Papal Paralysis How the Vatican Dealt with the AIDS Crisis [Hardcover]

Papal Paralysis: How the Vatican Dealt with the AIDS Crisis, offers an important historical review of how papal doctrine led to the Catholic hierarchy's tragic failure in protecting human life during the HIV & AIDS epidemic, as well as in supporting efforts to create an AIDS-free generation. . . .Kinkel's book reaffirms that we urgently need papal action to help create an AIDS-free generation, meet the global need for family planning and end extreme poverty in our time.Papal Paralysis provides a scathing critique of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, focusing on the inaction of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI in response to the global public health crisis of HIV/AIDS.... [T]he book offers compelling analysis in a journalistic style.Only a scholar who knows and cares about the Catholic Church as much as Dr. R. John Kinkel does could write so convincing a book on the Catholic Church and the AIDS crisis. His examination of the rationale for the Church's stance on the AIDS Crisis is an impressive work that helps the reader understand the diverse and complex factors that played a role in the development of the Vatican's position on AIDS, and by extension, on other somewhat baffling positions the Church may take on similar issues as well. The book is not only informative, but also easy to understand and should be required reading for those seeking greater insight into the Catholic Church's sometimes incomprehensible positions on difficult issues.This is a meticulously researched and well-balanced account of the politics, personalities, and power of The Roman Catholic Churchs hierarchy that culminated in the shameful abandonment of the worlds population to the scourge of HIV/AIDS. The book is very well-written, eschews professional jargon, and will be of great interest to all concerned with the intractable nature of human institutions and those who run them.Dr. John Kinkel has written a wonderful, thought-provoking book on the policies of the Catholic ClC"