Alcohol

Some are powerless over it some know how to use its power.

We now know alcohol is a great disinfectant. It's used as a cleanser/disinfectant in a variety of places and rubbing alcohol is a staple in most medicine cabinets. Alcohol derrivatives are found in most over the counter regular pharmaceutical grade shampoos. Your mother probably has some. During the Plague in the middle ages in France it was discovered that people who disinfected their hands and forearms if they got anywhere near a dead plague ridden body before eating by dousing them all over with wine-alcohol, helped to stop them from getting the plague. This was discovered by one of the physicians to the Pope during the plague who actually healed himself and prevented the spread to the Pope- wine. Now we know a glass of red a day can help your heart.

In this country we had a prohibition against manufacture, sale or consumption of any alcoholic product by federal law in the 20s. It prompted the great gangster days of Capone and the drug runners of the day making moonshine and carting booze across the Canadian border. The country felt at the time that the dangers of demon drink were severe enough to ban it all together. Drunkenness is debauchery and sin biblically speaking. It was deemed out of control. Alcoholics can destroy their lives and the lives of others. There were firm vociferous opponents of the demon drink that successfully lobbied for a total ban on alcohol. To this day there are entire religious denominations of protestants who disdain alcohol and they run "dry towns" without one liquor store given license to operate in them and anyone caught drinking alcohol can be fined.

Imagine if the plaque hit during the 20s in this country. So what would have happened if the above physician to the Pope lived at a time during our Prohibition days. What if he kept saying- you need to buy as much alcohol as you can get your hands on to disinfect your hands before eating anything. Drinking a glass wouldn't hurt your heart either-might contribute to longevity.
Would they lock him up? Would they "discipline" him to keep the order? Would they kick him out of the City Hall or the local churches for saying the rules against not owning, selling or distributing any alcohol of any kind were actually in some cases harmful and reckless?

That is what we are doing with the people in the Catholic Church who believe condoms are a necessary aid to stop the spread of disease. Used wrongly, yes they can be dangerous and lead to more sin and sexual exploitation. Used rightly in some cases they can stop fatal diseases. Since the humana vitiae we have had a plague hit globally. A global plague. Condoms, contraceptive devices save lives.

The moral imperative to overrule the blanket prohibition is obvious to any thinking person.
The impulse to punish "dissent" here is wildly out of line and inexcusable. Beyond Ignorant.

I go one further. If you forbid the use of something that can save a life with a fair degree of certainty you are guilty of murder. If you withhold a rope tow from a drowning swimmer you drowned him. If you withhold a condom from a husband who came home to have sex with his pregnant wife after screwing around adulterously and contracting HIV and the wife has unprotected sex and her fetus is infected and dies, you killed the fetus. Because you could have saved a life and did not. You are worse in that case than the priest who indifferently traversed the other side of the road before the Good Samaritan found the robbery victim.