What the Pope Knows

According to various news sources:

After decades of fierce opposition to the use of all contraception, the pontiff will end the Catholic Church's absolute ban on the use of condoms. 

Wow. 

Key in on the word absolute, which I underlined and boldfaced.  As quoted in a different story:

"In certain cases, where the intention is to reduce the risk of infection, it can nevertheless be a first step on the way to another, more humane sexuality," he said.  The Pope gives the example of the use of condoms by prostitutes as "a first step towards moralisation", even though condoms are "not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection".

Wow.

We've all known for ages that condoms are useful, particularly in struggling nations, to fight HIV/AIDS.  It just took a while for the Church to realize this, and do something about it.

What Catholics Know

From the NYTimes, a poll of Catholics finds:

• the majority of Catholics are critical of the pope's handling of the sex abuse scandal.
• but are confident the Vatican will figure it out and take care of matters correctly.
• and over half thinks the Vatican is "out of touch" with the needs of Catholics today
• so everyone dislikes bureaucracy, but they also think the news media have been unfair.
• and over half think sexual abuse is still happening in the church
• which makes you wonder what the hell they're complaining about, given without news media coverage none of this would have come out and the friggin church would have kept on doing what it did.  Oops, sorry for that editorial moment...
• and nearly two-thirds believe bishops covered all this up.

A complete look at the poll is here.  Disclaimer: I'm a practicing Catholic. And pissed about this.