Nicely done, your holiness.

From the outrage files: Pope Benedict XVI has finally figured out what's hampering us in our efforts to eradicate AIDS in Africa. It's the distribution of condoms. That's right: promoting safe sex is contributing to the spread of AIDS.

Many devoutly religious people seem to take the view that if we don't talk about sex, or better yet, if we portray it as dirty and shameful, people will stop doing it. But the cold fact is that abstinence only methods do not work. People who make purity pledges get knocked up at about the same rate as their impure colleagues. God has commanded us to be fruitful and multiply, and damned if we aren't good at it.

It's one thing to object to the distribution of condoms in suburban American schools, but it's quite another to object to it in places where people are dying in droves every day from AIDS. In fact, I think the spread of religion has been more detrimental to the AIDS eradication effort than the spread of condoms. Specifically, I'd like to call out religious medical missions that will help you once you have AIDS, but will not provide you with the education or tools necessary to avoid getting AIDS in the first place.

It's bad enough not to give people the means to avoid dying of a horrible disease, but to criticize those who are providing that service is beyond comprehension.