should be in Article III (civilian) courts, some should be confined to military commissions. But as things stand right now, we have actually gotten more convictions, and more people, more terrorists, are serving time in prison right now, because of Article III courts than military commissions."

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