Pope struggling with his message

VATICAN CITY (AP) — From the Gospel to Google, the church has been seeking ways to announce the word of Christ for 2,000 years.

Pope Benedict XVI has gone on YouTube, and his speeches appear in Chinese on the Vatican Web site, but judging from the uproar over a Holocaust-denying bishop and his pronouncement that condoms deepen the AIDS crisis, he’s clearly struggling with his message.

During his nearly four-year papacy, criticism has been pouring in from Muslims, Jews and members of his own flock, as the German pontiff seems to step into controversy at every turn. The attacks by European governments this past week over condom use are unprecedented.

The controversy could in the future weigh on cardinals when they choose Benedict’s successor, perhaps leading them to look for a younger man more attuned to a wired world.

As he set off on his first African pilgrimage last week, Benedict was just emerging from a crisis brought on when he lifted the excommunication of four ultraconservative bishops — one of them a Holocaust denier — in an effort to end a schism.

An unusual personal account addressed to Catholic bishops around the world in a letter made public by the Vatican helped clear the air. Benedict acknowledged mistakes by the Vatican and said he was particularly saddened that Catholics who should know his record against anti-Semitism “thought they had to attack me with open hostility.”

But Benedict found himself under new attack when flying to Africa after he told reporters that condoms would not resolve the AIDS problem but, on the contrary, increase it. The statement was condemned by France, Germany and the U.N. agency charged with fighting AIDS as irresponsible and dangerous.

The 81-year-old pope was not taken by surprise by the question. Ever since he apparently misspoke about the excommunication of Mexican lawmakers on a trip to Brazil in 2007, the Vatican asks reporters to submit questions in advance, giving Benedict time to prepare a response.

Benedict’s communications ability will be tested when he visits the Holy Land for the first time in May. On Thursday, the Vatican announced the full schedule for May 8-15 trip to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Though opposition to condoms is a long-standing church position, the Vatican felt constrained to step in and say Benedict wanted to stress that a reliance on condoms distracted from the need for proper education in sexual conduct.

The first controversy of Benedict’s papacy came in 2006 when the pope’s remarks on Islam and holy war angered much of the Muslim world, leading him to backtrack and declare he was “deeply sorry.” He continues to say that true religion must distance itself from violence but no longer points a finger at any faith.