ANOTHER day, another report of the despicable Catholic Church sticking its nose in where it doesn’t belong – this time in the Philippines, where it is agitating to have Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral sacked.
Condoms: Pope Ratslinger's worst nightmare
Her “crime”? Â She authorised the distribution of condoms on Valentine’s Day in the fight against AIDS.
Archbishop Ramon Arguelles said on the Church-run Radio Veritas:
It is immoral for a government official to support the distribution of condoms which we know do not really reduce or stop the spread of HIV-AIDS.
Another bishop, Dinualdo Gutierrez, joined the attack when he said Cabral should not remain as health secretary. Gutierrez said Cabral was not a good Catholic if she backs the distribution of the prophylactics.
Cabral isn’t having any of this shit. She hit back, saying that the Catholic Church can be “vicious” at times, and she told a local TV station that she intended to continue defying it.
Of course, I am afraid of the Church. They are very powerful and they can sometimes be very vicious. I’m not exactly one who likes to live dangerously.
However, she said that she’d rather live dangerously than do nothing against the very alarming rise in the number of HIV/AIDS cases in the Philippines.
Data from the Department of Health (DOH) showed a total of 4,424 HIV/AIDS cases from 1984 to December 2009. The highest number was recorded in 2009 with a total of 835 cases.
Cabral said:
At the rate we are going, in three years, we are going to have more than 30,000 people with HIV/AIDS in the Philippines.
For her efforts, one of the bishops said she already had one foot in hell for “going against the teachings of the Church”. But Cabral said that the distribution of condoms is actually the DOH’s last resort to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.
She commented:
We are not a religious state like Iran. We are a secular state where there is separation of Church and State. While it is very important for us to find out what the Catholic bishops think, to cooperate with them in areas where we can be cooperating, the government is the government and must do what it thinks is right for everybody.
She added that “not everybody in the Philippines belongs to one church,” and that the DOH was “always willing to discuss and negotiate” the matter with Catholic Church officials.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
March 1st, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Vicious and incredibly stupid.
March 1st, 2010 at 12:21 pm
How much are the UK taxpayers going to be forced to pay to protect Ratzinger? I even hear that one of his grotesquely overpaid BBC RC followers wants him on Thought for the Day. Presumably only to whine at the rest of us. Might give us his views on condoms or the Irish Scandal. Unlikely, I suppose. No questions to Ratzinger, of course. Why does he need all this money on protection? Could he just pray for it? Doesn’t seem to encourage much confidence in his god, does it?
March 1st, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Typical of the catholic church.
Religious dogma beats common sense every time no matter how many die.
March 1st, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Well good on this brave woman. I hope she has enough support, determination, and good standing to continue to stand up to the church. And once she’s done, I hope she will think long and hard about why she would want to be a member of an organization she is afraid of. Full stop.
March 1st, 2010 at 1:06 pm
The catholic church really don’t like some humans do they, when they are not abusing the younger ones, they condemn others to a slow and painful death.
Well done Ms Cabral for ignoring the bullies.
Broga, re Ratzinger’s protection. I’m certain there must be a very long queue of people wanting to kill him. You bump off one pope and along comes another!
March 1st, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Why should a government have to negotiate with the (any) church? As far as I can see this just gives them greater (perceived) authority.
March 1st, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Amy/AngelaK What amazes me is why so many people still take them seriously
or even listen to them. I can understand illiterate peasants being conned into terror or promised future paradise in return for present poverty. But when intelligent and educated people push this stuff then what is going on. I don’t think they can possibly believe all the nonsense any more than these fundie USA evangelists who are screwing their secretaries and robbing the coffers while preaching about sanctity. All those paedo and brutish priests – and slave driving nuns could not have taken it seriously.
March 1st, 2010 at 2:35 pm
@ Broga
For my money, getting ordinary people to re-evaluate the perceived positions of authority that odious institutions like the catholic church demand for themselves is one of the biggest and most important challenges for us non-believers. While we can see it’s all just a lot of smoke and mirrors, millions of others are, as this article proves, clearly very fearful of the church, the influence it can wield and the lies that it peddles about hell, damnation and so on. And the more we can show people that there is nothing whatsoever to fear by thinking and questioning and challenging, the greater our chances of emancipating them from what is, quite frankly, an authority built on nothing more than tyranny.
March 1st, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Marcus
I enjoyed your comments, very articulate and persuasive.
Wonder how many people will see this blog and read them?
Pity it couldn’t be more.
March 1st, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Religions are in the business of keeping people ignorant, poor and scared, and the actions of Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral are a direct threat to the influence of the church, which is losing ground in the West, leaving the developing world as it’s play-ground.
Ex-communication seems to be the only threat left, but even religious people seem to be able to live with that.
