- Feb 5, 2002
- 166,491
- 56,169
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Others
VATICAN CITY (AFP)
Continued- http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i7iy5b3DJryFJxuwzhzb224A4tRQ
Pope Benedict XVI on Friday reaffirmed the Catholic Church's condemnation of artificial birth control, a position that has driven millions of people away from the faith.
Contraception "means negating the intimate truth of conjugal love, with which the divine gift (of life) is communicated," the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics wrote on the 40th anniversary of a papal encyclical on the controversial topic.
The message came two months after an appeal for a retraction by some 60 Catholic groups who said the Church's stance had been "catastrophic" for the world's poorest and weakest.
The open letter in July by dissident Catholic bodies from countries including Britain, Brazil, Canada, France and the United States said the Church's opposition to birth control endangered women's lives and exposed millions of people to the risk of contracting AIDS.
It said the impact of the 1968 encyclical had been "disastrous in the southern hemisphere, where the Catholic leadership exercises considerable influence on the politics of family planning."
An Italian gay rights advocacy group, Arcigay, reacted angrily to the pope's message, saying in a statement: "The Church (has) the greatest moral responsibility for the spread of AIDS because, with its obstinate opposition to the use of condoms, it encourages an ignorant and irresponsible sexuality."
Continued- http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i7iy5b3DJryFJxuwzhzb224A4tRQ