Thoughts on people who have issues with the new Pope

I keep reading things written by people who say that Pope Benedict is not a good guy because he probably won't alter some traditional Catholic teachings like "condom usage to prevent the spread of AIDS". There are others but I'm not interested in writing about those, perhaps another day.

So let's consider the subject of condoms for a moment. What are the Church's fundamental teachings and beliefs. Not that I'm a theologian but here is how I understand it:

1. Sex of any sort outside of marriage is wrong. This would take into consideration homosexual sex, premarital sex, and adultery be married folks. So the only sex that is licit is sex inside the marital union.
2. Artificial birth control is wrong. Married couples should be open to creating life within their marriage. They should share themselves completely with each other without holding back any part of themselves, including their fertility.

So if we start with those premises, when would be a legitimate time to use a condom? The only sex that should be occurring is between married spouses who are open to new life. If that is the only sex that is occurring then there is no need.

Ah, but there are these other types of sex that are occuring. The Church doesn't condone any of that in the first place. So these folks want to the Church to say that the sin of using a condom is OK when you're committing these other sins. I think there's a problem with that.

Let's consider other facts. A governmental study reports, "Approximately 3% of couples who reported using condoms consistently and correctly (considered "perfect use") are estimated to experience an unintended pregnancy during the first year of use" and continues on later, "In a recent well-controlled randomized clinical trial of monogamous couples using latex male condoms for contraception over six months, the pregnancy rate during “typical use” was reported at 6.3%, with a 1.1% pregnancy rate during “consistent use” (45). Most of these couples had experience using condoms. However, based on estimates from National Surveys of Family Growth (123), 14% of couples are estimated to experience an unintended pregnancy during the first year of “typical” use, a failure rate that includes both inconsistent (non-use) and incorrect use, as well as breakage and slippage. Failure rates in the second year of typical use are about 50% lower". Hmm, if there are that many pregnancies occuring with the use of a condom then just how is it supposed to stop AIDS? Seems to be a problem there.

Coming back to the Church's position, the Church advices abstinence until a monogomous marriage. This seems to me to be 100% effective unless on of the partners uses a dirty needle or some other transmission path. But then, the condom couldn't help with that either.

I believe the Chucrh is correct and I, for one, am happy that Pope Benedict seems to have no plans to change the Church's teaching on condom usage.