As Pope Benedict XVI travels to London this week, a columnist with British newspaper The Guardian outlines the pope’s stand on condoms, namely that the Catholic church does not support the use of condoms and in fact believes that they can contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS. According to the columnist, Pope Benedict first made such a declaration in May 2005 while addressing bishops from South Africa, where somebody dies of AIDS-related illness every two minutes. Since then, Catholic officials across the world have echoed the Pope’s sentiments. Sabotaging HIV interventions, Ben Goldacre writes, makes the church “a serious global public health problem.”

To read the Guardian story, click here.