Some more thoughts on Belgium's Diplomatic Bone with the Holy See

The Holy See is apparently reluctant to defend the Church's position as one of good public health policy - in Africa it is clear that condom distribution has failed disastrously as a means of preventing the spread of disease.

That was the Holy Father's real point, and the high prfile context in which he made it was a central factor in triggering the ideologues' tizzy.

Usually, the ideologues are more than happy to let Church leaders prattle idly about the "morality" of it all, as though moral science were a sort of pie-in-the-sky speculation or reducible to a school exercise - but when the practical efficacy of the Church's position on a given issue (especially this one) comes clearly and powerfully into focus, they start to get nervous.

The Church needs to defend her right to speak in the public square, precisely because her message, ordered to eternity, has a salutary affect on the conduct of human affairs in time.