Here is what happened. On his flight to Cameroon on March 17, Pope Benedict XVI was asked in that common journalistic question-slash-editorial style why the Catholic Church's position "on the way to fight AIDS is often considered unrealistic and ineffective." Since that flight, some have opted to comment about the pope's comments. While you have heard or read some of those editorial comments, allow me, if you will, to present the other angle, the one proposed by the pope.

Benedict responded that he believes that the church, in its diversity of programs in caring for the sick and education in responsible human sexual behavior, is doing a great deal to address the scourge of AIDS.

"The solution can only be a double one," he said, "to renew the human being from the inside, to give him spiritual strength for proper behavior regarding one's own body and toward the other person ... and a willingness to make personal sacrifices and to be with the suffering."

That is a dual strategy that leads, the pope said, to "real and visible progress."

What the pope did was to seriously challenge the ultimate First World conventional wisdom for solving Third World challenges: "One cannot overcome the problem with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, they increase the problem."

This led to outcries all over the place from various European leaders -- though not from even one African leader as far as I can tell -- that the pope was teaching a "dangerous doctrine" that was "out of touch with reality" and that was "irresponsible."

But let's try to look reasonably at the other angle, the pope's perspective. AIDS is a terrible disease in America and anywhere else. AIDS is a particular scourge in Africa. Yet it's easier to get a condom in many parts of Africa than it is to get a Band-Aid! The truth be told, it has been a pretty useless "remedy" in stopping the spread of AIDS in Africa.

In fact, it can be reasonably argued that the pope has been exactly right. The Western avalanche of condoms has helped to fuel the crisis in Africa, rather than deter it.

Maria Negretto is an Italian lay missionary who operates a clinic in Cameroon. The clinic serves leprosy patients, the mentally ill and victims of infectious diseases, including AIDS. She explains that, "the focus on condoms has made us lose 20 years in awareness in fighting AIDS."

The condom, she says, was viewed in the past as some kind of magic protection and the answer to the problem. Today, people and governments in Africa have come around to the idea that sexual responsibility -- including being faithful in marriage -- is among the most effective strategies in fighting AIDS.

Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population Development Studies, wrote in the monthly ecumenical journal First Things that in "every African country in which HIV infections declined, the decline has been associated with a decrease in the proportion of men and women reporting more than one sex partner over the course of a year -- which is exactly what fidelity programs promote."

Mr. Green added: "Many countries that have not seen declines in HIV have seen increases in condom use, but in every country worldwide in which HIV has declined, there have been increases in levels of faithfulness and usually abstinence as well."

Condom campaigns are conventional wisdom in the West. That's a big part of the problem -- there's not much thought anymore! Just provide condoms and the problem is allegedly over!

In Third World countries, condom campaigns are often seen as imposed cultural violence, sometimes with racist overtones. They are seen as an attempt to eradicate a future of color in a white world. Maybe that's an unfair charge. But it's easy to understand why they are getting that message, particularly when contrasted with the message of the pope.

Pope Benedict has a voice recognized throughout the world. His voice, I dare argue, is one of the few voices daring enough to be a moral compass. It is particularly well-received in Third World countries where he is not seen as part of the Western world's attempt at cultural hegemony.

The pope's call to Africa is to address the horror of AIDS -- as well as the horrors of war, revolution, poverty and injustice -- with a deep personal spiritual renewal and unselfish charity. That's why he finds a more receptive audience. Because his message is compassionate.

And because it works.