Today (see here) is far from the first time Nicholas Kristof has hit the Catholic Church in his New York Times column for being backward and “reactionary” and “deadly” when it comes to AIDS (see here). His problem, of course, is that the official Catholic response to AIDS is not to knee-jerkingly hand out condoms, as if we were dealing with animals who can do nothing other than reflexively feed their desires. Kristof writes, “The Vatican has consistently opposed condoms and safe-sex education.” It really is amazing that the paper of record’s editorial page is not beyond the clichéd “safe sex” mantra. It doesn’t take much commonsense to realize that “safe sex” does not come with a flimsy rubber barrier. It comes with attitude and behavior change. But that’s not even just common sense. Harvard Researcher Ted Green, no Vatican p.r. man or pro-life propagandist, has found this to be true in Africa and beyond—especially in Uganda, whose ABC example should be shouted from the rooftops in Africa, Latin America, and beyond. Of course, Kristof will likely not be convinced—he strikes me as someone who just wants to play off anti-Catholic sensibilities. And so he does. Unfortunately, there will be thousands of travelers–Catholic and non-Catholic—who read that column today and nod their heads in agreement, getting about as balanced a look at the issue as they would get from reading a Catholic for a Free Choice press release.