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Catholics and condoms - the debate continues
Republished courtesy of IRIN PlusNews - 5 December 2002
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The ongoing debate around the Catholic Church's ban on the use of condoms resurfaced this week after a Catholic bishop publicly repeated his view that the Church should permit the use of condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS.
Last year, Bishop Kevin Dowling controversially urged that condoms be used to control the spread of the epidemic. This prompted southern African bishops to issue a statement condemning the use of condoms, except in sero-discordant couples (where a partner is HIV-positive and one is negative).
"All that my statement did was initiate some debate and cause controversy. It didn't change anything," Dowling told PlusNews. But for Catholics faced with the reality of the epidemic, this was more than a theoretical debate, he noted.
"For many women living in informal settlements in this mining area [Rustenburg], the sole issue is survival. They don't have the luxury to even consider the Church's position," he said.
Dowling is not the only Catholic who supports this view. "It is difficult to see how the Church's teaching that all human life is sacred can be reconciled with a policy that may (and probably does) contribute to death. Is the condom really more evil than death by AIDS?" a Catholic newspaper editorial posted on the AF-AIDS discussion forum said.
The church's position has frustrated many activists and Catholic NGOs working on the ground. For them, the Church has been perceived to be part of the problem and not the solution, Dowling said.
"Many churches have the blood of their parishioners on their hands and this approach towards condoms and human sexuality is not helping to stock the rank and file of the church, but is driving people away from God, not towards him," David Patient, an AIDS activist, responded on the AF-AIDS discussion forum.
To read the AF-AIDS discussion on 'Condoms and the Church': http://www.hdnet.org/home2.htm
This item is delivered to the English Service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations.
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