# Pope should launch his own brand of condoms **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 29, 2010, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735 "2010-04-29T12:37:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/1 "2010-04-29T12:37:34Z")
Recently a U.K. broadsheet, The Daily Telegraph, published a leaked "Brainstorming "document by junior British civil servants on potential events for the Popes forthcoming visit. (Sorry can’t do links) Amongst others, the ideas were for the Pope to to launch his own line of "Benedict"condoms, start a helpline for sexually abused children and aid for H.I.V. sufferers. Now it is pretty obvious that the civil servants were having a bit of fun here and senior civil servants were apparently unaware of it, but it is being taken very seriously by H.M.G. who have sent an envoy to the Vatican to apologise . It is also being touted as showing an inbuilt lack of respect for the H.R.C. Church by the British establishment. Is that an honest inference of the incident ? Is it an over reaction but with some merit ? Or is it a storm in a teacup ? I would particulary like to hear from practicing Catholics and Catholic priests as well of course from everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/2 "2010-04-29T12:49:03Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Recently a U.K. broadsheet, The Daily Telegraph, published a leaked "Brainstorming "document by junior British civil servants on potential events for the Popes forthcoming visit. > > (Sorry can’t do links) > > Amongst others, the ideas were for the Pope to to launch his own line of "Benedict"condoms, start a helpline for sexually abused children and aid for H.I.V. sufferers. > > Now it is pretty obvious that the civil servants were having a bit of fun here and senior civil servants were apparently unaware of it, but it is being taken very seriously by H.M.G. who have sent an envoy to the Vatican to apologise . > > It is also being touted as showing an inbuilt lack of respect for the H.R.C. Church by the British establishment. > > Is that an honest inference of the incident ? > > Is it an over reaction but with some merit ? > > Or is it a storm in a teacup ? > > I would particulary like to hear from practicing Catholics and Catholic priests as well of course from everyone else. It’s much ado about an ongoing election and not alienating catholic voters. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/3 "2010-04-29T12:54:58Z")
[Telegraph.co.uk](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7628752/Ministers-apologise-for-insult-to-Pope.html). ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/4 "2010-04-29T12:55:17Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > It’s much ado about an ongoing election and not alienating catholic voters. Yes but the British Civil Service is traditionally neutral politically, their crimes, if such they are, will not reflect on whichever political party is in government at the time. Though this could be a device to distract voters from G.B.s almost suicidal mistakes in campaigning. ---
**Author:** ![Honesty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f04885/32.png) [@Honesty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honesty)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/5 "2010-04-29T12:55:26Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Recently a U.K. broadsheet, The Daily Telegraph, published a leaked "Brainstorming "document by junior British civil servants on potential events for the Popes forthcoming visit. > > (Sorry can’t do links) > > Amongst others, the ideas were for the Pope to to launch his own line of "Benedict"condoms, start a helpline for sexually abused children and aid for H.I.V. sufferers. > > Now it is pretty obvious that the civil servants were having a bit of fun here and senior civil servants were apparently unaware of it, but it is being taken very seriously by H.M.G. who have sent an envoy to the Vatican to apologise . > > It is also being touted as showing an inbuilt lack of respect for the H.R.C. Church by the British establishment. > > Is that an honest inference of the incident ? > > Is it an over reaction but with some merit ? > > Or is it a storm in a teacup ? > > I would particulary like to hear from practicing Catholics and Catholic priests as well of course from everyone else. Non-catholic here, but a help line for child victims is a good step in the right direction. Speaking of which, check out this [Mark Fiore cartoon](http://www.markfiore.com/political-cartoons/watch-vatican-pope-catholic-church-sex-abuse-animation-mark-fiore) about the scandal. - Honesty ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/6 "2010-04-29T13:48:59Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > It is also being touted as showing an inbuilt lack of respect for the H.R.C. Church by the British establishment. > > Is that an honest inference of the incident ? No, because it implies the H.R.C. Church _deserves_ respect. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/7 "2010-04-29T14:06:21Z")
Actually, once one moves beyond the snickering, it’s not a bad idea. OK, maybe Pope-branded condoms are a little over the top, but if the Church could start pushing condom use in third world countries, they could do a world of good. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/8 "2010-04-29T14:16:44Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > It is also being touted as showing an inbuilt lack of respect for the H.R.C. Church by the British establishment. > > Is that an honest inference of the incident ? > > Is it an over reaction but with some merit ? > > Or is it a storm in a teacup ? Probably a bit of all three. I don’t see it as an example of a sweeping disrespect for the Church specifically. That said, it’s a pretty stupid thing to do, and not something I would want government workers to be getting up to. I mean, I think that were this a similar thing but with atheists, I would also consider it generally harmless, if still stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/9 "2010-04-29T19:15:37Z")
> [@](#): > > It is also being touted as showing an inbuilt lack of respect for the H.R.C. Church by the British establishment. I’m a Catholic, and I would describe it as what’s sometimes referred to as a “joke”. OK, so a lot of humor depends on a certain degree of lack of respect, but so what? It doesn’t hurt anybody. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/10 "2010-04-29T20:12:43Z")
