Your post from Human Life International proves my point - you define the position of the Catholic Church by the actions of its right-wing extremists, and that's simply not fair. The "Human Life International" organization is located in the United States, but yet there's no indication that the organization has any support from the American bishops, or from Rome. If you want to quote from a legitimate Catholic relief organization like Catholic Relief Services or Maryknoll or the Jesuits or one of the other major religious orders, I might think it more representative of mainstream Catholic thought.

I don't really trust the Guardian, much of the time, but take another look at the article you cited - a right-wing Catholic organization is threatening a boycott against an international Catholic relief agency that condones the use of condoms for disease control. So, again, you're defining the Catholic Church by its right-wing extremists, and completely ignoring the mainstream position that was stated quite clearly in the very same article.

And again, the article by the International Association for Physicians in AIDs Care speaks of the actions of right-wing Catholics - not of the actions of any mainstream or official Catholic organization.

OK. So I guess you're right. We do have a number of conservatives and even some wild-eyed fundamentalists in the Catholic Church. They are very embarrassing, and I'm very sorry that they haven't been shot or burned at the stake or something; but that sort of disposal is now forbidden by Church law.

-Joe Offer-