The problem with a pen filled with vitriol is that it invariably has no regard for the truth and freely distorts the facts to discredit the person rather than the argument.
Cosmas Desmond’s article is a typical example.
1. It defies reason how the Bishops could address the use of condoms in the context of stopping the spread of HIV/Aids an overwhelmingly sexually transmitted disease without mentioning sex and sexual morality!
2. The post-Vatican 2 teaching on abstinence from sex before and outside marriage and fidelity in marriage, while it changes expressions and emphasis, is, in essence, a development and refinement of earlier teaching on sex and morality.
3. When verifiable facts about one of the targets of Desmond’s vitriol are completely untrue, how can credence be given to his unverifiable assertions. For the record, at no stage did I study theology in Rome.
4. As for your own comments and the rest of Desmond’s vitriol, I will not
even dignify them with a comment, unless, of course, you can show that you and he are doing as much for people with HIV/Aids as the bishops you chose to vilify. Wilfrid Cardinal Napier OFM, Archbishop of Durban