NSS executive director Keith Porteous Wood said Geldof should not have written to the Pope about attending the Hyde Park event.

He said: “Inviting the Pope to Live 8 would be a slap in the face for all those currently working to stem the spread of Aids in Africa.

“Aids is destroying lives, communities and, ultimately, will destroy whole nations for generations to come unless greater efforts are made to check it.

“To invite the Pope, who has supported and reinforced this inhumane policy, to an event aimed at combating poverty through protest, verges on an obscenity. The invitation must be withdrawn immediately.”

At the launch of Live 8, singer Sir Elton John raised his concerns about the invitation, saying: “When you take into consideration their (the Catholic Church’s) views of contraception, and how this affects the spread of Aids… it adds to the general poverty of this region, doesn’t it?”

Cracks me up.

AIDS is the fault of the Pope.

It’s not the fault of the tribal savages banging everyone in the village to prove their manhood, something that’s against the doctrine of the church.

It’s not about the promiscuous sexual activity encouraged amoung youngsters, something that’s against the doctrine of the church.

It’s not about the prostitution that is rampant in the under-developed world (Africa, Southern Asia, South America), something that’s against the doctrine of the church.

It’s not about the unsanitary conditions these people live in and the raw sewage flowing down their streets every day.

Nope, it’s because the Pope won’t give in on condoms. Forget the fact that everything else they’re doing is also against church doctrine; the one thing that holds them back from using condoms is the fact that the Pope won’t endorse them. The hypocrisy of this argument, and why no one will call these folks on it is so aggravating, I can taste it.

I’d love to see the NSS or Sir Elton address the fact that they’re ignoring tons of church doctrine in their daily lives, and that by itself that stands as proof that it isn’t church doctrine keeping Africa from rubbering up.

But of course they won’t. It’s much easier to blame the Pope.