March 1st, 2010 at 4:17 pm
@Marcus You sum that up well. I think many people who read, never mind write, would be surprised at the ignorance of huge swathes of the population. (I know I am not supposed to say this – tough.) They don’t go to church but hey will tell you that “there must be something there.” That is their idea of god. Because they see endless religion stuffed in front of them via TV, burials, cenotaph, Royals etc they think most people are believers when they are not believers themselves in any real sense. They have never heard of Richard Dawkins but they do know about Adam and Eve. The levers of pushing the images are in the hands of a small minority and they intend to keep them.
If, as I have done, say, “What about the vicar/priest etc who stole or raped?” they may well say but they were not “true christians.” The debates, the questioning go on at a level that does not affect them. On a more literate level – let us say Daily Mail Readers – they are more comfortable by not being disturbed. Let it all alone.
And this is the problem. How do we touch these many admirable and talented people who have few interests that involve the skills you need to get into the discussions. To offer an alternative to their being priest fodder. Most of them have great skills: service cars; grow food; drive trains or whatever. They just don’t have an i nterest in getting rid of the gristly superstitions which are cruel and do so much harm.
Or am I being too negative; too pessamistic?
March 1st, 2010 at 4:53 pm
@ Broga
As ever, it’s all down to education. The catholic church in particular has long known the value of that (‘Give me a child until he is seven’, and all that).
Which is why I believe it’s so important that we continue to argue and lobby to have non-theist views represented wherever religion rears its ugly head (ie in schools and in the media – such as on Thought For The Day); that we oppose the complete and utter nonsense of ‘creationism’ being taught as a viable alternative to evolution; and why we must fight to get rid of faith schools.
Come to think of it, we’ve got a lot of work to do, haven’t we!
March 1st, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Rasinger’s pronouncements against the handing out of condoms to prevent AIDS is downright criminal. He gets away with it because people who don’t know any better and were brain-washed from birth are in awe of this pseudo-god who has the gall to call himself the Vicar of Christ … how arrogant can he be!! …. and in their misguided beliefs they think he speaks for God himself . (I was one of those believers too at one time , by the way.) It’s like american T.V. evangelists. There are too many of these bastards preying on gullible people who are usually those who are down on their luck and will readily fall for their scams to extract as much money they can ill-afford from them. Even when they have been exposed for what they really were, people blamed it on “Satan trying to corrupt God’s envoys” and welcomed them back with open arms when they repented with their tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth and false crocodile tears ! The T.V. channel on Sunday mornings here are full of these bastards waving their Bibles and spewing their venom like vomit. One like Peter Popoff mails free “miracle water” which has cured thousands of people of anything from cancer to Multiple Sclerosis, etc. and he can get away with that crap because he gets the people to make the claim of these miraculous cures so he can’t be sued by the medical establishment. And the money keeps pouring in. Another evangelist, and I’m not inventing this, is called Creflo Dollar!! How appropriate! And now the drag queen in white dress and red shoes will go to England to spew his venom and people will welcome him like some kind of a living deity while people will continue to die of AIDS because of his stance against condoms! What does he know of condoms and what proof does he have that it does not help in the prevention of AIDS? He should be arrested the moment he steps in England for propagating falsehoods and giving out false medical advice on how to prevent AIDS. .
March 1st, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Marcus. Precisely. And that is why the translation of the bible from Latin was such a disaster for the Church. But let’s make as much of the work fun as we are able.
March 1st, 2010 at 6:42 pm
I can’t believe that they are still telling that other huge lie (not the one about god, hell,
etc). But the one about condoms not stopping Aids. They know we’ve caught them out on it, but they keep on repeating it over & over.
March 1st, 2010 at 6:45 pm
When I first joined the National Secular Society in the late nineties it was really more because I had started to identify more as an atheist and was looking for a club to join then the belief that the country had a problem with religion. In fact I got the feeling from the newsletters that the society was doing its best to big up the threat from various religious lobbies in order to justify its existence. This led me to thinking how exiting it must have been to have belonged to the NSS in Bradlaugh’s time when there was so much injustice and religious privilage still to be fought.
Someone should have told me to be careful what you wish for, secular organisations have not been so desperately needed in my lifetime as they are now.
March 1st, 2010 at 7:21 pm
Have you noticed the way Ratzinger’s religious brethern keep their heads well below the parapet. The condom issue, the paedo priests and slave driving nuns, the exploding paedo priest scandal in Germany for example and not a word from Rowan Williams, the Jewish head honcho etc. I suppose this is what they mean by oecumenicalism. The hell with truth, justice and “suffer little children”, when religious politics kicks in.
March 1st, 2010 at 8:53 pm
It is immoral for a government official to support the distribution of condoms which we know do not really reduce or stop the spread of HIV-AIDS.
No, what’s immoral is for people to outright lie–and allow millions to suffer and die–so they can push their religious dogma.
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:14 am
Everyone comes down on pope still-a-dick but he is 100% correct.
If you follow the rules and don’t use condoms you WILL not get AIDS.
