Africa is a place close to my heart, and in particular - the cradle of humanity: Tanzania, where I traveled in late 2007. The population of Tanzania is one quarter Catholic (9,000,000 people) and has the highest prevalence of HIV in Africa at 8.8%, that's 1,500,000 people. It is not an exaggeration to say that, just in Tanzania, there are millions of lives that are put at risk in the wake of the Pope's statements.
At the same time as pleading for his right to deny scientific facts in light of his religious beliefs the Pope ironically criticises what he calls "a dictatorship of relativism". Relativism (as Pope Benedict is referring to it) is the post-modernist notion that everyone's beliefs are culturally subjective, and are equally valid. They are, as it is often said "true for them".
The Pope seems to think that this is an aspect of the secular consciousness. And in a way it is, however only so much as the secular world is a pluralist world and so allows people like himself to spout disinformation (like the inefficacy of condom use) on that grounds that he has the right to hold such views on faith. It seems strange to me that the one aspect of secular life that caters for his unsupported views (relativism) is what he chooses to criticise.
Being an atheist myself, I agree with Pope Benedict XVI that relativism holds too much sway in society. I think when someone wants to lie to impressionable people at the potential cost of millions of lives, that that person should not have recourse to abscond from their responsibility behind a wall of faith, and be respected for it.
And seriously, who can respect someone who rides around in this contraption?
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