Herald Sun Australia
Cardinal George Pell
April 19, 2009
IS THE Catholic Church making the HIV-AIDS crisis in Africa worse by urging Catholics not to use condoms?
Some have even accused popes, especially Pope John Paul II, of doing more to spread AIDS than prostitution and the trucking industry combined.
To blame Catholic teaching for the spread of HIV/AIDS requires proof that those following the first essential Christian requirement of living chastely within and before marriage are still dying of AIDS. Pigs will fly before that argument does.
Others suggest another variant of the anti-Catholic line, namely that Christians who refuse to obey Catholic teaching against adultery, fornication and homosexual intercourse will still follow Catholic teaching against the use of condoms.
Truth can be stranger than fiction, but such an individual would be rare indeed.
Many men refuse to use condoms because they dislike them. Infected people who are prepared to put the health of their partners at risk are unlikely to give a moment's consideration to Catholic teaching on condoms.
Many would be aware of the ruckus that Pope Benedict provoked by his St Patrick's Day comments that condom use in Africa may even be making the situation worse.
Current empirical evidence from Africa and elsewhere supports the Pope's claim.
Edward C. Green is a senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health in the US and director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project there. Harvard is one of the finest medical and research centres in the world.
Green is a liberal who supports the use of condoms as a back-up strategy. He is not anti-condom and acknowledges that the condom, like contraception, is a symbol of freedom and female emancipation.
He believes condom promotion has worked in Thailand and Cambodia, where most HIV is transmitted through commercial sex.
But recently Green said, "The Pope is correct, or (to) put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the Pope's comments."
Green said "our best studies" show a consistent association "between greater availability and use of condoms and higher (not lower) HIV-infection rates".
The largely medical solutions funded by major donors have had little impact in Africa. He explained: "Instead, relatively simple low-cost behavioural change programs -- stressing increased monogamy and delayed sexual activity by young people -- have made the greatest headway in fighting or preventing the disease's spread."
An over-confidence in the safety condoms bring can induce "risk compensation", so that partners engage in riskier sex practices.
Another factor is that people in steady relationships in Africa seldom use condoms because doing so would imply a lack of trust.
Uganda's home-grown program, which stresses "sticking to one partner", or "zero grazing" and "loving faithfully", has brought such progress that similar programs are being started in Swaziland and Botswana.
In Africa and elsewhere, the answer to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases begins with mutual fidelity and abstinence -- especially among the young unmarried.
Purity of heart is central.
Cardinal George Pell is the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney and the former Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne.
Cardinal George Pell
April 19, 2009
IS THE Catholic Church making the HIV-AIDS crisis in Africa worse by urging Catholics not to use condoms?
Some have even accused popes, especially Pope John Paul II, of doing more to spread AIDS than prostitution and the trucking industry combined.
To blame Catholic teaching for the spread of HIV/AIDS requires proof that those following the first essential Christian requirement of living chastely within and before marriage are still dying of AIDS. Pigs will fly before that argument does.
Others suggest another variant of the anti-Catholic line, namely that Christians who refuse to obey Catholic teaching against adultery, fornication and homosexual intercourse will still follow Catholic teaching against the use of condoms.
Truth can be stranger than fiction, but such an individual would be rare indeed.
Many men refuse to use condoms because they dislike them. Infected people who are prepared to put the health of their partners at risk are unlikely to give a moment's consideration to Catholic teaching on condoms.
Many would be aware of the ruckus that Pope Benedict provoked by his St Patrick's Day comments that condom use in Africa may even be making the situation worse.
Current empirical evidence from Africa and elsewhere supports the Pope's claim.
Edward C. Green is a senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health in the US and director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project there. Harvard is one of the finest medical and research centres in the world.
Green is a liberal who supports the use of condoms as a back-up strategy. He is not anti-condom and acknowledges that the condom, like contraception, is a symbol of freedom and female emancipation.
He believes condom promotion has worked in Thailand and Cambodia, where most HIV is transmitted through commercial sex.
But recently Green said, "The Pope is correct, or (to) put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the Pope's comments."
Green said "our best studies" show a consistent association "between greater availability and use of condoms and higher (not lower) HIV-infection rates".
The largely medical solutions funded by major donors have had little impact in Africa. He explained: "Instead, relatively simple low-cost behavioural change programs -- stressing increased monogamy and delayed sexual activity by young people -- have made the greatest headway in fighting or preventing the disease's spread."
An over-confidence in the safety condoms bring can induce "risk compensation", so that partners engage in riskier sex practices.
Another factor is that people in steady relationships in Africa seldom use condoms because doing so would imply a lack of trust.
Uganda's home-grown program, which stresses "sticking to one partner", or "zero grazing" and "loving faithfully", has brought such progress that similar programs are being started in Swaziland and Botswana.
In Africa and elsewhere, the answer to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases begins with mutual fidelity and abstinence -- especially among the young unmarried.
Purity of heart is central.
Cardinal George Pell is the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney and the former Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne.
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