Chris_ho,
I am interested in how you reconcile the fact that the world's most populated countries (EG India and China) are not Catholic, and countries with the highest population growth rates (eg Liberia, Burundi, Afghanistan) are not Catholic, while so many countries that have low population growth rates (Eg Italy, Cook Islands) are Catholic.

Also I am interested in how you reconcile the fact that the contries with the highest rates of HIV are not Catholic, while countries with some of the lowest rates of HIV are Catholic.

Another way of putting this, where did you get all your misinformation about Catholics?

What person, school or university taught you all the misinformation about Catholics?

Vanna, your analytical skills here are a little simplistic.

The Italian birthrate is low because most Italians told their
church to get lost on the subject and most Italians can afford
family planning, unlike those in the third world.

The Vatican has influenced family planning in non Catholic
countries, by it interference at UN level.

http://www.population-security.org/29-APP3.html

There have been UN conferences about population, both sabotaged
by the church.

In South Africa we have a different problem.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/a-president-in-denial-a-ravaged-nation-denied-hope-460967.html

South Africa is largely a mining country, lots of miners away from
home, with money in their pockets, means lots of sex. Yet their
prez was in complete denial, education was lacking, hiv spread.

In Africa, the church runs many health clinics, commonly funded
by outside sources, development aid etc. They could do wonders
in terms of giving the poor access to family planning, if they wished. Interestingly I've heard that some of these clinics
are starting to distribute condoms, no matter what Rome says.
People on the ground increasingly realise that the problem is
simply too large, to stick your head in the sand, as Rome is
doing.

Hi vanna,

No one taught me any misinformation about catholics. I was a catholic and I left this organisation like many others because this churches structures and the decisions of its management are out of place.

Internal critics like the German Hans Kueng questioning the popes infallibility and other issues was limitted to teach and censored.
There is also a good chance that the too liberal pope John Paul I (Albino Luciani) was helped with some digitalis to die of a heart attack and then an autopsy was not performed, as is customary.

I spent quite some time in Latin America and catholics personally told me about their believes and the personal problems they have with the popes guidelines.

It makes no sense to try to use statistics to make the popes advice look better. There are many other diseases which are preventable with condoms - not only AIDS. Many countries have low AIDS statistics because only a minority ever has been tested for AIDS.

You may not like it - but a dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual. To make it look better the roman catholic theology created the dogma of the popes infallibility, claiming that he cannot make errors because he is supported in his decisions by the holy spirit.

That really tops it.

This dogma often is copied and slightly varied by politicians. G.W Bush also claimed that he is guided by his religion in his decisions. What was the result? Two wars based on lies.

No human is infallible - even not the pope.

Chris_ho,
I have no affiliation with the Catholic Church, but I have an interest in mis-information and its dissemination.

There is no correlation between the Catholic Church and population or HIV. For example:- Most Latin Americian countries actually have a population rate below replacement levels, while most countries that are Catholic have a low rate of HIV.

I have found that the main reason for giving the public mis-information is for political reasons, and the main groups most likly to give the public mis-information are either governments or academics in universities.