Pope

I’m actually quite impressed with how the Pope has been handling his tour of the Middle East so far. The fact that he’s declared support for a Palestinian state is pretty excellent. I still have some legitimate problems with him, like when he went to Africa and told them that condoms cause AIDS. Not true. Obviously. But he still said it. That’s not okay.

But I’m glad he’s willing to be a bit more humanitarian in this instance. Arguably, that’s because he has no vested interest in the opposite; in Africa, if people started using condoms, the Catholic church might lose sway. Or so they think, anyway. When their only priority is keeping people in the faith, messages get distorted or altogether falsified.

As the influential head of an influential group, the Pope has the potential to do great good. I think it’s up to us to be the voice of reason that doesn’t let him do anything else. We shouldn’t let our voices be drowned out by the leaders. We create leaders, and we follow them. We can change them.