COMMENT: The Pope and World AIDS Day

Today is December 1st and, across the globe, there will be television programmes, newspaper articles, talks, marches, etc. to mark World AIDS Day. HIV/AIDS, whilst mostly under control in Western society, is still a major epidemic in the Third World and, perhaps most notably, Africa.

Not that Western society should be becoming complacent - there has been a noticeable increase in cases in the UK over the past 12 months.

In the Vatican, however, the Pope, who could do so much to help stop the spread of this killer disease, sits and does nothing. Mind you, Pope Benedict has a busy day of urgent and important work....

Instead of marking World AIDS by encouraging that people practise safe sex and saying that condoms are essential in the battle against HIV/AIDS Pope Benedict, the old Nazi, will be marking December 1st as the feast day of Saint Edmund Campion (an English martyr hanged, drawn and quartered in 1581 for practising catholicism in a protestant country) but not canonised until 1970 (because canonising 16th century priests was the most important thing in the world in 1970).

If that doesn't keep the Pope busy enough then December 1st is also the feast day of Saint Eligius who is the patron saint of goldsmiths and coin collectors (clearly he'd missed Jesus teaching about wealth man's money!) who lived from 588 CE - 660 CE. he's also the patron saint of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers - yes, an army corps with a patron saint! - wasn't there something in the Bible about peace, not killing and not fighting?

If, having spent time marking these two important and relevant feast days, the Pope has any spare time he could, of course, talk about HIV/AIDS or, more likely, he will celebrate the feast day of Saint Castritian, a mid-3rd century saint that little or nothing is known about. Yes, he's much more important than hundreds of thousands dying of AIDS in Afica.

The Pope's failure to support actions like World AIDS Day speak volumes for both him and his "church": it shows that the Catholic church is not a caring or loving institution and puts into the spotlight the blatant hypocrisy and bigotry of one of the most powerful organisations in the world.

Pope Benedict is an evil man. I hope that, one day, the Catholic church will help the poor and suffering rather than sit in luxury, praying about pointless saints and counting the profits that the church makes annually.