Apparently, after viewing another thread, we INFJ's are prone to conspiracy theories. So here's mine:
Catholic Church's stance could we say, is aimed at getting people to have non-promiscous safe sex, ie. married sex. This aim is directly opposed by the promotion of promiscuity. So the Church, seeing the use of condoms both as immoral in itself and as promoting promiscuity, will never support the distribution of condoms - either morally or financially.
Now, it is a well documented fact that Africa, which used to be majority (almost entirely) Muslim, is quickly moving towards Catholicism. In fact, it is estimated that ever day 16,000 African muslims convert to Christianity.
The Theory:
The Catholic Church's rejection of contraceptives is being criticised, for two reasons:
firstly, taking advantage of the AIDs epidemic, to discredit a "too rapidly" growing Church;
secondly, the Church's financial and personell outlay in Africa is enormeous, particularly in the field of AIDs treatment and prevention. If the Church's stand could be swayed, litterally billions of Catholic dollars would begin flowing to western companies, not least of which are the condom manufacturers.
Basically, the Church is growing too quickly and is creating a marked closed to certain western products.
The text below is a quote from:
http://www.condoms4life.org/facts/lesserEvil.htm
Quote from condoms4life.org:
"The Church’s Response to AIDS
One of the most startling ironies of AIDS in Africa is that despite the Catholic church’s ban on the key element of comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention strategies, the Catholic church is a major provider of AIDS care and services on the continent and in other parts of the world. Approximately 12% of all AIDS care worldwide is provided by Catholic church organizations, while 13% is provided by Catholic nongovernmental organizations, meaning that Catholic church-related organizations are providing some 25% of the AIDS care worldwide-making it the largest institution in the world providing direct AIDS care.
29,
30The South African Catholic Bishops Conference’s AIDS Office supports 85 projects and programs in Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and South Africa, making it one of the largest anti-HIV/AIDS programs in southern Africa and active in many of the countries with the world’s highest rate of HIV infection.
31
The church’s programs include caring for orphans of the AIDS epidemic and working to place them in foster homes and helping to support foster families, education and “prevention” programs for primary and secondary school students, home care and counseling programs for people who are HIV positive, in-patient units for terminally ill patients who have no one to care for them, and a program to provide drugs to reduce the incidence of mother-to-child transmission.
32
These programs are very much in keeping with the church’s anti-AIDS strategy, which is heavy on abstinence messages and treatment for those who are already ill. In his message to the recent UN special session in HIV/AIDS, Pope John Paul II named access to drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission and general access to anti-retroviral drugs for AIDS patients as two of the most pressing issues facing developing countries, especially Africa.
33 But while the church calls on developed nations to devote more resources to drug access, it deplores the most effective method of halting the spread of HIV: condom education, use and distribution."
