NEWS ANALYSIS: New Pope Revives Dispute Over AIDS and Condoms

c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Even before Pope Benedict XVI was installed as the 265th pope, he was already under pressure from African AIDS activists _ including some in his own church _ to ease up on Catholicism’s strict ban on the use of condoms as a means of combatting AIDS. Catholicism, along with […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Even before Pope Benedict XVI was installed as the 265th pope, he was already under pressure from African AIDS activists _ including some in his own church _ to ease up on Catholicism’s strict ban on the use of condoms as a means of combatting AIDS.

Catholicism, along with Pentecostal churches, is growing fast in sub-Sahara Africa and is therefore one of the continent’s most influential institutions.


But even those calling for the church to relax its teaching don’t expect any loosening of the ban under the new pope.

“I believe that under Pope Benedict XVI, there won’t be any opening to consider the possibility of the use of condoms in the AIDS pandemic. There will be a closing of ranks around that issue,” said Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, South Africa.

Dowling has been a sharp critic of the Vatican and its “technocrats” who are, he says, out of touch with Africa’s AIDS crisis.

An estimated 25 million people in sub-sahara Africa are living with HIV/AIDS.

Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu also said he would have liked to see a pope with “a more reasonable position with regard to condoms and HIV/AIDS,” Tutu told an Australian newspaper.

AIDS activists argue the church’s opposition to condoms _ part of its larger condemnation of all forms of birth control _ in favor of abstinence is harming the fight against AIDS.

But church leaders and conservative politicians argue abstinence is the only guarantee against the spread of AIDS in Africa. George Ehusani, secretary general of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, which has a Catholic population of 20 million, told the Associated Press shortly after the papal election that the new pope should stick to his opposition to condoms and fight AIDS by preaching abstinence or fidelity while seeking international funding for drugs and research.

Whoever wins in the complex debate involving morality and medicine could affect the lives _ and deaths _ of millions in Africa and other other poor nations.


The dispute over Catholic teaching on condoms and abstinence is part of a larger fight being waged in Africa, Latin America and other poor nations where AIDS is running rampant and governments are dependent on foreign aid to fight the pandemic.

Catholic and evangelical religious leaders, both in Africa and the United States, want U.S. foreign aid targeted at abstinence programs rather than condoms.

Officially, both the United States and many African nations follow the so-called ABC strategy _ Abstinence, Be faithful, Condoms.

But in both the Bush administration and the leadership of some African countries, there is a strong preference for so-called “abstinence only” programs. Ugandan religious and political leaders in particular have lobbied hard for “abstinence only” programs and Ugandan First Lady Janet Museveni flew to Washington in 2002 to urge Republican lawmakers to include abstinence only funds in Bush’s anti-AIDS program.

She has also sponsored “virgin marches,” where teens sport “True Love Waits” T-shirts, like their evangelical counterparts in the United States.

As a result, in Bush’s $15 billion program, much of which is earmarked for treatment, $1 billion is slated for abstinence-only programs.


“I like to call it a practical, balanced and moral message,” Bush has said of the ABC approach that stresses the A rather than the C, and he points to Uganda as the poster child of abstinence only efforts.

But an increasing body of studies is calling into question the abstinence only approach to AIDS prevention, including Uganda.

Officially, Uganda supports the ABC strategy, but increasingly it has stressed abstinence.

In February, a study by Ugandan scientists and researchers from Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University found no evidence that abstinence and monogamy explained the overall decline in HIV prevalence in the area of Uganda studied while finding that “condoms are essential” in preventing AIDS.

In March, Human Rights Watch released a study, “The less They Know the Better: Abstinence Only HIV/AIDS Programs in Uganda” that concluded abstinence-only programs have failed to reduce the rates of teenage pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease.

And in early April, Dr. Paulo Texeira, senior coordinator of the AIDS program in Sao Paulo, Brazil, told the United Nations that there is no evidence promoting abstinence or marital fidelity works against AIDS.

“Based on international experiences, today there is no evidence whatsoever that moral recommendations, such as abstinence and fidelity, have any impact that might prevent infection and curb the epidemic,” Reuters quoted him as telling a meeting of the U.N. Commission on Population and Development.


At the same time, Ugandan evangelicals, with the support of their American counterparts and conservative politicians, are criticizing the U.S. State Department, for what they see as a pro-condom bias over against abstinence.

On April 15, Ugandan evangelical pastor Martin Ssempa told a House International Relations Committee hearing that his abstinence-only group has been bypassed by the United States aid program because he refuses to distribute condoms.

Ssempa drew support from both Reps. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and Chris Smith, R-N.J., with Hyde urging more of the administration’s prevention money being earmarked for abstinence-only programs.

“They say you can’t work with us if you’re not going to be promoting condoms,” he said. “… In the last few years there have been many faith-based organizations turned away because they were not willing to promote condoms.”

KRE/JL END ANDERSON

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