[nonso]

Hi Father chuck,
I recently watched a program on condoms and HIV in Kenya. I was saddened when I realized that many Kenyans(and I am sure many across Africa) did not understand that the church's apathy to condom use was that it promoted promiscuity,since it seems to suggest its all right to have premarital and extramarital sex, as long as you use a condom.They(the congregation) just understood that the church said it(condom) was bad and that it didn't prevent AIDS anyway,as it had pores the virus could pass through(the WHO has since refuted this claim).Even the Kenyan clergy could not explain the church's dislike of the condom. I abhor ignorance, especially in the times of this deadly scourge. So Father, can you tell me what the Vatican is doing to curb this ignorance among its faithful in Africa? The clergy too are in dire need of re-orientation.
p.s:was in transit, so didn't ask as I said I would earlier. How come you are married?

[Fr_Chuck]

Hello,

I don't know if I can get it exact and I don't want to misquote the Vatican.

In America there has been little following by the Church on the ban for birth control, but it stems from the belief that sex is for creation of new life and having babies. And that it is a sin basically to have sex without this purpose in mind.

And since if one follows proper teaching of absence till you are married and being faithful to one wife after marriage there is no need to be concerned about STD and other problems.

Now of course we live in a real and sinful world. If the people were concerned about following church rule closely they would not have to worry about STD. So why they can't just break this church rule to break another church rule is way beyond me.

And to be honest I don't know why the church will not back down on its ban of birth control as for as the practice of safe sex. I guess it is an issue that if a person is having sex in general outside of their marriage, how can they OK it by saying it is OK for the use of a comdom to do that sinful act.

But the problem in Africa is huge and I believe that the church needs to endorce the use of comdoms in Africa if for no other reason humanity reasons. This problem is so bad I am afraid that no matter what we do now is going to be too little to late at least for the short term.

So now that I have risked the wrath of the Vatican I will answer your second question.

First there are actually quite a few married preists and Bishops within the Roman Catholic Church.

The Roman Rite is not the only rite, I believe there are 11 other rites most coming from the original eastern orthodox churches that remained loyal to Rome when the Ortodox and the Catholic split in around 1100.
Many of them still follow the original orthodox rule that a preist can be married if he is already married before he was ordained. Most do not still allowed a maried priest to become a Bishop.

next even in the Roman Rite, they accept back at times priests from other denominations, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican. Some have to be re-ordained but those that have valid ordination by Apostolic Succession are often taken back as priest or Bishops without any new ordination.

My group dates it history back to the 1940's Rome was accusses of bringing in War criminals into Brazil. The Bishop over Brazil Duarane De Costa protested about the churches action, was put in jail by the government and when released continued to protest. The church excommunicated him for his actions against war criminals.

He basically organised most of the catholic churches in Brazil that would follow him into a new independent catholic church that remains one of the largest churches in Brazil. ( not up on numbers in the millions last info I saw) Well that should have been the end of it, but after the Church felt remorse or pressure over the war criminal issues, some of the people De Costa had ordained and concecrated Bishop wanted to go back with Rome. Rome accepted them back, one of the married Bishops was even at Vactian II. So by Romes acceptance back of these people who were ordained or concecrated by a excomminuted Bishop. They showed that they were still accepting him as a valid Bishop. ( Guess they knew what they did was wrong)

Trying to keep this short, This group started a Mission in the US on the late 60's, which was the start of the Order I belong to.

At this time our status with Rome is that they do accept our sacrements as valid but our clergy are considered irregular. So if we do a give a sacrement to one of their members they can't be excommunicated for taking from us. And our weddings, last rites and communion are all valid to Rome. We are not accepted in full communion with Rome at this time.

Our group is divided right now if we want to move for full communion with Rome or not

The fuller history can be found on our web site, listed in my sig line below.
Most of our Order do service work.

[RickJ]

sex is for creation of new life and having babies. And that it is a sin basicly to have sex without this purpose in mind.

This is a common misconception by Christians who do not hold to the authority of the Vatican - that is, non Roman Catholic Christians.

In fact, the Church teaches the goodness of planning.

... Natural planning that is. If you are not ready to have children, then you don't have sex when the wife is fertile.

[RickJ]

The Catholic Church struggles in Africa.

Here is a good article that helps explain some of the difficulties:
http://www.bethel.edu/~letnie/Africa...VaticanII.html

[fredg]

Hi, nonso,
I am not qualified to answer your questions, so will not try.
But, I wanted just to add a comment about AIDS in general. The American Government is more interested in oil, supplying imports, and paying for Troops to be all over the world than in trying much harder to stop a deadly disease!
Our efforts are good, but priorities have to change, allowing for more important things to happen.
To date, there is only one country in the World producing a medication that "might" stop another plague; Bird Flu; it's not the United States.
Our American priorities, with our Gov't, has to change for the better; that is, much more help at home, much more help with Worldwide diseases, and much more help with things rather than catering to large Oil and Pharmaceutical Corporations, who run this country.
If our priority had been set years ago with AIDS, things would be different today, with people over the World not dying every minute from it.
I do wish you the best.

[nonso]

Fredg you've got a point,but it isn't just a lack of priorities that is the case here;I think big and brisk business i.e pharmaceutical companies is what is fostering the 'lack of a cure' of AIDS.It's more profitable to market management drugs you know! Who knows,maybe I haven't got a good grasp of the situation:what think you?