9 MORE STUPID QUESTIONS

There's nowt so funny as folk.

The Holy Father has put forward a hypothetical situation in which a person engaging in a sinful act takes a precaution to limit a possible evil outcome of that act: a horrible disease.

Journalists, Catholics, Priests and laity, and anyone with an axe, or none, to grind, have applauded, condemned, sneered, panicked, run round squawking like headless chickens, describe it as you will.

So:

1. Was the Pope speaking ex cathedra? No.

2. If he was, has he changed Church teaching on the use of condoms? See 1.

3. If he wasn't speaking ex cathedra, or in a teaching capacity, has Church teaching changed? No.

3. If he wasn't (and we know he wasn't) why are people so excited?

4. Was he saying that using condoms in certain sexual situations may be good? I think not.

5. Or was he saying that the use of a condom in a certain sexual situation, while not good, may signify that the user is trying to mitigate evil, and that his intentions may not be exclusively evil? I think so.

6. And was he therefore simply saying that this putative person in this putative situation is showing a welcome sign of some sort of awakening moral awareness? I think so.

7. If you're at work, and a noise from the street draws you to the window, and you see a group of people belabouring each other with inflated condoms, do you go down to the street and join in?

8. Or do you watch in fascination?

9. Or do you just shrug and get on with your work?

I only asked.