The bishops knew better than to pick a fight with the women who defended another woman, Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral, after she earned the wrath of the clergy for distributing condoms. Instead of answering the women who carried baskets of condoms to the bishops’ headquarters, they kept a discreet (but maybe amused) silence.

Unlike those women, Filipino men in general, such as cardinals and priests, are not known to favor condoms. Reportedly, rubbers deprive their users of some amount of pleasure. In fairness to the Monsignors, their condemnation of the condom has nothing to do with carnal pleasures, only with sin and immorality.

And yet, Catholic philosophers and educators – sounding more open and tolerant  – have a better argument than religion. They quote scientific research showing that “condoms will even help to spread” AIDS because the microscopic holes in the latex are 500 times bigger than the virus, which means the virus can easily break through and infect the partner.

They cite the findings of Edward Green, head of Harvard University Center for Population and Development Studies, that the use of condoms has been a “dismal failure” in Africa for just that reason. Mr. Green suggested following Uganda’s example of fighting AIDS with ABC: abstinence, be faithful, condoms.

Maybe the bishops know something that the women don’t: that it’s easy for our men to  practice A and B.