Of jimmy hats, the Motherland and The Pope

I swear - probably a bad choice of verb - that I'm not picking on The Church today. But this picture over at The Daily Dish - labeled "The Pope's Message to Africa" - quite obviously caught my attention.

Background: Ahead of his first trip to Africa, The Pope said the distribution of condoms is not the answer in the fight against AIDS. " He said that "on the contrary it increases the problem."

My thoughts about that inane statement are probably too offensive or downright blasphemous to post here. But Steve Benen handles it quite nicely:

Let me get this straight. There are nearly 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who are HIV positive. The pope, claiming to be a leader on morality, goes to Cameroon to argue against condom usage? He's going to put his own religious dogma over the lives of millions?

A lot of phrases come to mind when describing all of this, but "pro-life" isn't one of them.

Indeed. Preaching that sort of gospel will only exacerbate the problem in a place where 2 million people died of AIDS last year. Two million! Or roughly the population of Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city. All dead.

Is it too much to ask for an honest attempt at a solution rather than being part of the problem?