05230
April 28, 2005

Pope’s election revives AIDS/condom debate 

Few expect relaxation of Catholic church’s ban

by David E. Anderson
Religion News Service 

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

     Catholicism, along with Pentecostal churches, is growing fast in sub-Saharan 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,” said Bishop Kevin dowling of Rustenburg, South Africa. “There will be a closing of ranks around that issue.”

     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-saharan Africa are living with HIV/AIDS. 

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

     AIDS activists argue that the church’s opposition to condoms, part of its larger condemnation of virtually all forms of birth control, is harming the fight against AIDS.

     However, church leaders and conservative politicians argue that 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 of people in Africa and 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 depend on foreign aid to fight the pandemic. 

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

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

     But in 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 such programs. 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,” in which teens sport “True Love Waits” T-shirts, like their evangelical counterparts in the United States.

     As a result, Bush’s $15 billion program, which focuses on treatment, includes $1 billion for abstinence-only programs.

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

     But an increasing body of studies is calling that approach into question.

     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 accounted for an overall decline in HIV prevalence in the part 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,” which concluded that abstinence-only programs have failed to reduce the rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

     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 that promoting abstinence or marital fidelity works against AIDS.

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

     Meanwhile, 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.

     On April 15, Ugandan evangelical pastor Martin Ssempa said during a House International Relations Committee hearing that his abstinence-only group has been excluded by the U.S. aid program because it refuses to distribute condoms.  

     Ssempa drew support from Reps. Henry Hyde, R-IL, and Chris Smith, R-NJ; Hyde urged that more of the administration’s prevention money be earmarked for abstinence-only programs.