by Karen on March 21, 2009
After some bitching about the response to the pope’s absurd remarks about how condom use can increase the spread of HIV, the Vatican edited the interview on their site to make it seem as though he was misinterpreted:
Taken aback by outrage worldwide, the Holy See altered the Pope’s remark yesterday to read that condoms merely “risked” aggravating the problem.
The Vatican website published an edited text of the Pope’s comments the day after a question-and-answer session on his flight to Cameroon. It was a question from a French reporter that elicited an unqualified response about condoms.
By introducing the word “risks” the Vatican softened the message. The website at first also altered the Italian word the Pope used for condoms, from “preservativi” to “profilattici”.
It’s now switched back to what he actually said with his spokesman stating that he’s just saying what his predecessors said as if that makes it okay.
by Karen on January 30, 2009
I missed this when it first came out, but a top official at the Vatican had this to say about President Obama getting rid of the global gag rule:
The same day, the secular Milan daily Corriere della Sera published an interview with a top Vatican official lashing out at the new U.S. President. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, told the newspaper that the repeal of the abortion-funding ban was done with “the arrogance of those who, having power, think they can decide between life and death.”
This would be the same Vatican which not only opposes the use of condoms in African countries such as Kenya, which is plagued with high rates of HIV infections, but has bluntly lied about the effectiveness of condoms in combating HIV in it’s irrational attempts to stop people from using contraception.
The “arrogance of those who, having power, think they can decide between life and death”? Perhaps someone placed a mirror in front of the archbishop, eh?
