A couple of days ago my son came to me saying its on the news that the Pope is now allowing condom use. As I was busy with show prep etc I didn’t have any time to check on it and I hadn’t seen it myself, so I told him to ignore the media and read the actual statement that the Benedict XVI made to see if that is what it actually says.
Later that day he came to me saying. “You’re right it not what the media is saying at all”
It hasn’t taken long for activists to try to spin what has been said:
British gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell did just that in his reaction to the book, saying: “If the pope can change his stance on condoms, why can’t he also modify the Vatican’s harsh intolerant opposition to women’s rights, gay equality, fertility treatment and embryonic stem cell research?”
Forgetting the hateful and false hyperbole Mr. Tatchell manages to miss that the Holy Father has not changed a thing at all, as the Anchoress points out first quoting deacon Greg who directly quotes the Pope:
“The Church does not consider at all illicit the use of those therapeutic means necessary to cure bodily diseases, even if a foreseeable impediment to procreation should result there from–provided such impediment is not directly intended for any motive whatsoever.”
Big change isn’t it? Not quite, the pope he is quoting is Paul VI in 1968.
She then quotes the best post I’ve seen on the subject:
To the son who is a male prostitute, she advises, again, the Catholic teaching on human sexuality. She tries to explain it, but he cannot understand it and completely rejects it. He simply cannot get his mind around it. He is adamant that he is going to continue in his lifestyle, no matter what. When she realizes that she is never going to get anywhere with him on this issue, she advises him that if he absolutely insists that it must be this way, then he should use a condom. He agrees that he should think enough of the other person’s value as a human person not to intentionally risk AIDS infection, and she rejoices that he, at least, understands this much about human dignity. It’s enough for her to hope that it is spark enough for him to, as the Pope said, “re-develop his understanding” and come eventually to the fullness of the Faith. Again, as assuredly as she was with her other son, she is being a good Catholic mother.
It is contraception not condoms that have and always have been forbidden. As the Anchoress put it herself this time:
I think it is a very good thing that Pope Benedict has spoken about this issue via the book – it takes the whole matter out of the world of encyclicals and exhortations (which are often either unread or mischaracterized) and brings it into the light of the public square and open discussion. If it gets a few people to pay attention, smack their foreheads and say, “wait…you mean the church was never as unreasonable and inhumane as we’d been told?” That will be something, won’t it?
The Holy Spirit uses what is at its disposal for its own purposes, and moves as it will. This pope has been all about giving the Holy Spirit room to move and work.
This is all true but it doesn’t matter we will still see more HuffPo headlines not withstanding the actual truth.
I think the problem is the media isn’t actually interested in what the Pope is saying, they have an agenda and we WILL talk about this on Saturday and on our Christmas show. That being said Willie Geist dealt with it fairly on Way Too Early. I’ll see what Morning Joe has to say.
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