Pope Benedict's repeated gaffes and the Vatican's inability to manage his message in the internet era are threatening to undermine his papacy, Vatican insiders have said.

The Holy See is struggling to contain international anger about the Pope's claim on his first official visit to Africa that AIDS "cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems".

His remarks - and a furore over his lifting of a 20-year excommunication of a British bishop who questioned the Holocaust - has left him looking isolated and out of touch.

One Vatican insider described the Pope's four-year-old papacy as "a disaster", recalling his previous inflammatory remarks on Islam and homosexuality.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/vatican-insider-calls-benedicts-papacy-a-disaster-20090320-94f5.html?page=-1