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http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=\ForeignBureaus\archive\200108\For20010801d.html
Condom Use Is Spreading AIDS, Say African Bishops
By Mark Klusener
CNSNews.com Correspondent
August 01, 2001
Johannesburg (CNSNews.com) - The use of condoms could be one of the
main reasons for the spread of AIDS in southern Africa, according to
Roman Catholic bishops in the region.
In a statement at the end of a week-long conference in Pretoria, the
bishops argued that the battle against HIV/AIDS should be fought on
moral grounds and that condoms helped spread the disease.
Bishops from South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland found the use of
condoms fueled the AIDS epidemic by contributing to the breaking down
of self control and mutual respect.
Condoms were an immoral and misguided weapon in the fight against
the disease, they argued.
Abstain and be faithful is the human and Christian way of overcoming
HIV/AIDS, their statement concluded.
The strong re-affirmation of the church's view on artificial
contraceptives dashed hopes that the bishops would re-open debate on
the issue in the light of the region's massive AIDS epidemic.
Condoms don't make a difference, said Bishop Michael Coleman,
vice-president of the Southern African Catholics Bishops Conference.
This country is saturated with condoms yet we have the highest rates
of AIDS [transmission] in the world. Promoting condoms increases the
incidence of AIDS.
One passage in the bishops' statement, however, did seem unwittingly
to endorse the protective role of condoms. It said married couples
could use condoms when one or both of them is HIV positive, and
provided they abstain from sex while the woman is ovulating. In this
way there would be no artificial barrier to the propagation of life.
AIDS charities have described the bishops' refusal to relax the ban on
condoms as unfortunate.
The use of condoms provides us with a solution that ensures we scale
down the rate of the epidemic, the director of the National
Association of People Living with Aids, Nkululeko Nxesi, said in a
recent interview.
You need a back-up system and condoms provide that.
Health workers have asked community leaders, including clergy, to help
promote condom use.
South Africa's Health Department said it was dismayed by the bishops'
statement. It was sad that one of the few methods of preventing the
transmission of HIV and thus saving millions of lives had been
characterized as immoral and misguided, it said in a statement.
The department rejected the bishops' claim that condoms were a major
contributor to the epidemic, saying there was overwhelming scientific
evidence that condom usage was both preventive and protective.
The bishops' stance has not escaped some criticism from within the
church, either. One senior churchman, Bishop Kevin Dowling of
Rustenburg, repeatedly called on the church to reconsider its position
and sanction condoms as a means of preventing the transmission of
death - and therefore not as a contraceptive to prevent the
transmission of life.
Dowling's views are believed to be shared by many priests and nuns
dealing with AIDS at a community level. They also received editorial
backing from the main Catholic newspaper in South Africa, Southern
Cross.
Interviewed before this week's conference, Dowling said he had been
moved to question the status quo by his experience of the epidemic in
his diocese.
The mining region around Rustenburg is one of the hotspots in a
country where up to five million people - more than one in 10 - are
HIV positive.
About 1,500 people are infected with HIV each day in South Africa, and
it is estimated that the continent will have 28 million AIDS orphans
by 2010.
Some leading Catholics have warned that the church's continuing
insistence on abstinence as the only weapon against AIDS risks
undermining its moral authority in the face of realities on the
ground.
In a personal statement last month, Dowling said: If we simply
proclaim a message that condoms cannot be used under any
circumstances, either directly or through not trying to articulate a
proper response to the crisis we face, then I believe people will find
difficulty in believing that we are committed as a church to a
compassionate and caring response to people who are suffering, often
in appalling living conditions.
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