Michael Cook of TCS asks: "Was Karol Wojtyla the Greatest Mass Murderer of the 20th Century?"

Wired Catholic found this analysis of absurdity over at Tech Central Station here.

His premise? If the reasonable progressives groaning about JPG's genocide of Africa has any basis in fact, he can't find it. Africans are so faithful they'll follow the pope on condemns, but so sinful they'll commit adultry and pre-marital sex: the logic doesn't stand up to common sense, as Mr. Cook points out. Nor due statistical correlations:

Superimposing maps of prevalence of AIDS on prevalence of Catholicism is enough to sink the link between the Catholic Church and AIDS. In the hospice which is Swaziland nowadays, only about 5 per cent of the population is Catholic. In Botswana, where 37 per cent of the adult population is HIV infected, only 4 per cent of the population is Catholic. In South Africa, 22 per cent of the population is HIV infected, and only 6 per cent is Catholic. But in Uganda, with 43 per cent of the population Catholic, the proportion of HIV infected adults is 4 per cent (9).

In fact, without the Catholic Church the situation might be much worse. The AIDS disaster in Africa weighed heavily on the Pope. Ten years ago he appealed to "the world's scientists and political leaders, moved by the love and respect due to every human person, to use every means available in order to put an end to this scourge" (10). And Catholics have responded.

About 27 per cent of health care for HIV/AIDS victims is provided by Church organisations and Catholic NGOs, as even The Lancet has acknowledged (11). They form a vast network of clinics which reach the poorest, most remote and most neglected people in Africa.

He also observes that condoms are only as effective if they're used "consistently and correctly"--a practice African culture will not facilitate among the womanizing men of various South African nations. Besides, if the idealized use of condoms is the answer, than how did Liberia lower it's aids rate?

the history of AIDS in Uganda supports the Church's belief that abstinence and fidelity within marriage are actually the best ways to fight AIDS. In 1991, the infection rate in Uganda was 21 per cent. Now, after years of a simple, low-cost program called ABC, it has dropped to about 6 per cent.

ABC stands for Abstain, Be faithful, or use Condoms if A and B are not practiced. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni preaches the ABC of AIDS with the fervour of an evangelist. "I am not in favour of condoms in primary and even secondary schools... Let condoms be a last resort," he said recently at an international AIDS conference in his capital, Kampala. "I have grown-up children and my policy was to frighten them out of undisciplined sex. I started talking to them from the age of 13, telling them to concentrate on their studies, that the time would come for sex." (17).

So. Condoms are held up by the Reasonable as the answer to AIDS. John Paul the Great won't end the Catholic Church's prohibition on condoms. Therefore, John Paul the Great denies Africa the answer to aids. The trouble with their argument lay in the premise. It simply does not hold. Aids appears highest where Catholics are fewest. No nation that has implemented a condom program has reduced AIDS. One nation in Africa that appears to have reduced its level of AIDS cases is Liberia. How did they do it? By more or less following Catholic teaching on the respectful use of the gift of sex. In short, condoms are not the answer for AIDS.

Since that is true, then John Paul the Great's upholding of Humanae Vitae has not denied Africa anything but fuel to the fire that is AIDS. So why to the reasonable still cry themselves hoarse over a failed argument? Politics:

A slick campaign to discredit the Pope and the traditional teachings of their Church has been operational for several years. A pro-abortion rights group called Catholics for a Free Choice (CFC) launched an international PR drive in December 2001 to promote their view that "good Catholics use condoms". Advertisements in the US, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Kenya, Chile and Zimbabwe were intended to mark "the first phase of an effort to change the Vatican's policy and challenge its aggressive lobbying against availability and access to condoms in areas of the world most at risk" (19). Subsequent media coverage, at least in the UK, has reflected the major themes of CFC's ideology.

In other words, the most reasonable proponent of converting Catholics to Molochites wants to unsettle Catholics on the Condom issue. All the better to promote the radical individualism that so defines the reasonable's contemporary nihilism. CFC's screeds will so fail. There are enough Fools that won't read two words of it without falling to the floor hysterical. To slander one of the greatest Popes in history simply to score pelvis points has to be among the stupidest ideas anyone has ever devised. No wonder reasobable intellectuals among the believe it!