XPost: az.general   
   From: michelle@michelle.org   
      
   New York's top Catholic leaders on Thursday sharply criticized the city   
   for "blanketing our neighborhoods with condoms," saying city officials   
   were promoting promiscuity and degrading society by distributing   
   subway-themed condoms.   
      
   The city launched the new official condoms on Valentine's Day with   
   volunteers handing out free samples throughout the city, including on a   
   street corner near St. Patrick's Cathedral in midtown Manhattan.   
      
   The plan, the Catholic leaders said, "is tragic and misguided," adding   
   that the only way to protect against sexually transmitted diseases is   
   through abstinence before marriage and fidelity among married couples.   
      
   "Our political leaders fail to protect the moral tone of our community   
   when they encourage inappropriate sexual activity by blanketing our   
   neighborhoods with condoms," said Cardinal Edward Egan, head of the   
   Archdiocese of New York, and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn in a   
   joint statement.   
      
   Stu Loeser, a spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said: "With all due   
   respect to Cardinal Egan and Bishop DiMarzio, we feel differently."   
      
   New York officials revamped the condom wrapper in hopes that a   
   distinctive design ‹ featuring the words "NYC Condom" in the fonts and   
   colors used in the subway system ‹ will let them track usage with their   
   annual community health survey.   
      
   Egan and DiMarzio said the $720,000 cost of the program "would be far   
   better spent in fostering what is true and what is decent."   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)