Another 2 cents from a fairly conservative Catholic. On one hand, I think the author of the screed was an asshole. On the other hand, he was clearly just making a bad joke that he THOUGHT would only be seen by a few friends. I’m not inclined to get too upset about a jerk making a dumb joke that he didn’t expect to get so much attention. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/11 "2010-04-29T20:42:50Z")
There’s something like half a million people in the British Civil Service. I’m sure if you went through all of their emails and correspondences you could find a lot of things that were similarly disrespectful of just about anything. I don’t think the fact that stuff like this gets passed around is really surprising or indicative of anything. FWIW, my moms family are all practicing Catholics, and they email around stuff about the Church that’s more scandalous then this ---
**Author:** ![WreckingCrew](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wreckingcrew/32/4080_2.png) [@WreckingCrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WreckingCrew)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/12 "2010-04-30T16:06:09Z")
If they were designed to look like a Bishop’s Mitre, I would so buy them. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Poster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Happy\_Poster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Poster)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/13 "2010-04-30T16:33:11Z")
I don’t actually think it was a joke; the suggestions are pretty standard of “wacky” suggestions you get during bullshit semi-corporate crap like brainstorming that the foreign office go for. The only harm was in it being leaked. Regarding that, I wonder: cui bono? ---
**Author:** ![Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blut_Aus_Nord)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/14 "2010-04-30T19:14:39Z")
only if his face is on them, with the reservoir tip for his nose ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/15 "2010-04-30T21:02:13Z")
What I find offensinve is less the comments, than the hooray henrys that made them. The reporting officer is on a board that is making suggestions for the itinery of hte Pope, and this yahoo is 23 years old. The chair of the board is supposed to be moderating it competantly, he is 31 years old, and is considered a diplomat and has been such whilst working in the Bitish-Russian embassy. What irks me somewhat is this, they clearly have not worked their way through lengthy careers of dedicated service, they don’t have any real life experience at such senior levels to be making plans for visiting heads of state, so the question is, how did they get these jobs -Oxford graduates all and obviously the children of the great and the good.These twits have embarrassed us, and they probably ahve only just started shaving. Whilst the rest of the British population struggles to find work, especially the younger workers, thse well heeled tow rags with influential daddies find life all too easy. Maybe they should do a little fieldwork, perhaps in Malawi, dig a few wells, maybe move on toe a Korean sweatshop and sew together a few high priced trainers for a pittance. Then come back, a bit older and wiser, and maybe we should look at how a few more of our senior twits got their jobs too. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/16 "2010-04-30T21:37:09Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Is it an over reaction but with some merit ? > > Or is it a storm in a teacup ? Mostly, it’s a request for opinions that somehow got posted in Great Debates. You will next find it in IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/17 "2010-04-30T22:26:36Z")
[mod note] **Honesty** and **tagos** : There’s no need to quote the whole OP to add a single line of comment to the end. You can either edit the quote down to just one or two lines, or in a case like this, omit the quote entirely. [/mod note] ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/18 "2010-05-01T11:09:59Z")
> [@casdave](#): > > What I find offensinve is less the comments, than the hooray henrys that made them. > > The reporting officer is on a board that is making suggestions for the itinery of hte Pope, and this yahoo is 23 years old. > > The chair of the board is supposed to be moderating it competantly, he is 31 years old, and is considered a diplomat and has been such whilst working in the Bitish-Russian embassy. > > What irks me somewhat is this, they clearly have not worked their way through lengthy careers of dedicated service, they don’t have any real life experience at such senior levels to be making plans for visiting heads of state, so the question is, how did they get these jobs -Oxford graduates all and obviously the children of the great and the good.These twits have embarrassed us, and they probably ahve only just started shaving. > > Whilst the rest of the British population struggles to find work, especially the younger workers, thse well heeled tow rags with influential daddies find life all too easy. Maybe they should do a little fieldwork, perhaps in Malawi, dig a few wells, maybe move on toe a Korean sweatshop and sew together a few high priced trainers for a pittance. > > Then come back, a bit older and wiser, and maybe we should look at how a few more of our senior twits got their jobs too. To be fair not all diplomats are like that, a mate of mine is a quite a senior diplomat on an overseas posting and is not that old either. He has in the past been a journalist and a soldier. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/19 "2010-05-01T11:11:06Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Mostly, it’s a request for opinions that somehow got posted in Great Debates. > > You will next find it in IMHO. Whoops sorry, I wasn’t sure how the thread would turn out. totally agree with your decision. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735/20 "2010-05-02T10:35:25Z")
What’s disturbing is that this rubbish ever got recorded on paper, and that it ever left the room. Eternal Truths Of Work Life No.1:- Don’t send emails that you wouldn’t want the whole world reading. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pope-should-launch-his-own-brand-of-condoms/537735.md?page=2)