Pope Benedict dicts around with human lives in the face of the HIV epidemic, 359 years until the apology comes?

As a child of a lapsed Catholic, I do care about what the Pope says. As an epidemiologist, I am disappointed with the Pope's recent statements in Africa against the utility of condom use in reducing the spread of HIV. "You can't resolve with the distribution of condoms,"... "On the contrary, it increases the problem." Source: Yahoo News article on the Pope's stance.

In doing so, he ignores the immense body of evidence that condoms used effectively and consistently are very effective in preventing the sexual transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and that promoting condom use and increasing access to condom do not increase frequency of sex or number of sex partners. (Smoak et al, Sexual Risk Reduction Interventions Do Not Inadvertently Increase the Overall Frequency of Sexual Behavior: A Meta-analysis of 174 Studies With 116,735 Participants J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 2006;41:374Y384).

He also sets back the progress that has been made to increase condom use in Africa and countries with large Catholic populations.

This is especially sad because in 2006, the current Pope was considering softening the Catholic Church's stance on condoms. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a moderate in the Vatican said in April 2006, "We need to do everything possible to combat AIDS. Under certain conditions, the use of condoms is necessary. Those who are afflicted have an obligation to protect the other partner," and the Vatican's equivalent of health minister, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, said that the Pope had taken the initiative on taking another look at the condom issue. Source: Deutsche Welle.

It does seem that the Catholic Church does have people who are a bit more sensible on life in the times of HIV. Cardinal Godfried Daneels of Belgium, who was once considered a candidate to suceed John Paul II, had a more sensible position to condom use. In 2004, he stated that someone had HIV could use a condom to protect life. Source: WorldNet Daily.

It took more than 300 years for the Catholic Church to apologize for persecuting Galileo and 60 years to apologize for its inactivity against the Holocaust. Perhaps with another 2 million deaths from AIDS-related complications (annual mortality rate is just over 2 million- source UNAIDS), including sero-negative spouses of people living with HIV, the apology and change from the Catholic Church will come sooner?