A cross with a red ribbon hangs on the chapel door of the African Jesuit AIDS Network in Nairobi, Kenya. (CNS)

This article, by Jesuit Father Michael Czerny, is a fantastic resource for defending what Pope Benedict XVI said last week about the ineffectiveness of condoms in combating AIDS.

Father Czerny knows the subject far more intimately than virtually all of the Pope’s noisy media critics. He deals every day with the issue of helping African AIDS victims and working to prevent AIDS transmission there, in his capacity as director of the African Jesuit AIDS Network.

And his article, entitled “A human and spiritual wake-up call,” isn’t just a point-by-point rebuttal of the false arguments being circulated about the alleged benefits of using condoms to prevent AIDS.

The article most certainly does that, but it does much more: It explains how the Church reaches out in love to embrace the dignity of all Africans, in its compassionate response to AIDS victims and in its proclamation of the truths of human sexuality.

“Springing up out of Catholic faith and tradition, the Pope’s whole and indeed holistic message is for the people he is visiting,” Father Czerny writes. “It connects thoroughly with the human reality on the ground. A Congolese Jesuit wrote to me, ‘Over here we are following the visit of the Pope with great interest, as well as the speculation in the press about the question of condoms arising from the Holy Father’s wise statement before touching down in Africa. What a shame that so far people don’t realise that the solution to AIDS won’t come with distribution of these things, but by handling the whole question as a whole.’”