Got AIDS? No Catholic wedding for you buddy!

[Garbarsardar]

"Roman Catholic Church leaders in Burundi have told priests not to conduct wedding ceremonies for people who are HIV positive.

Couples in the central African state will have to give an HIV test certificate to the priest. Aids activists said this was discriminatory.

Guidelines in a booklet issued by the church authorities also forbid church weddings for pregnant women.

The head of programmes for the Catholic Church in Burundi, Father Gerase Mugerowimana, said the guidelines were designed to clarify the Church's position on religious weddings.

"There was a meeting of bishops who decided that young couples who wish to be married have to present an HIV test certificate," he said.

"The church will not bless the engaged couple if they do not present this document.""

As if forbidding condoms have not done enough for the spread of the epidemic already!!!


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4842858.stm

[dashizller]

This reminds me a lot about what happened during the Black Death in Europe. Everyone engaged in corporal mortification with church backing and said that the ones who satisfied God would live, when in reality they were, if anything, exposing themselves to more death through the infections from the bleeding.

[Kino]

Deleted by user.

[mongoose]

The point is that abstinence clearly isn't working at all, if they used birth control things would be alot better over there. Now, yes, there's going to be the trouble of getting them to actually use it, but it's going to be a hell of alot easier then what we're trying now.

[King Henry V]

"The Church believes it should not be complicit in spreading the virus to the partners or children of those with HIV"
From a religious point of view (which is the only one the Church is meant to have), this does make sense. It is a contiuation from their policy of forbidding the use of condoms. If one "partner" (how I hate that word when reffering to relationships) had AIDS, then they would naturally transmit it to the other partner. If through sexual relations a pregnancy occured as well, then the child would also be infected with the disease.
If however, both partners had the disease, then any pregnancy would also mean that the child would have AIDS.

[eltrevo]

Who here agrees with me that the Catholic Church is becoming more oppresive?

[bdh]

Who here agrees with me that the Catholic Church is becoming more oppresive?

?
The Catholic Church can't make anybody do anything.
I don't understand why some people would even get angry about this. If you don't beleive in God or align yourself with Catholocism, why should you care if some priest refuses to wave his arms around in front of two people? If you do align yourself with the Church, then you agree with it anyway.

[Ewan]

?
The Catholic Church can't make anybody do anything.
I don't understand why some people would even get angry about this. If you don't beleive in God or align yourself with Catholocism, why should you care if some priest refuses to wave his arms around in front of two people? If you do align yourself with the Church, then you agree with it anyway.

I would like to straighten somethings out. first africa is alot more religous and the catholic church has alot of power over there ( consider it a more fanatical view then somewhere like ireland) so it is very hard to just escape from the churchs view

Also a couple of years ago the catholic church was tryin to stop condom use and im sure there frame of mind was ppl would say
"oh no i cant use condoms anymore so im not goin have sex"
but no one actually things like that so instead all the sex continued but no one used protection this resulted in AIDS and HIV spreadin more rapidly.

Furthermore im sure there denial of marriage with AIDS victums is if you have AIDS then it most likly means you've had sex and they are seriesly frowning on this.

?
The church is a ridiculous.

well if you look at things before the church came along ( such as rome) you could kill anyone without battin an eye there was alot more rape ,crime and adultary. almost all of todays modern laws are built on religion and some beleive the reason that modern day morals are lackin is because less people go to church and lack any real spirtual side.
Yes you could argue about negative side effects like crusade which was really infact about peoples greed, money and wealth ( which is the true reasons behind war). But then again christianity is about love and forgiveness

[Manji]

Like bdh said, it's not as if the Catholic Church is forcing people or imposing their beliefs: it's a simple equation actually, if you follow their rules you are accepted if you don't then you aren't.
This modern concept of "bending the rules" isn't very compatible with religions, seeing as they are traditionally monolithic when it comes to regulations, and I think that's actually a good thing. One can always find another group/sect/cult/whatever that has less restrictions, there was even this english bloke that wanted to marry and divorce when he bloody well wanted to and went and relinquished his ties to the Catholic Church and made his own Church. His name was Henry VIII. :wink:

[RZZZA]

The church is a ridiculous, antiquiated and pointless establishment. They may do some good but their traditions are steeped in a lot of dark sided stuff, quite frankly, and I'm not sure that what little good they do outweighs the negative effects they may have on society. Its like how we now look back on roman rituals, with slicing the bulls and all that stuff...well thats how I look at churches, and religous rituals today.

[Sétanta]

They are doing this in a desperate attempt to stop HIV, not because they are oppresive.

Sure it is aniquated and very unrealistic

[vizi]

Protest in front of your local diocese!




A sign I made for you!

[Ummon]

"Roman Catholic Church leaders in Burundi have told priests not to conduct wedding ceremonies for people who are HIV positive.

Couples in the central African state will have to give an HIV test certificate to the priest. Aids activists said this was discriminatory.

Guidelines in a booklet issued by the church authorities also forbid church weddings for pregnant women.

The head of programmes for the Catholic Church in Burundi, Father Gerase Mugerowimana, said the guidelines were designed to clarify the Church's position on religious weddings.

"There was a meeting of bishops who decided that young couples who wish to be married have to present an HIV test certificate," he said.

"The church will not bless the engaged couple if they do not present this document.""

As if forbidding condoms have not done enough for the spread of the epidemic already!!!


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4842858.stm

As I was saying elsewhere, perfectly correct action by the Church. I quote:

Essentially, from their point of view, it can be considered arguably right.

To a Catholic, reproduction is the goal of marriage. Since reproduction requires unprotected sex, this means the partner and/or offspring of a HIV positive person will be HIV positive in time (though not all of them). This equals to a death sentence for some (though, again, not all).

No responsible vow of marriage can include knowingly killing one's children and wife/husband. Love, which is part of the formal vow, doesn't allow this. This means their vow would be false, and the marriage null in any case.

The Catholic Church has no fault in upholding its values infact, because:

If the interpretation of the faithful is different, they can cease being Catholic.

The Catholic Church for one, (unlike other religious authorities) won't kill them.

The whole thread is thus a series of rash, wrong comments, based on rash, wrong reasoning.

[Manji]

The whole thread is thus a series of rash, wrong comments, based on rash, wrong reasoning.

No it's not, it's a matter of opinions. My own is that the Catholic Church doesn't "enforce" it's membership and as such anyone is free to join or leave, provided they uphold the laws. Re-read my post:

Like bdh said, it's not as if the Catholic Church is forcing people or imposing their beliefs: it's a simple equation actually, if you follow their rules you are accepted if you don't then you aren't.
This modern concept of "bending the rules" isn't very compatible with religions, seeing as they are traditionally monolithic when it comes to regulations, and I think that's actually a good thing.
One can always find another group/sect/cult/whatever that has less restrictions, there was even this english bloke that wanted to marry and divorce when he bloody well wanted to and went and relinquished his ties to the Catholic Church and made his own Church. His name was Henry VIII.