The basic problem are the hypocritical schite-head xtians.
They are so stupid that they DISOBEY the rules about sex, but then even more stupidly follow the rule about no condoms!!!!WTF!!!!
When I was a catholic I blamed the pope for many silly statements.
Then I realized how silly the whole thing is.
If you don’t like what the pope decrees then QUIT!!!! BUT if you have to be a catholic THEN FOLLOW THE DAMN RULES!!!!!
If it wasn’t for the fact that the AIDS can spread by other people being stupidly sexual with the hypocritical xtians. I’d say to hell with them and let them all die out. But we can’t allow that.
But think of this . These xtians are incredibly STUPID, so if tomorrow the pope said ‘condoms are OK!!!’?????? I bet they still would not use them!!!!
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:08 am
1 The catholic church is responsible for years and years of systematic sexual/physical/mental abuse.
2 The church is responsible for the deaths of countless women who have died as result of backstreet abortions.
3 The church is responsible for the deaths of countless people as a result of the deliberate misinformation it spouts about condoms.
The pope can take a large part of the responsibility himself and yet when he visits this country he will no doubt be welcomed with open arms by a large proportion of the population from politicians to the nodding dogs who unfortunatley are quite happy to be told when and how to think.(now concentrate very carefully condoms will send you straight to hell-whats that about child abuse-ok look away now)
On the optimistic side the rational voice is getting stronger and it’s our duty to make as much noise as possible when he arrives in this country – either through sites like this or on placards we should also start getting in touch with our representives and start asking them why they are not asking questions and standing up to the church.
If a politician in the Philippines does it why can’t they break off from kissing the popes arse for five minutes and put him on the spot.
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:25 am
Why do you suppose the catholic church would oppose condoms? They have to for the same reason they have opposed contraception of any sort. Their strategy for winning world domination is to out breed every other religion. They not only have the parents brainwashed, but require the naming of “god parentsâ€, so that in the case that the children are orphaned, the god parents are charged with the duty of brainwashing the children in the church. The plan B.
Ratzinger doesn’t give a shit about any black baby born in Africa, whether it has AIDS or not. His fight is to control religion in the affluent west. Fuck all else. Relief in Africa is funded by the west, and his agenda is to control that mental forum. If he does not defend his position that contraception is immoral, then the Mormons will win. That can’t happen.
NeoWolfe
March 2nd, 2010 at 9:09 am
Reminds me of an old joke about the pope and sex, he no playa da game he no makea da rules. What a dumbarse fuckwit! There is a wealth of proof that condoms prevent the transmission of hiv, the cunt should stick to self flagIlation and leave the rest of us alone!
March 2nd, 2010 at 9:48 am
Do you imagine, for a second, that the educated middle class RCs stick to the rules on contraception? The rules are enforced on the heavily breeding poor, those for whom this sick and emotionally stunted and warped man has managed to block contraceptive initiatives via his insane demands in the UN and elsewhere. His own thirld world priests oppose him and end up excommunicated for their trouble. He withdrew support from Amnesty International, of whom I am a member, because they opposed his ideas on contraception.
This is the cariacture of a decent and mature human being that the British tax payer will be forced to support and protect, obliged to listen to on the BBC and the arse licking will be at a level that is going to be hard to take.
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Will there be any sort of in person protest at the pope’s visit? any links?
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:13 pm
I am a Filipina and naturally, I was outraged when I saw this news all over our local stations. Supposedly in our country, there is separation of church and state but I have yet to see the day when that happens. I know that the Philippine government and church officials are not as stupid as they seem. They know what works and unfortunately, religion seems to be as effective a tool now in controlling our people as it has for hundreds of years. It is even worse now that we are having our National Elections in May. No political figure would even dare speak against this stupidity or the many other stupidities of the church because they are just afraid of losing votes. Many of them are even courting religious leaders hoping that they would be endorsed to the millions of religious followers. Eddie Villanueva aka Brother Eddie, who is the founder and leader of Jesus is Lord Church, is even running for president and hopes to make our country better and holy through the teachings of the holy bible. Makes me just want to bitch slap him ‘til kingdom come to tell you the truth, along with the rest of the church officials who are already in government offices of course. Another thing that also makes me really angry is the fact that new religious groups are being formed left and right. It seems that this is the new money making machine. One of the most popular is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ founded by Apollo Quiboloy who claims to be the Appointed Son of God. So far, this man, while serving his God, has managed to accumulate numerous properties not only in the Philippines but also in several countries, a private plane and large bank accounts while his followers are rapidly going bankrupt. He is definitely gaining popularity in politics as well. A number of political candidates have already visited him, probably hoping to get his support both in votes and money.
I am not losing hope though. For someone who is just as fed up of all this nonsense as me, we still cannot afford to give up. Now and again, we do encounter people like Cabral who reminds us that the fight is still worth fighting.