The condom question - is the Vatican ready to kick the habit of adoration of a rubber fetish?
According to recent media leaks from the Vatican, the Pope is considering to lift the ban on the use of condoms for those married heterosexual couples where one partner is HIV-positive, as a means to reduce the danger of infection for the healthy partner. Who would benefit from such a gracefully offered minimal exception from the general rule? The answer is as simple as it is cruel:
wealthy people living in developped countries with excellent public health systems which garantee the availability of clinical pathology resources, testing for HIV-status plus determination of HIV viral load at regular intervals, support financing of antiviral drugs, provide professional counselling and therapeutic outcome measurements etc.etc.
For the rest of the world, nil.
To the profane observer, the fact that the Vatican considers the absence of sexual activities not directly linked to procreation as the only irrefutable proof of human purity produces a depressive effect, to say the least. Ironically, the obstinate prosecution of the condom as material representation of evil by theological dignitaries of male sex is nothing short of fetishism. It might be helpful for the credibility of the Catholic Church and the Christian Oecumene as a whole, if the CEO of the most successful global player in the faith industry could persuade his subordinates (or vice versa) to kick the habit of paradoxical adoration of the rubber fetish...