@poisonedantidote Although I agree that the Catholic church should not be speaking out against condoms, I find it to be a crime against health and humanity. I am pretty sure that Africa is only 15% Catholic more or less. Feel free to correct me. Possibly in certain countries in Africa the percentage is very high?
The Africans, I will make a huge generalization, are spreading AIDS like crazy because of social mores and beliefs that have nothing to do with the Catholic church from what I understand. Many men believe that having sex with a virgin girl will get rid of the disease, so they rape elementary age girls (so of course that girl has a high risk of becoming infected because she is very likely to tear). There is a strong culture of having mistresses, and very young ones at that. So even if we could get a handle on the children being born being free of AIDS, and if those children only had sex among each other, the number would be far less, but because infected adults continue to have sex which much younger, much much younger girls/women, they hand it down to the next generation.
I also think that even if many of these African men knew about condoms, they still would not use them. We see it in the states. Men from more macho cultures with little education don’t want to use them, and the women many times go along. I think men in general in the US wear condoms to avoid getting a girl pregnant. I don’t even think they worry much about disease to be honest (I am speaking of heterosexual men). But, I am not a man, so I am not sure. If I am right, these cultures where people have babies all of the time and it is accepted culturally, they have little motivation to wear a condom.
I blame the education system in Africa more than the church and I blame the governments.