Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
Paris Acts Up Against Pope's Condom Use Position
Share: 
by Schönerseptember | September 14, 2008 at 01:08 pm
297 views | 0 Recommendations | 2 comments
Photos
La capote c'est la vie | Action d'Act Up-Paris devant le Sacré Coeur (Montmartre) en réaction à la venue du Pape
uploaded by William Hamon
PARIS, France - The Pope’s visit to the French capital Paris went down smoothly on Saturday the 13th of September - with one exception.
The head of the Catholic Church gave a traditional speech at Les Invalides in which he condemned love of money and power as primary goal in today's life, in the center of the city in front of 250′000 spectators. This was part of his trip to France, where the once powerful French church struggles with a shortage of priests and Sunday mass attendance is below 10 percent according to the news service Reuters.
At the same time though, a group of activists called Act Up-Paris organized a demonstration against the Church’s strict positions regarding the use of condoms. They unfurled a 45 meter (148 feet) long black poster on the famous steps leading up to the Sacré Coeur Church residing high above the roofs of Paris. Their action “La capote c’est la vie” (which could be translated into “condom stands for life”) was meant to denounce the ongoing acceptance of the Catholic condom ban by recalling the fatal consequences of HIV.
UNAIDS estimates that a quarter of all HIV positives are of catholic confession and that the epidemic caused more than 40 million deaths.
It is not the first time Pope Benedict XVI faced demonstrations of that sort, the heaviest being during Sydney’s World Youth Day 08 when around 1,000 protesters marched against the Church’s teachings on sexual morality. Back then protesters greeted the pilgrims with condoms and a chant: "Pope is wrong, put a condom on".
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 15:43 on September 14th, 2008
"Act Up-Paris est une association issue de la communauté homosexuelle", you should be fair and mention that the goal of ACT is not the goal of the church at all, in contrary. Little groups in France use publicity of such events, like Cannes film festival. Paris has a problem with aids. That has nothing to do with catholic church. Young people think it is not necessary any more to protect. It is up to you to control your sexual choices, don't blame the pope for it. The theme of the event was to remind french population and president money and power if you want you can add adiciton to .... is not all in Life. Need to have a life project. To hang around with condomes is a old paris habit, nothing new. Once they put one over the Obelisk of Luxor, what remains a cult symbol of egypt believe system. You are writing from switzerland, the headline you choose is not fitting to the visit, I am sorry, if that is such a problem to buy a box of condomes, I don't think you need the pope for it. The cause is Aids you have all to change your habits.
at 08:24 on September 17th, 2008
Many thanks for your long comment on my first story Solarlife. I didn't mention that Act Up-Paris is an organisation with homosexual background that is true. That might have been an additional information that some people would've enjoyed, but not necessarily relevant for this story.
It is a fact that the Church's teachings about condoms are nothing but harmful in the big picture or you just underestimate the power of the Church in the world. Also I think it's unfair to discredit this story with the remark that I'm not writing from Paris. I was merely reporting the event which in my eyes was an important one.