If you are at all plugged into the media, you certainly know of the stir Pope Benedict caused recently on the way to Africa. On the papal plane, when asked about the AIDS crisis in Africa, the Pope responded that it is "a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems."

 

The media response was broad and swift. In sum: Get with the modern world, Benedict. You’re not dealing with a full deck! Could it be, instead, that the rest of the world is missing a few cards? The Catholic Church is concerned about real solutions to real problems – not apparent solutions, however appealing. In fact, as Benedict pointed out, providing condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS "even aggravates the [real] problems."

 

Here’s an analogy that might help us see why this is the case. Lot’s of drug addicts get AIDS because of dirty needles. What’s the real problem and what’s the real solution? The real problem is that these people are taking drugs in the first place. The real solution – which, of course, is easier to point out then it is to solve – is to get them off drugs.

 

What will happen to the real problem (drug use) if the solution proposed to prevent the spread of AIDS among drug users is to distribute clean needles? We can pat ourselves on the back for doing our "good deed" for the day, but, in fact, by providing clean needles to drug users, we are actually fostering the underlying problem – their use of drugs.

 

Isn’t the same true of condom distribution? The primary cause of the spread of AIDS is sexual promiscuity. This is not a judgement laden statement, just the observation of a politically inconvenient fact. Those who save sex for marriage and are faithful within marriage are not at risk of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases. If sexual promiscuity is the primary cause of AIDS, will condoms help this problem or foster it?

 

As I wrote once in a previous column, if the problem is that people are pounding each other’s toes with sledge hammers, you can give them steel-toe shoes, or you can help them to respect their feet and find a better use for sledge hammers. What’s the real solution? If you choose the former, shoe companies (read: condom companies) will love you for it. If you choose the latter, there’s a lot of educational work to be done, and John Paul II "theology of the body" (TOB) would be a great place to start.

 

In this seminal work of the late pope, John Paul observed that what is at stake in the Church’s teaching on contraception is nothing short of the authentically human meaning of the development and progress of civilization (see TOB 129:2). Precisely on the question of AIDS and condoms, we see the dramatic clash of two irreconcilable visions of the human person, of human sexuality, and of human progress.

 

In short, there is no authentic progress for civilization if we do not return to the full truth of God’s plan for man and woman. Rather than educating Africa about condom use, we should be educating Africa (and the world) about the glorious dignity of man and woman and God’s plan for their union in "one flesh." By and large, it is a proposal that the world hasn’t even heard. We’ve heard a list of "thou shalt nots," but we haven’t heard about the glory that God reveals through our bodies and sexuality. It’s a vision that deserves to be heard, that must be heard. For it’s a vision that has the power to change the world.

 

Of course this does not mean merely delivering a message. We must be willing to join in solidarity with those who suffer from AIDS. We must love them where they are and as they are precisely because of their great dignity as men and women made in the divine image.

 

If what the Church proposes about the great dignity and meaning of our humanity is correct, condoms can never be the solution to our problems but only the source of a terrible setback for humanity. Authentic love for humanity demands that our true dignity be upheld. That’s what is behind Pope Benedict’s statement: authentic love for humanity.